Do you market online?

"Yes, I have a website", is what some people say.
Having a website is just the first of many steps of ensuring your brand is 'reachable' online.

A website should be supplemented by banners linking to the website, to help you reach as many new visitors as possible.  Unless your website is at the tip of everyone's tongue (EBay?), or unless you rank first on various search engines including the top ones, with all the keywords associated with your website content (which is practically impossible - and still, not a very safe bet, since you would probably like to entice new visitors who were not really looking at searching for your category of brand) - banner advertising is imperative.

Banners on the world wide web first appeared back in 1994, and since then, the banner industry has exploded.  Quite reasonable considering it took radio 38 years to reach 50 million users, TV 13, and internet a mere 5!

There are two types of positive banner outcomes, the first and most obvious is a click-through, where the viewer clicks the banner and follows through to the linked website, and the second is viewing the banner.  Whilst the second choice might seem rather passive and almost like the user is 'ignoring' the banner, this is not the case.  The brand is still gaining it's rightful exposure, and the user might visit the website once he is interested or in need of the product.

To make it simpler - what is the probability of you visiting a shop you have seen advertised on print, after viewing the advert on paper?

You might be interested in the advert, but you have to:
a) remember
b) find the time to visit the shop
...to say the least!

Now let's say you are online, browsing in the comfort of your home...you spot a banner with a product that interests you...and bam...you click, and find yourself browsing the company's website.  Busy?  No excuses:  hit ctrl+d and bookmark the page, and view it later ;-)

Therefore I consider web advertising much more effective than print advertising, and this is only one of the thousands of reasons I can think of off the top of my head!

Standard advertising options

The most commonly sold advert type is the banner; of which we have two different types - Skyscraper Banners (appear on right of page) and Island Banners (appear on left of page).

Listings in various categories are also commonly sought after, according to relevance and our restaurant listings are especially popular, having excellent  statistics.

For clients who wish to advertise on ChooseMalta.com and are not sure what type of advertising would work for them, we offer customised advertising tailored to suit your needs.  This ensures your product/service is promoted where applicable on the site in the best manner possible.  Packages with great prices are tailor-made to give the clients a positive advertising experience; my aim is to have clients to come back year after year and renew their campaign after all!

I am constantly brainstorming to come up with novel ideas, more soon!

Why you should ChooseMalta.com for your advertising campaign!

A quick recap - in my last blog I mentioned the various advantages that web advertising has over any other media.  Once you decide that you want to advertise online, the next step is where to advertise.

With millions of websites around, finding the right one for you is a bit of a dilemma.
 
ChooseMalta.com is right for you if your business fits into one of the following categories:

• You own a business based in Malta in which your clientele, or potential clientele, is incoming tourism (for example restaurant, tourist attraction, typically local)
   
• You own a Malta-based business and would like to promote your brand to educate that it is available in Malta (for example, a local drink/international brand)
   
• You have a Malta-based business which could benefit from our 1.2 million unique yearly visits, regardless of what type of business it is.
• You have a business based anywhere else in the world (typically the UK, Italy, Germany, France, Belgium and Australia - as these are countries from which the bulk of our visitors originate from), which would benefit from being promoted to the incoming tourism for Malta (for example credit card companies)
   
• You own an online shop, especially if you deliver to major countries/UK/Italy/Malta/Worldwide
   
• You own a local business which is not mainly targeted to foreigners, however would like to entice foreigners to use your service/brand

Every type of advertising we sell on ChooseMalta.com links to the particular advertised website, hence the client's site will benefit from the countless views and exposure.

More pros for web advertising

Over the past weekend a friend of mine who works as a web developer was reading our ChooseToTravelcom blog posts and after reading mine pointed out that another important pro for online advertising.

Let's say one has a car equipment shop, so to say, and advertises on TV - chances are that out of 1,000 viewers, only a small percentage is actually interested and purchases vehicle equipment. 

On the web, the stats are different.  Should the same product be advertised on a car website, out of those 1,000 users the probability is that the bulk, not to say all - are people who are into car modifications and the lot and therefore purchase the products.

Seeing it from the point of view of the customer, or potential customer – as a car fanatic I probably wouldn’t be watching much generic TV but I would certainly be checking out car websites!

Web surfers have millions of options and ultimately will view the sites which are parallel to their respective interests and needs – leading to the fact that advertising online is not only the most cost effective, but also the most targeted media around.

Print advertising vs. web advertising and the latter

Prior to selling online advertising I used to sell print advertising.   Web advertising is so much more effective than print; let’s face it – where are you spending more time…on the web, or reading magazines?

Whilst print and TV advertising may not be as effective because an advert may be easily’ ignored’, there is no such thing as background internet.  The internet users are affixed to the screen whilst TV may be switched on but ignored and magazines may be thrown away…web adverts cannot be recycled…and are always online!

Web advertising is also the most cost effective medium around, allowing you to reach your target audience at the lowest cost-per-thousand.   Having said this, with web advertising you can reach thousands…and expand your potential target market to many times its current size.

Something important to mention is that advertisers must go where their customers are to reach them – and more and more than ever…customers are online.  The simplicity and ease of communication on the internet is of advantage to those advertising online – customers and potential customers can get in touch easily by email and get any query answered without the need of a telephone call/visit.

Web advertising can be easily measured – one can know how many people have seen the advert, or clicked on it – giving one accurate results.

Recently web advertising has secured itself as the preferred advertising method.  Considering web advertising has gained popularity only in the last decade or so, advertising online has gained a very quick popularity rise.

Why kill a tree when you can advertise online? :-)

Hi, my name is Nakita and I'm a talkaholic...

Have you ever heard of a brilliant salesperson who doesn’t like to talk for hours on end?

My very first word popped out at a mere 6 months old and I could speak in sentences aged one year.  Yes, I learnt to talk before I could walk – your tongue can take you places your feet can never walk to...

It was my gift of the gab, as I like to call it, which landed me my present job at ChooseMalta.com, part of the ChoosetoTravel.com network.  One of my now current bosses, Jonathan (who doesn’t like to be called ‘boss’, but well he’s got to be introduced…) tells me that I had sold him an advert which he didn’t even need…and hey presto…welcome to ChooseMalta.com…