Tactics for Targeting Advertisers: Part 1
Posted on December 19, 2007 - Filed Under Marketing Strategies, Blog Tips
Recently I have been analyzing quite a number of sites and blogs and the way they make money, and some of the marketing strategies I learned were truly awesome. A site run by 3 men with a really well thought out marketing strategy and solid business model can earn as much as a traditional company with around 10 employees or less, if you take their nett profit after deducting overheads such as office rent, salaries, company administration costs, lawyer and auditor fees.
One theme did stand out among the blogs that had a great business model and effective marketing strategy - apart from having a Page Rank of 4 and above, the site owners had taken the time to target their site content at a second audience - advertisers or the money making channels that they wanted to earn from. So if you are someone whose sole objective is to earn money online, I suggest you think about this second group of audience and how you can reach them effectively by leveraging your site or blog.
This post will be addressing 2 groups of audience: one, blog owners who have a passion for blogging with the intention of building their blog into an online money making business and two, people who simply want to site up a site simply for the purpose of making money, and that can run by itself once it has been set up.
Tactics of Targeting Advertisers
Define Your Main Advertiser. Before you start monetizing your blog / site, it is important that you decide which what sort of advertisers you want, and who they are. While most beginning bloggers rarely have an idea of how they want to monetize their blog and how they should go about doing it, that doesn’t mean that they can’t start thinking and planning for it right from the start. The implications of doing this lies in:
1. The site / blog layout. If you look at the many blogs that talk about how to make money online, and blogs that are monetized, you realize that many of them have very similar layouts, with some minor differences in graphics and placements of buttons and widgets. The common layout used will be the all familiar right broad column that houses affiliate / private ad buttons, followed by featured sites, ad network widgets and so forth. The more sophisticated layout of online businesses that target advertisers as a secondary audience are Facebook, Google Maps and Lonely Planet.
Case Study 1: Facebook
Facebook was created as a social network for people to find both old and new friends. Its structure and model was deliberately created to be a viral vehicle, and its real target, or the secondary audience, are really advertisers. Facebook is an ingenious online marketing tool where members are already segregated by geography, demographics and user interests. This makes it very easy for advertisers to reach their target audience by word of mouth marketing and referrals. And a popular product or service can become viral in a very short time via primary and extended networks of individuals.
The advertiser page for Facebook reads:
Social Ads
Pair your targeted ad with related actions from a user’s friends.Advanced Targeting. Target by age, gender, location, interests, and more.
Content Integration. Get noticed, not skipped.
Flexible Pricing. Buy clicks (CPC) or impressions (CPM).
Trusted Referrals. Attach friend-to-friend interactions about your business to your ads.Facebook Pages
Represent your business, band, product and more by creating a distinct and customized profile.Free Presence. Users can find you through their friends, search, and more. Communicate directly with fans.
Quick Setup. Update with easy tools.
Easy Customization. Display rich media in a flexible layout.
Viral Distribution. Users’ interactions with your Page spread naturally to their friends.
In its very structure itself, Facebook was designed to be an advertiser’s dream online marketing tool.
Case Study 2: Lonely Planet
Since lonely planet got bought over, the new owners did not hesitate to convert it into a major monetized site. Where previously there were no ads or transactions available, there are now a plethora of product and service offerings ranging from hotel bookings, flight bookings, and travel books and tours. While previously Lonely Planet has focused only on its primary audience of travelers, it has now defined its secondary audience, which are essentially hotels, airlines, bookstores and travel agencies. Take a careful look and you’ll see that this site while seemingly targeting people who love traveling, the site setup, features, layout and content are all structured to interest various advertisers to their site.
In Part 2 of this series, I’ll cover Site Features of sites / blogs that target advertisers, How they brand their site / blog, and the target keywords usage. So stay tuned for more!
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