You need to maximize your effectiveness at each stage in order to maximize your overall website efficiency.

See the original article here:              http://www.inetexchange.com/articles/efficiency.htm

That was theory. Now lets talk about practice. So far, we have discussed some of the practical ways to increase awareness. In this article we will look at "Attraction", which is the problem of getting people to click on your banners, or links, and make their first visit to your site.

Here are a few quick tips, and handy references to more information about maximizing your clickthrough rates.

Choice of Wording
According to some reports, the use of particular words can be very effective. For example, people love free stuff, so if you are offering some free product or service, make sure that you use the word "FREE" in your marketing communications. We have had great success with autoresponders, which can be set up to send out FREE reports to interested customers. This one works well:

FREE REPORT How to profit without lifting a finger.
sales-leads@rapid-reply.com or
sales-leads@rapid-reply.com

Click Here
You have probably heard that including the words "click here" can dramatically increase the clickthrough rates of your banner ads. Sadly, this is true. It seems that we are doomed to be visually assaulted with flashing "CLICK HERE" buttons for some time to come.

I don't know how you feel, but for me the landscape of the web becomes an eyesore with so many banner ads telling me to click here, there and everywhere. The fact is, however, that it works. Study after study reveals that those two little words are magic.

Actually, it may be only one word: "click". Charles Sayers of The ClickZ Network conducted a little experiment in which he ran three versions of the same banner ad. Clickthrough rates varied dramatically depending on the choice of words.

• 3% - banner ad with no extra wording
• 5% - banner ad with "Please support the sponsors that help make this site possible"
• 12% - banner ad with "Please click the ads that help make this site possible"

Why is this so? Lets face it: everybody already knows that you need to click on an ad in order to get anywhere, right? Well, not necessarily. The population of Internet users is growing so quickly that at any moment there are many, many inexperienced users out there groping and clicking their way around web pages.

However, that is only part of the answer. Mr. Sayer's experiment was conducted on the ClickZ website, which attracts a very sophisticated audience of experienced web marketers, so they were hardly unaware that banner ads needed to be clicked on. His experiment also demonstrates the power of a personal appeal for support, with a clear and unambiguous call to action.

Not everybody agrees that "CLICK HERE" still works. According to Raymond Pirouz, maximizing clickthrough rates demands six elements.

• A strong concept
• Excellent art direction
• Creative copy writing
• Small file size
• Be brief and to the point
• Animation for the sake of reinforcing concept.

You can read more about these things at:
             http://www.searchz.com/clickz/011398.shtml

What is the most effective way to increase clickthrough rates?
The answer might be a question. Seriously, ads that ask questions tend to get very good responses. It is psychologically easier to ignore a statement than a question. Do you agree? See what I mean? Questions encourage engagement. Questions stir the mind to search for answers. Questions make you think. In your marketing communications, use questions to elicit action, as in the following example:

• Will your web site hosting company pay _you_ money?
               http://www.virtualisys.com/vr/kneedham/

FARTing on the Internet
A while ago, we published an article which explained how to FART on the Internet. It is not what you think. In the article, I explaineed a few elements of a good banner ad campaign. The most effective ads are always:

• Fresh
• Attractive
• Response Oriented
• Targeted

Read the full article at:
             http://www.inetexchange.com/articles/farting.htm

On Sale Now. Special Offer. Super Discount
Yep, that stuff works. People seem to love sales, and hate to miss out on a good bargain. However, you must be careful using this approach, since your reputation is at stake. If you start announcing sales every week then people are going to stop trusting you. When you have a sale, tell everybody. When you don't, then don't try to pull the wool over people's eyes. It just doesn't pay off in the long run.

Flesh -- Ah, another old trick in the marketers tool box. Everybody knows that sex sells. But lets be honest: don't you find it somewhat annoying after a while? It is a vulgar ploy that is getting over used and is becoming increasingly less effective. Sometimes, it is patently ridiculous. For example, I recently saw a banner ad with fleshy images advertising an Internet hosting service. Mind you, the only reason that I knew that the ad was for an Internet hosting service is because I clicked on it !!

The "clickthrough dilemma"
That brings me to the problem of the clickthrough dilemma. You can use all kinds of tricks to increase your clickthrough rates, and bring hundreds of new people through the front door of your website, but what good is it if they are the *wrong* people? There is no use attracting people to your website if they are extremely unlikely to be interested in your product. Good ad copy will reveal enough about your product or service to attract your target market.

Some Resources:

• Maximize your Web Site Efficiency
               http://www.inetexchange.com/articles/efficiency.htm
• Build Awareness
               http://www.inetexchange.com/articles/awareness.htm
• FART-ing on the Internet
               http://www.inetexchange.com/articles/farting.htm
• Capturing Clickthroughs
               http://www.searchz.com/wmo/captureclick.shtml
• Rapid-Reply Autoresponders - very low cost
               http://www.rapid-reply.com
• Banner Secrets: How to run a successful campaign
               http://www.searchz.com/clickz/011398.shtml
• "GIFFY" the Gif Animation Builder
               http://www.netsales.net/pk.wcgi/zap/prod/1124014-1
• Clickthroughs versus Branding
               http://www.searchz.com/clickz/050897.shtml

PAUL NEEDHAM Co-Publisher of Active Internet Marketing. Business Intelligence for Successful On-line Marketers Subscribe today to the free A.I.M Ezine. subscribe-Inet-Mailer@send.memail.comReach Paul via Email paul@linkmedia.com http://www.inetexchange.com/inet-mailer.htm

Internet Marketing CD-ROMS I developed four excellent CD ROMS to aid you in developing your Internet Home Based Business. Unlike downloadable Software and ebook collections, everything is on your CD. No server problems, no download problems. Everything you see is available on CD. Visit Our Web Site For Details

---