Online Content Marketing - A Banner that Works?
I have to be honest and say that I rarely, if ever, acknowledge banner ads or tile ads on websites. Advertising, to me, is about delivering a compelling, relevant, and targeted message. Frankly, it's challenging to do that in a banner, button, or tile ad...until now.
Scottrade has been running a series of ads in conjuction with Yahoo! Finance for a few months now. Scottrade is a discount brokerage company that competes with the likes of E*Trade and Ameritrade to complete online trades for customers. I religiously follow a few stocks, and check them on Yahoo! Finance throughout the day. Whenever I click to see a stock's complete summary (in this case, a company called Global Sources [full disclosure: I own Global Sources stock]), Scottrade provides a relevant ad on technical analysis just to the lower right portion of the page (see image).
In less that 40 words, Scottrade has educated me on the technical analysis of Global Sources, a stock that I truly care about. By clicking on the ad, Scottrade gives a bit more information on their product, Scottrade SmartText, which is included in any Scottrade account.
I'm a fanatic about long-form content marketing or editorial style content...but Scottrade proves that online content marketing can be effective if the information is extremely valuable.
Recommendation: Scottrade does a great job, but I would recommend that they include a free offer of some kind to at least get people to take the next step. Now, if they are getting 10%+ conversion rates on the ad, don't do a thing. But if conversion rates are low, they could try a free eZine, eBook, report, or newsletter offer in conjunction with SmartText. Possibly an enewsletter on the top 10 bullish or bearish charts of the month or week. At least this way they could get the prospect's information, and then work to build a long-term relationship.
Sign up to receive articles like these via email!
Related Articles:
>>If you liked this article, try Junta42 for more.
Comments