When you run advertising campaigns, you're most interested in conversion rates. But your ads have another benefit.
Promoting Your Store
Of course, you want your ads to promote your products and sell more of them; however, those same ads also promote your "store." Even if people have no interest in the products you're advertising at the moment, when they want to buy something later, they'll take a look at the stores that are advertising. That's why mega-stores send out flyers week after week.
Making An Impression
In order to promote your store, you need to constantly run ads in many different places. Seeing your ads more often makes people remember your store better. Also, the design scheme of your ads needs to be consistent. For example, you can tell whose flyer you're looking at, such as Future Shop or Best Buy, without reading the name of the store. That's because each mega-store carefully creates a unique design. This consistency is how you make people remember your store.
Seeing Results
Unfortunately, the effect of this type of promotion cannot be statistically verified simply by analyzing server log files. You need phone or mail surveys. Remember that this technique was in use long before the Internet was invented. Don't underestimate the power of promoting your store just because you can't analyze it.
© October, 2008