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Are you Wasting your Marketing
Dollars?
By: Angela Wu
I was horrified.
I had just spent $400 on advertising -- advertising that
only yielded $100 in sales.
Desperate to make up my losses, and not knowing which of
my three ad campaigns actually produced the sales, I
made a guess. I figured that most of my profits must
have come from the ad campaign that reached the largest
number of people -- in my case, an ezine with over 50000
subscribers. So I naively shelled out another $200 for
an ad - a wasted $200, I might add, since I didn't make
a single sale.
Not every ad is worthwhile
Thankfully I've learned a lot since those frustrating
days as an online business 'newbie' ... but the above
scenario isn't uncommon for beginners to the Internet
business world. We're constantly bombarded with claims
of fast, easy money - and they're hard to resist. For
example, when I first started online, I was told that
all I had to do was purchase a top sponsor ad in an
ezine, place a 'tested' and 'proven' ad ... and presto!
I'd be several thousands of dollars richer.
It didn't work. I faithfully purchased a number of ads
and followed the instructions to the letter. Hundreds of
wasted dollars later, I was completely discouraged and
almost ready to give it all up.
I'm glad I didn't. I learned that not every marketing
campaign will be successful ... unfortunately, all too
often people try an online business and give up when
they're unable to make money at it. In some cases,
sticking with it a while longer could have
turned a 'failure' into a 'success'.
That doesn't mean doggedly doing exactly the same thing
over and over again, hoping to see better results. If
you do the same thing you'll get the same results.
Testing is key
Testing your marketing efforts is critical to your
success. And one of the simplest ways to do this is to
use an ad tracker.
Ad trackers provide you with a way to 'code' each of
your marketing campaigns. You use this special coded URL
in your ads -- and whenever a visit clicks on the URL,
the tracker records the 'hit'.
In other words, these tracking codes tell you how many
hits and unique visitors you get from each of your
advertising campaigns. By analyzing this information,
you're able to instantly see which of your campaigns are
successful -- and which are not.
Ad trackers don't cost much at all ... yet this small
investment can yield huge returns! Two of the most
popular are:
= ROIbot: http://www.roibot.com/r_r.cgi?R46886_article
- this is the tracker I use most. It's easy to set up
and to manage, and it comes with a whole bunch of other
features including an autoresponder.
= AdTrackz: http://www.buildyourhomebiz.com/rd/adtrackz.htm
. This powerful CGI script is installed on your server,
and you only pay a one-time fee for its use (unlike most
of the others, where you pay monthly). Once set up, it's
very easy to use.
Using an ad tracker really opens your eyes. I had always
thought, 'The more people I reach, the more sales I'll
make' -- you know, the usual traffic hype that we all
hear.
Instead I found out real truths about what was working
for me and what wasn't. For example, my ad tracker
taught me that it's not the size of the ezine that
counts ... it's how many people actually *read* it. It
also taught me that just because a
website gets a lot of traffic, it doesn't mean that
advertising on that site will give you *results*.
By testing everything you do, you'll get solid proof of
what doesn't work, what works well, and what can be
improved. You know which ad campaigns to continue ...
and which ones to dump for something more profitable.
So track your marketing efforts -- every single one of
them. You'll gain valuable insight about where your
sales are coming from, and be able to learn and grow
from these insights. Your bottom line will thank you!
About the author:
Angela is the editor of Online Business Basics, an
exclusive newsletter for eBusiness beginners. She offers
a 'no hype, no bull' approach to building a profitable
Internet business. Every issue is packed with helpful
tips and useful tools, specially
selected to fit a beginner's shoestring budget. Visit
her online today at http://onlinebusinessbasics.com/begin.html
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