In the beginning years of the internet the only option for internet marketing were text ads, with limited character space, which gave little room for expressing a message. Today, businesses have a myriad of options from banner ads, to rich media ads and becoming even more prevalent, video ads. This is definitely a plus in a world where a picture is worth a thousand words.

Let’s talk about banner ads. Banner ads come in many different forms and sizes. They can be jpegs, gifs and for the truly advanced they can be done in flash, which is a form of rich media. A static jpeg or gif banner ad allows a business to include more detailed information about their business and/or product and present it to a potential consumer. A perfect example would be one of our convention center clients. When they were advertising for an upcoming convention it was quite a task to fit the date, location, call to action and a price offer in a text ad, while making it eye catchy. However, static banner ads came to the rescue. We created banner ads that included all the above and made it eye catchy. The client received more response from the banner ads than the text ads that were created for them. The next step up after a static jpeg or gif banner ad is a flash ad.

Flash banner ads allow consumers to interact with them. A couple examples would be mini animated videos with a call to action at the end, as well as ads that request information and give a result. An example of the mini animated video would be an ad that we created for an orthodontist client.  The client is offering a discount on children’s braces during the Christmas season. A 30 second flash ad was created showing a snowman with crooked teeth; we added some “sparkle” to his holiday and magically he received straight teeth with braces.  The end of the animation offers a discount on braces.

Another example of flash banners is an ad that I came across with my colleagues. Dunkin Donuts has an ad that asks you to put in your zip code. Upon receipt of your zip code the ad tells you the breakfast deal at the nearest Dunkin Donuts, along with an image of a delicious bagel and a hot cup of coffee for only $0.99. This ad was very effective, seeing that my co-workers wanted to go for a walk to the Dunkin Donuts across the street.

Another way to grab a consumer’s attention is through video ads. A business can place video ads on their site or they can advertise on a website like YouTube. According to Wikipedia, YouTube “is a video sharing website where users can upload, view and share video clips.”  One side note, if you’re going to advertise on YouTube you ought to be creative. According to Google, regular ads don’t cut through the clutter because people are looking to be entertained.

Now that you know a picture is worth a thousand words and a good investment, go experiment.

This holiday season the keyword is incentives. Most consumers aren’t frivolously spending their money; they’re cutting back and searching for the best deals. If you want to be the retailer that they choose, you’d better consider incentives. This statement might sound forward, however the statistics don’t lie. Let’s look at some incentives that consumers are searching for before making a purchase.

Coupons are a big hit and they are becoming more popular. According to comScore, a global internet information provider, 62% of consumers are using coupons to help cut back on their shopping expenses. A survey by eMarketer, a market research company, shows that 59% of consumers will be using coupons to decrease their shopping expenses. Surprisingly enough, wealthy consumers, those that make $100,000 plus a year are turning to coupons. According to a survey by comScore, coupon site visits by the wealthy increased by 37% compared to this same period last year. Here’s a hint, if you have an ecommerce site, coupons are a definite plus and consumers will be looking for you.

Consumers are also motivated by free shipping. If I’ve heard it once I’ve heard it twice, “If a site doesn’t offer free shipping, I’ll find a site that does.” If you don’t believe me check the statistics. According to a survey by comScore, 72% of consumers said, “If an online retailer charged them for shipping they would search for an online retailer that offered free shipping.” Now more than ever before consumers are becoming more savvy. If a competitor is offering the same product with free shipping, I’d bet money that you’re going to lose the sale if you’re not offering the same.

Sales and deals are being sought out by consumers. Everyone loves a discount. According to a survey by e-Marketer, 40% of consumers will be looking for sales and 24% will be looking for deals in order to lower their shopping expenses. Why do you think Black Friday is such a busy shopping day, not to mention Cyber Monday which follows a few days later?

Incentives are the key this year. More and more consumers are comparison shopping and not just buying items on the first site they see. Comparison shopping sites are seeing an increase in traffic and more competitors are allocating their advertising budget towards online spending. If a retailer wants to be competitive this year, they need to have an incentive, even if it’s not coupons, free shipping or big sales, there needs to be an offer that tells the consumer they are getting the best deals on a particular site.

It’s a question that at some point and time has crossed our minds.  Will Google always be the stand alone giant with internet revenue double and even triple the competitions? I think that as long as they keep offering new tools, new promotions, and expanding into new areas, they will stay ahead of the curve.

I recently received site update e-mails about Yahoo and MSN showing the new capabilities and features that they had added. Yahoo now allows users to geo-target at the country, state and zip code level. Google allows the user to do custom geo-targeting. The user actually pulls up a map and draws the area that they want to target. Yahoo still has some catching up to do, but they are definitely making progress.

Let’s look at MSN and how keywords are handled.  MSN now enables users to pause their keywords. There used to be a time when the only option was “active” and “delete. It may seem that MSN is behind the curve, but in their defense they have a tool similar to AdWords Editor in beta. Yahoo says they are working on one as well.

It seems that Google will continue to stay ahead of the game because they make it feasible for both small and mid size players to operate effectively.  Google has also branched out into other industries. They launched their G1 Google phone with cell phone carrier T-Mobile. They also offer traditional advertising through the internet and give out free 800 tracking telephone numbers for a traditional media buy placed and bought through them. The next thing you know they’ll be a Google shoe. Don’t laugh! Did you ever think they’d launch a phone?  It seems that Google is pulling away from the competition and delving into new areas.  Only time will tell if the G1 Google phone and the selling of traditional advertising will work for Google. If Yahoo and MSN ever intend to catch up with Google they are going to have to step up their offerings in a number of areas.