5 Online Advertising Approaches Explained

The internet is the new and most convergent avenue for advertising your business. Getting the word out, though, is not as simple as posting your contact details on Facebook. Often, online marketing requires a combination of strategy, creativity, and know-how.

If you're considering online advertising but have found the deluge of information from the articles online overwhelming, these 5 approaches to online advertising have been simplified just for you.

1. Email Marketing

One of the oldest tricks in the online advertising book, email marketing has been around since a manager sent out an email to 400 Arpanet users in 1978, promoting DEC machines. According to Smart Insights, the novelty of the feat resulted in $13 million worth of sales. There's a reason this classic still holds its own in marketing strategies - it works. Half of the world's population is expected to use email by 2022. In terms of actual reach, those numbers are hard to beat.

You should consider email marketing if you're building brand awareness, nurturing leads and prospects, and building customer loyalty.

2. Video Advertising

Online video is a relative newcomer in the internet advertising sphere. The rise of platforms like YouTube has spoiled consumers to mostly take in information once it involves moving images. The penetration of smart phones has also guaranteed that every person has a video playing device with them at virtually all times.

The speed with which information is conveyed and processed in a video is one of the best reasons more people prefer this way of consuming content, compared to things like article-reading.

If you want to send out an information-heavy advertisement that even reluctant buyers will spend attention on, video is your best bet.

3. Social Media Advertising

It is no secret that social media has skyrocketed along with the spread of the internet. Billions of people are now connected through these social networks in a way that has not been possible during any other time in history. Users now have the ability to broadcast information to hundreds, thousands, and even millions of followers or friends at a time. Marketers have been capitalizing on this fact for a while now. So much so that social networking sites themselves now offer advertising options built into their platforms.

Styles have drastically changed as well. Social media advertisements have a more relatable tone compared to the authoritative voice of old commercials. Consumers are now sold stories, instead of testimonials. This shift in approach is mostly caused by how individuals and companies (almost) have equal voices when using social media.

4. Banners and Pop-ups

Banners are portals, not only to the websites of advertisers, but also to the past. They are among the oldest advertisements on the internet. They are usually made up of static images or flash videos that play on repeat. Pop-ups are similar to banners. The difference is they pop up when the user accesses a page or clicks on a button.

As advertisements on the internet multiplied, web pages became more saturated with banners and pop-up ads. Eventually, people developed subconscious filters that tells the brain to ignore obvious advertisements.

Be careful when using this approach. Banners and pop-up ads can supplement a marketing campaign, but they cannot be the main strategies.

5. Blogs

Not to be confused with the banners that appear alongside worded articles, blogs are an expression of branded content that can introduce concepts and tell stories while promoting a product or service. These articles are usually written to cater to the needs of the consumer. The idea is to add value to the user experience by sharing insights in the blog.

Blogs also help raise a website's SEO rankings, which ultimately drives more traffic. If you want to learn more about improving your SEO content, consider working with professional SEO services.