Online Business Blog

The once popular banner adverts which have become commonplace on the internet are seeing a dip in success prompting experts to question their importance and future in online advertising. This form of direct response advertising is not as well liked as previous years with most users finding them annoying and intrusive. The pop up adverts offering free goods have slowly been phased out offering a new more laid back approach to banner advertising.

The internet is getting more crowded by the day, with new companies and people accessing it and looking to advertise their brand. Due to the variety of sites and adverts available it is now harder than ever to make an impression and attract new customers.

To stick out from the crowd and content a direct response advertising agency have to be creative. Video advertising has proved a winner with its eye catching visuals and tracking ability making it easy to identify its success rate. The difficult and brilliant thing about video is that it is a tricky medium to master. Make it too simple and boring then no-one will click but make it too wild and creative and users may get confused. Producing an advert between these borders, whilst making it unique and relevant aren’t as easy as you’d think!

The direct response part of the advert is usually added in the middle or the end of the video advert. If placed in the middle of the advert, users can pass on details to see the rest of the advert. If placed at the end, the user knows more about the company and the product which can help people feel more at ease with passing on personal information.

Online advertising is going to become ever more competitive over the coming years, although the credit crunch will see less spent by UK Advertising agencies, we will see a higher percentage of money going into online.

Companies who are looking to social marketing as the future of online advertising may have to rewrite their plans after the latest IDC reports confirmed that advertising through the medium has not become as popular as hoped.

The recent survey has discovered that although over 60% of social network users spend an average of half an hour using the site at a time, that advertising on these sites receive less attention than other forms adverts made by a full service advertising agency.

IDC also confirmed that the conversion rates are lower for sites like Facebook and Myspace, yet traditional internet advertising still flourish. Interestingly the social networking sites are doing better for click through rates yet stumbling when it comes to completing a sale or purchase.

Approximately 7% of traditional advertising users clicked through before 23% making a purchase. In comparison the social networking sites have received clicks from 57% of users with only 11% going on to make a purchase. This maybe deemed as a problem but what is better, 23% of 7% or 11% of 57%? Maybe social advertising isn’t as bad after all?

Another interesting report this week showed that (out of children surveyed) 100% of children between the age of 12 and 14 have access to the internet. Something that possibly shows that online advertising is the future.

Online based advertisements have become very popular with internet marketers and advertising agencies down to the fact that their usefulness is easy to track. The editor in chief for E Consultancy, Chris Lake believes that companies can follow a click on one of their adverts or if a phrase has been entered on Google, Yahoo or MSN should they want too.

In today’s cautionary financial climate advertising companies are being urged to consider putting more money into their online advertising strategies if they want to get the most out of their money. These methods are a lot easier to maintain and keep an eye on in comparison to more traditional versions of advertising.

This is understandable considering the fingers crossed mentality that is known with magazine, newspaper or print advertisements. How can you really be sure how popular one of those adverts has been? There is no page view data or sale rates with a print advert after all. One of the great things about online marketing is that any sort of company can access it be it a recruitment advertising agency, a well known brand or a art gallery the sky is the limit.

Mr Lake later concluded that “In a recessionary climate, we’ve got much more focus on proving return on investment. That’s pretty much why the internet has taken off in terms of advertising, because of measurability.”

It is also interesting to know that out of all forms of advertising, internet marketing was the only form to see an increase in spending over the third quarter of 2008.

Social networking giants Facebook are hoping that a different onsite advert format will change experts perceptions that advertising on social networks is failing.

Experts believe that because of Google the online advertising industry has become too absorbed by direct response advertising. Thanks to this there is a high expectancy on delivering a high click through or impressions rate, something that doesn’t appear to go hand in hand with social networking sites.

A main reason for this supposed failure in the social networking sector is that users are less likely to want to click on an advert that is likely to take them off of the site and away from talking to their friends.

The new advert idea that Facebook have come up with are to do with encouraging the user to click on a specific brand before passing on that information to their friends who are likely to be interested in the same thing. They are hoping to be able to do this without the user having to leave the site, something that should prove popular with Facebook users.

The idea is to get people to befriend a brand just like they would a peer. Here they can make comments next to a video or static advertisement where they will be informed on any recent news on the brand. (this has recently been tested on Facebook for an up and coming comedy film) This will hopefully in the long term increase the users brand awareness whilst also increasing Facebook’s click through rate.

Out of work? Struggling to find a new job? Don’t worry, there are a large variety of options available to you. Have you checked the local and national newspapers for job vacancies? Other ways to look for jobs are through a online recruitment advertising agency, there are hundreds online but the main 5-10 will generally have the most job roles and thus the best chance of finding the job for you.

If you have applied for work like this and are still struggling to find a job then visit your local recruitment agency. These companies can be found online but will require you to drop in to fill out personal details on yourself and your work history.(this eliminates the chance of the agency putting you forward for the wrong role) The larger and better recruitment agencies are the ones that get approached from the major companies looking for the best possible employee, hopefully that could be you! Often the most effective and easiest method of finding work is leaving it to a professional to find it for you.

A recruitment agency is a useful medium for all parties. The job searcher, future employer and the recruitment advertising agency all benefit from you walking through the agency doors. (obviously you will benefit in finding work!) Most agencies will find a job opening for you and should an interview come up, give you plenty of information on the job role and the company. At the end of the day their interest is in you getting the role as they are paid bonuses per successful applicant.

Here are a few tips for you to help find the best job role for you:

1. Never pay a recruitment agency to find you a job as they are being paid by the employers to find an applicant like you.
2. Don’t be shy in putting yourself forward for roles that you like the look of.
3. Design your C.V around the kind of job you will be applying for. If you need help on this the recruitment agency should help you create a new one.
4. Be sure to build a strong relationship with your recruiter as they will be the one finding you work. The more often you talk to them the more often they will think of you should a new job possibility arise.

In this current financial climate finding tenants for rental property is not as easy as it used to be. Let alone ones that will respect your property and pay on time. Luckily there are a large variety of ways that you can attract the kind of tenant you are after using a successful advertising campaign.

Property Advertising doesn’t have to be a problem if you get the right people to do the work for you. Information is available online about how you can attract people into renting your property. If you have the money then it is advised that you get in contact with a professional company who will be able to advertise your property to its optimum capability.

A professional company will use different types of media in which to advertise your property they are as follows:

· Newspapers – Generally where people look first for property advertising be it for sale or rental. Placing an ad in a paper can be expensive but this depends on how long you run the advert for (1 day, 1 week or longer?) The type of paper (tabloid, broadsheet or local) and how big the advert is (1 sq inch, half a page, whole page) The best idea is to generally allow the advert to run for 3-4 weeks so that you can get in the best possible tenant for your property and not just the first one to call! You will also want to find out if you can advertise on the newspapers website as well.

· Online Advertising – A lot of people that look for property advertising may not be local and will possibly be from the other end of the country or maybe even a different continent! Online Advertising allows you to show off your property to a larger audience, the charge is usually cheap or even free and allow a lot more information to be passed on to the possible tenant.

· Apartment Guides – A cheap way of advertising your property is through apartment guides. Allowing a lot more information space than a newspaper and are free which means that people will pick them up on a whim or specifically for renting/purchasing a property.

· Rental signs – An easy, effective and obvious way to advertise your property. All you need to do is put the sign up outside your property with details on who to contact and where to go. The only negative is the sign only attracts possible tenants from a specific area.

These things can all be done yourself but to attract the correct tenant for you it would be advised to talk to a professional company for your property advertising needs.

Guinness: “Good things come to those who wait” - The tag was invented for Guiness in 1998, where an elderly man swims to a relatives pub but this iconic advert with men surfing alongside horses is the one that people remember best topping numerous “Best ever advert” lists.

Budweiser: “Whassup!” - The London Advertising company that came up with this idea must of raked it in! Just some dudes hanging out, supping a Bud & saying “whassup!” to one another. This simple idea spread across the world like wildfire and was widely used and spoofed in the early noughties.

Peperami: “It’s a bit of an animal” - Voiced by popular comedian Adrian Edmondson the Peperami adverts were made in 1993. Both funny and crude at the same time this advert went down a storm with people all around the UK.

Kit Kat: “Have a break. Have a Kit Kat” - The Kit Kat chocolate bar has been advertised on television for over 50 years. One of the classic Kit Kat adverts being the “Dancing Pandas” back in 1987, featuring a photographer trying to snap the panda’s in a zoo.

Milkybar: “The Milkybars are on me!” - This old catchphrase was first used in 1961 by a blonde haired boy wearing glasses and dressed as a cowboy. Recent adverts are now different and unfortunately the catchphrase is no longer used.

The costs of online advertising have risen over the £3bn mark in the UK for the first time ever last year. This rise in online advertising has hit more traditional versions of media hard, grabbing the market share from newspapers, magazines and postal mail.

Advertising expenditure across all forms of media rose 4.2% to £19.4bn last year in the UK, according to the World Advertising Research Centre and the Advertising Association

The cinema, outdoor and online advertising sectors made the largest year on year increase with online expenditure up by a massive 39.5%. Online advertising accounted for 16% of the total UK advertising spend in 2007.

Experts have recently stated that advertisers are turning online from other areas of media like postal mail and print. The stats seem to back up the ideas showing that press advertising including newspapers and magazine adverts declining with a 1.6% loss in the last year.

Press however is still the top single sector accounting for 40% in the UK and spent £7.7bn in 2007 on advertising. Postal mail advertising dropped by 6.5% bringing in £2.17bn.

Cinema advertising in the UK rose by 10.1% in year on year growth but the overall market was worth only £207 million, 1.1% of the advertising market in the UK. Outdoor advertising rose by 4.6% making just over £1bn, giving outdoor ads a 5.5% market share. The television sector grew by only 2.3% making £4.67bn, although the growth percentage was disappointing the sector still accounts for 24% of all advertisement spending in the UK.

Facebook is well known as one of the top social networking sites online. Created in 2004, Facebook has more than 40 million members and is the 6^th most visited website. People nowadays are looking to social networking sites for the latest news or information instead of traditional forms of media like television and radio. Because of this many business companies are ready to use sites like Facebook to get in contact with “Generation Y” (people born within 1982 and 1997.) in search for the countries top talent.

The latest US survey recently announced that 97% of Generation Y had access to a computer, 94% own a mobile phone, 75% are members on Facebook and 44% check out online blogs. These statistics show that there is a large catchment area for online recruitment, but it has to be done in the right way according to Albert Ellis, chief executive of Harvey Nash. “Companies meanwhile are looking at Facebook as a way of spreading messages but they have to do it in a credible way.” Before later adding “Young people don’t want the traditional marketing or advertising approach. It’s got to be softer. It can’t be seen to be written by your PR department.”

Experts confirm that Generation Y use networking sites to find out more information on companies they are interested in and can get this from prospective colleagues. This can be very useful for most companies as positive news can influence peoples attitudes to a lot of things, careers included.

Looking for the right online recruitment help can prove daunting. To keep ahead of the game and making sure you hire the top talent contact a quality provider for the finest recruitment advertising.