PPC Internet Marketing Campaigns - Features, Benefits and Unique Selling Points

Internet marketing and the advent of techniques like search engine optimization and web analytics have taken much of what is traditionally taught in marketing and communications courses, and turned it on its head.The technologies are completely different, an entire new set of contacts and protocols has to be made and learnt, and very different aspects of your products become important.However, there are some things in marketing that haven't changed for years, and the rise of internet marketing hasn't altered that.If you are trying to execute a successful PPC campaign, you need to go back to the basics of marketing, even more so than with other web marketing strategies.One of the most important things to do is to re-examine your product through new eyes, and determine its features, benefits, and unique selling points.

The features and benefits of your product are very different things to the technical specifications, or even the physical nature of the product, in most instances.Identifying what a product actually does for a consumer, to make their life better, is critical in writing PPC ads, where you have 160 characters at most to explain an entire company.

You'll need intimate knowledge of the product you are promoting, and also to have identified your target market for the internet marketing, which we've written on previously.For example, if you sell lawn care products, and you've identified that your target market is men, aged between 30 and 40, and 60 and 70, with average to high household income and in certain geographical areas conducive to growing grass, the next step is to put yourself in your customer's shoes.What will be the most important features of the product to them?Will they care about how much it costs, how quickly it works, how hardy it is, or the image the product is selling?As always, whether you are building an offline or a web marketing strategy, if you don't know what your customers want, ask them.Market research is a valuable thing.

When thinking about benefits for your product in an internet marketing strategy, you need to understand what the product does for the customer, not simply what it 'does'.Your lawn care products might save them time on gardening, may help them get better results for the time they put in, or might help them create a pleasant outdoor lifestyle.This is quite different from giving them a high nitrogen content or long effectiveness period.

Another important thing to determine if you are building a PPC campaign as part of your web marketing strategy is your unique selling point.This is another marketing classic that is just as relevant when trying to increase search engine rankings or build traffic as it is when trying to get people to physically visit a store.To determine this, you will need to understand your competition as well as your own offering, and know what sets you apart.Your internet consultancy service will be able to use new tools like Webtrends and other website analytics to determine who your 'online' competition is - very different to offline competition.Analyze their sites, ask them for more information, and then determine what it is that sets you apart - and then exploit this to its full potential in your PPC campaign.

About the Author

InetAsia Solutions is a new breed of internet marketing consultancy.

InetAsia is the official WebTrends distributor for South East Asia, Hong Kong and Southern China.Services include web analytics, search engine optimization, website design and internet marketing services.Check out our website to find out more about search engine optimization and much more.

Relaited Links:

• Video Reviews Save Advertising Money
• Affordable Advertising on Craigslist
• How To Survive Internet Marketing Overwhelm - To Create True Online Success

Affordable Advertising on Craigslist

Promoting on Craigslist is definitely affordable.For the most part you don't have to pay a fee majority of the posts that are written on Craigslist.Craigslist started first as an organization that was free but in 1999 they began to charge for some of there services.Now, there costs to keep the site running are paid by charging small fees for adverts that are asking for help that are put on the San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York City Craigslist sites.Also, they charge for brokerage apartments that are listed in New York City.

A large amount of the posts advertised on the Craigslist which is over 300 sites don't pay any money.Because of these posting advertisements on Craigslist is definitely worth your while from a money making standpoint.Even though advertising is free time needs to be taken to post the advertisements properly because although even though there is no financial loss, poor posting may lead to a loss of time and resources if it produces poor profit potential.

Why Craigslist is Free

Even though the creator of Craigslist, Craig Newmark, was asked in 1997 about the chance of putting banner advertising on Craigslist to make a profit, he decided to keep Craigslist as a non-commercial site.

Even when Craigslist was changed into a for profit organization, it has not been infiltrated by big businesses websites or companies.Craigslist's mission statements show why Craigslist has continued to be non-commercial:

* Giving each other a break, getting the word out about everyday, real-world stuff
* Bringing back the human voice to the Internet, in a humane, non-commercial environment
* Making things simple, common-sense, down-to-earth, honest, very real
* Giving another option to impersonal, big-media sites
* Including every one, giving a voice to the disenfranchised, democratizing
* Being a collection of communities with similar spirit, not a single monolithic entity

Advertising on Craigslist vs.

Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is another type of marketing which many business owners find to be both worthwhile and affordable.

For many the appeal of affiliate marketing is the affiliates are not compensated for their efforts unless the business owner sees some type of gain from the advertising.This gain may be in the form of website traffic in the case of pay per click marketing, in the form of sales in pay per sale marketing or in the form of potential leads when a website visitor performs a specific action such as registering with a website or signing up for an offer.

While affiliate marketing is very appealing there are others who prefer advertising on Craigslist.The advantage Craigslist offers to advertisers is, of course, that the advertisers never pay for their business advertisements and the community receives a great deal of website traffic already so driving traffic to the website is not a concern.

Why Free Is Not Always Better

Keep in mind, there are some particular times where free advertisement is not necessary the most beneficial kind of advertisement you have available.

If you think of a product or service that Craigslist doesn't have a relevant category for.In that case advertising using Craigslist is probably not worth your while because, even though the advertising is free, in that case it is not likely not to get a huge amount of attention from members of your targeted audience.So in that situation, advertising on Craigslist is probably a real waste of resources and time.

Another example of a time when Craigslist will not be the best advertising choice is if the market is an overcrowded one with a large amount of competitors and advertisements.In a case like that it will be very hard to convert them into one of your own loyal customers so it may be more worth your while to purchase some advertising in a less crowded market.

About the Author

Uchenna Ani-Okoye is an internet marketing advisor and co founder of Free Affiliate Programs

Relaited Links:

• Are you Looking For Posting Programs For Craigslist?
• Using Product Recommendations to Increase Your Bottom Line in Affiliate Marketing
• Time to Rethink Customer Loyalty