What Do the Addicts of the Internet Want and How Can you Feed Them in Your Internet Marketing?

24 hours a day 7 days a week, All Singing, All Dancing Show!

A lot of people ask me if I like my job. I instantly reply yes. They usually ask why? My response varies from day to day but on this new years eve I must say the reason why I love it is because of my love of the internet. "I LOVE INTERNET" should be the shirt I should wear. What do I love about ther internet?

1. Its always on - Even on this new years eve people will be buying things, searching websites, chatting, blogging, browsing, hacking, transferring, downloading and playing online. Checkout your websites statistics even as the clock ticks over to that magical new year. My favourite experiences are when people purchase at that time. Send me a screenshot of your New Year Purchase!

2. Its Free - Apart from ISP costs the internet is free. In Sydney I am not sure if you have noticed but it has become offensive to drive around with the amount of tolls you have to pay. Its as if there is a driving tax. I much prefer to walk and ride my bike around local areas than pay up the big tolls. I cop the worst tolls too. I am one of the 30,000 people using the Cross City Tunnel. Yep. I go from Bondi to Balmain each day and it would be a nightmare if someone hadnt kindly built me a tunnel to travel the length of my entire destination. (Thank you Mr Hong Kong business man for spending 100 million just for my and the 29,999 other people.) I digress. This blog is Free. The information on it. Free. All the other wonderful services provided by the internet FREE FREE FREE.

3. Instant gratification - Unlike any other medium you can get it instantly on the internet. I love buying something and using it immediately. Its like your on one of those Datona games and you bust through a checkpoint and immediately your onto the next challenge. On the internet I buy something and immediately im using it and onto the next challenge.

4. Anonymouity - On the internet you can be anyone. I played Second Life for the first time in my life and it was amazing. I could change to be a girl or guy with the click of a button. I could fly, smoke, talk, eat, share, laugh all with other people and not say a word as to who I was or where I came from.

As a high usage consumer of the internet these are the things I love. How are you tapping into these facits of a high user of the internet on your website and through your internet marketing. If you can:

1. Ensure your website is on all the time - Get yourself a decent web hosting company if you dont already have your website up ALL the time. Email me if you like and I will sort you out.

2. Give something away for FREE - Give me something. Anything. But make it free and worthwhile. Give me more value than you would normally receive if I didnt give away my personal details. I want a FREE report on the 10 most frequently travelled to destinations around Australia, give me 7 ways to save money with a low rate credit card or just give me a good review of your top 5 products.

3. Give it to them now - If your website requires human interaction your slowing the speed of gratification down. Give it to them when they want it i.e. when they buy it. The more you can automate the better. I know there is more cost and investment but plan for it. Scale up slowly. Ebay would die if it didnt give you instant gratification.

4. Dont make me tell you how many cats I have - If your asking too many personal questions your not letting me stay anonymous. If your giving away a free report let me put a random email address in. I know its not going to be as higher quality email database BUT your ebook or Free report should be good enough that they return back to your website. Let me make the choice of whether to return or not. Keep investing and improving your materials and you will see those repeat visitors coming back anonymously but with their wallets open.

How else do you feed the internet addicts?

Live secret recordings from Famous bands streaming FREE

I just found this website that is music streaming (BTW I have adsl 2 at home and it has reopened up the internet to so many new things for me!) so of the most prized recordings from bands such as Jimi Hendrix, The Doors, Led Zepplin, Bob Marley and Bob Dylan. There is some golden music here that was recorded by the stage promoters and now streaming live and free for you.

How does this apply to online marketing?
This is a golden example of good content. It took me a while to understand what good content meant. Every says good content and I always thought, oh yeah, write something meaningful and exciting. Golden content isnt that. Its where you just have to get to the nearest web browser type in the URL and bask in the content. Its the difference between a good product and one you just MUST have. I used to be a World of Warcraft adict and I loved it. I just had to play. I would leave parties to go home and play. That was a golden game. I just had to peel myself off it because it took over my life.

Get in quick on this website because the lawyers are trying to shut it down!!

Seen any golden content recently?

Ashes Cricket Weetbix

We launched the Ashes Cricket website and it is turning into a glowing success. Key success elements:

1. Ashes Cricket Microsite - A microsite like this ensures that visitors dont get lost in all the other content weetbix provides. This way there is a place for visitors to easily go.

2. Ashes Download - This is a desktop application that sits on peoples desktop and sends them updates whenever a wicket falls. This is great for the user connection and continuing an ongoing relationship with the visitor of the website. I personally think having something on the customers desktop is very powerful and is a massive brand extension for Weet-bix just being a tv commercial and box of cereal!

3. Ashes On pack Competition - The competition does around 900 entries per day. Its a great traffic driver for the website and gets people to the website. The sheer depth of the website and other elements to it builds that engagement.

4. Brett Lee Ashes Bowling Game - This flash game is superb! Its very addictive. It comes more from the mindset of the bowler and allows you to think and play like a bowler. Its quite mathmatical and has some good smarts built into it.

Let me know what you think?

Text banners are useless right? Wrong!

"Text banners are boring... they're not going to get anyone's attention. We should have an animated banner that grabs people's attention!". Is that statement really true?

While I was doing some research I stumbled across an IBM banner that I really liked. You may have seen this before.

The screenshot below shows the IBM banner ad to the right of the page (click on screenshot fora larger version). It looks like a special feature of the ZDNet Australia website. Would you believe it? There's not one bit of animation in it! No sound, no video, no huge images.

It's an HTML banner that's clean, simple, and shows off how IBM generates results for its clients. The banner is full of invitations for the viewer to click through to the IBM site. It goes against all the Flashy, animated, in your face banner ads that we see nowadays.

This example shows that not all banners need to be flashy, entertaining, or have shock value. Banner ads need to be able to communicate to the right people at the right time. If being a simple HTML banner ad with barely any imagery and no animation is the way to go, then do it.

Don't get me wrong though. Flashy, entertaining banners have their place, but perhaps not so much for IBM, especially on the ZDNet website. ZDNet readers are there for news, information, and ideas for solutions. Don't waste the reader's time on anything but that.

So if you're considering a banner ad campaign as part of your online marketing, take time to talk to your agency. Assuming you have a marketing plan all ready, here are some things to ask yourself and your agency:

• What are you trying to achieve with the banner campaign? Do you want to build brand awareness, customer database, brand reinforcement, or a sale?
• What will be the best way to measure success? Results of a follow-up market survey, number of subscriptions, leads/enquiries, or number of sales?
• Will I want to reach all my target markets, just one, or a select few?
  
• What do I want to tell each of my target market(s)?
  
• Which websites will provide you with the best exposure to reach your target market(s)? Your agency should have a good idea of what may be most appropriate.
  
• What placement can I acquire on these sites and how will the timing coincide with our marketing plans? Your agent will find this information out for you. It would help if you had an idea of when you want to run your banner campaign.
  
• What banner creative will best communicate our message to the target audience? Your agency will provide you with a couple of concepts based on your brief.
  

You know already that it's all about going back to marketing basics. Don't be afraid to explore simple HTML banners if you feel that it will work for your next campaign. Flashy isn't always going to give you the results you're after.

An Online Marketing Success Story of Adopting Sheep

"Adopt me?"

Here is a story that is happening right now. My friend Michael Kiely has a farm full of sheep, and unless you have been living under a rock you will know that there is no water its dryer than my mouth when I wake up in the morning after a tough night boozing. So what he decided to do was allow people to adopt his sheep! (http://adoptasheep.blogspot.com/)

This new campaign has been spurred by using email marketing to Michael's Thought Of The Day list (A golden read), A great blog, Some serious blog posting, Some press releases and a good bit of old follow-up and some good old Word Of Mouth.

Michael's PR was so successful that he was on the Channel 7 News!!

Adopt A Sheep On the Homepage of Yahoo!7 News. Video Story about Adopt a Sheep

Adopt a Sheep
Digg the Story