Although online display ads have traditionally been thought of as most useful in the first part of the marketing funnel, they have developed into a tool that can be used in every part of the funnel.
Understanding the Basic Funnel
The basic marketing funnel that has been around since the late 1800s and was introduced by Elias St. Elmo Lewis. It has been taught in universities for many years in its most basic from which is summarized in the acronym AIDA, which stands for Attention, Interest, Desire/Decision and Action. In this basic marketing funnel the traditional place for online display ads has been in the first phase, attention. But, as technology advances and marketers get more creative, display ads are being used to impact customers throughout the marketing funnel.
Attention
Many people have thought of online banner ads as somewhat of an online equivalent of a billboard. While offline billboards may get your attention, historically, they have been thought to do little more. Online display ads, however, can be much more compelling in a variety of ways including the addition of images, animation, audio or video. These dynamic elements can help get readers' attention and increase the effectiveness of your ads.
Interest
Good ad design can... Read more
Tagged 'online marketing strategy' 
Proper Online Marketing ROAS Attribution
Part of he problem with today’s social media ROI model is it doesn’t properly take into account how to properly attribute incremental traffic, conversion and sales.
How To Fail At Marketing – Lessons From NBC
Holy smokes folks - what the hell is happening to NBC? This is the network my family grew up watching no matter what was on. To this day, even though I can't stand it, I still have The Today Show on in the background over Good Morning America and whatever the heck the CBS show is called because my parents wouldn't have it any other way.
It's certainly no secret that cable and the internet have successfully segmented the broadcast television audience. But realize just what's happened here. From the first time that it was "Howdy Doody Time" screamed out in black and white - until Kristin shot JR in full color, the three broadcast networks accounted for 90% of all the prime-time television watched by Americans. Basically, everybody watched, enjoyed, hated and talked about the same news and entertainment. And, nowhere was this more prevalent than NBC. For almost 20 years in the 80's and 90's, this was the TV that we talked about. It was "Must-See TV" with shows like Friends, Hill Street Blues, The Cosby Show, Cheers, L.A. Law, Frasier, Seinfeld, ER and on and on.
And of course, the gold standard of brand-loyal television programming excellence was The Tonight... Read more
"Auto-Tuned" Marketing – I Feel Your T-Pain
Did you see the trainwreck that was Heidi Montag at the 2009 Miss Universe Pageant? Um, okay....yeah, me neither - but that's what YouTube is for right? Mostly I'm just annoyed that she's now ruined one of my favorite Yaz Songs. It would seem that anybody can be a pop star these days. Everywhere you turn, reality-stars, relatives of singers, models - just about anyone - is releasing new music.
You don't have to be able to sing in a live performance - lip synching technology takes care of that. Really now, you don't even have to be able to sing at all. The one thing that all these "pop-stars" have in common is a technology called "auto-tune".
If you haven't heard of Auto Tune, it's a computer technology that automatically "corrects" pitch for singers and instruments. Originally meant to "slightly" correct live performances, it's recently been used much more heavily to by many pop and rap stars. T-Pain and Kanye West are often the poster-artists for this - using Auto-Tune to the point of almost absurdity. But make no mistake, once you hear it and identify it, you'll hear it in many performances. And, if you really want to... Read more
