Contents Overview 1 Advertising Web Sites 3 The Banner Network Service: An Introduction 7 Using Banner Network to Advertise Your Web Site 8 Lab 6: Using Banner Network to Advertise Your Web Site 20 Review 26 Module 6: Advertising Your E-Commerce Web Site Information in this document is subject to change without notice. The names of companies, products, people, characters, and/or data mentioned herein are fictitious and are in no way intended to represent any real individual, company, product, or event, unless otherwise noted. Complying with all applicable copyright laws is the responsibility of the user. No part of this document may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, for any purpose, without the express written permission of Microsoft Corporation. If, however, your only means of access is electronic, permission to print one copy is hereby granted. Microsoft may have patents, patent applications, trademarks, copyrights, or other intellectual property rights covering subject matter in this document. Except as expressly provided in any written license agreement from Microsoft, the furnishing of this document does not give you any license to these patents, trademarks, copyrights, or other intellectual property.  2000 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Microsoft, BackOffice, bCentral, FrontPage, Hotmail, LinkExchange, MS-DOS, MSN, PowerPoint, Windows, Windows Media Player, and Windows NT are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the U.S.A. and/or other countries. The names of companies, products, people, characters, and/or data mentioned herein are fictitious and are in no way intended to represent any real individual, company, product, or event, unless otherwise noted. Other product and company names mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners. Development Lead: P.M. Murali (NIIT) Instructional Designers: Sangeeta Nair (NIIT), Vijayalakshmi Narayanaswamy, (NIIT) Technical Contributors: Scott Swigart (3 Leaf Solutions, LLC); Gary Gumbiner (Great Barrier Technologies) Program Manager: Steve Merrill Graphic Artist: Scott Serna Editing Manager: Lynette Skinner Editor: Dennis Rea Copy Editor: Ed Casper (S&T Consulting) Publications Manager: Miracle Davis Test Manager: Eric Myers CD Build Specialist: Jenny Boe; Eric Wagoner Production Coordinator: Marlene Lambert (Online Training Solutions, Inc.); Susie Bayers (Online Training Solutions, Inc.) Manufacturing Manager: Bo Galford Manufacturing Support: Laura King General Manager: Robert Stewart Module 6: Advertising Your E-Commerce Web Site iii Instructor Notes This module discusses the need for an e-commerce Web site to advertise on the World Wide Web. The module highlights the various advertising opportunities available on the Web for promoting an online business, and presents an overview of the Banner Network service provided by Microsoft ® bCentral ™ for promoting Web sites. The module provides students with the knowledge and skills necessary to use Banner Network to categorize Web sites, submit banners, target banners at the appropriate audience segments, and filter banners from specific Web site categories. Finally, the module provides information on how to view various reports that track the number of visitors to a Web site. After completing this module, the students will be able to: ! Identify the benefits of online advertising. ! Describe the benefits of the Banner Network service. ! Sign up for the Banner Network service. ! Categorize the content of your Web site. ! Insert LE HTML code to place banners. ! Submit a banner to Banner Network. ! Target your banner at appropriate sites. ! Block banners from specific categories of sites. ! View statistics on the number of user visits to a Web site. Materials and Preparation This section provides you with the materials and preparation tasks you need to teach this module. Required Materials To teach this module, you need the following materials: ! Microsoft PowerPoint ® file 1933A_06.ppt ! Module 6, “Advertising Your E-Commerce Web Site” ! Lab 6, “Using Banner Network to Advertise Your Web Site” Preparation Tasks To prepare for this module, you should: ! Read all of the materials for this module. ! Complete the lab. Presentation: 75 Minutes Lab: 40 Minutes iv Module 6: Advertising Your E-Commerce Web Site Module Strategy Use the following instructional strategies to present this module: ! Advertising Web Sites Explain the reasons for promoting a business Web site, and how various Web-related advertising techniques help in achieving advertiser goals. Next, reiterate the importance of online advertising for the success of an e- commerce Web site by using the facts stated in the topic. ! The Banner Network Service: An Introduction Highlight the benefits of Banner Network provided by Microsoft bCentral. The major features of Banner Network should be described briefly at this point in the class. ! Using Banner Network to Advertise Your Web Site Show the students how to fill out the Banner Network Join application form, categorize a site, insert HTML code for attaching the banner to the Web site, submit the banner to the Web, target a banner, and filter specific site categories. Explain the importance of each procedure before demonstrating the procedure through the PowerPoint presentation on the instructor computer. Module 6: Advertising Your E-Commerce Web Site 1 Overview ! Advertising Web Sites ! The Banner Network Service: An Introduction ! Using Banner Network to Advertise Your Web Site When you start a new e-commerce business, you might have great ideas for establishing an online presence, and excellent products in terms of quality and cost. You might even spend a fortune hiring the best Web-page designers and writers to create an impressive online presence. However, if potential customers cannot find your Web site, or do not know about your business, all of your efforts will be wasted. Like any traditional brick-and-mortar business, the success of an online business also depends on marketing, advertising, and public relations. Therefore, in addition to creating an online presence for your business that is informative, visually appealing, and easy to understand, it is critical that you develop innovative ways to promote your online business in order to generate traffic and gain orders for your products. By joining a banner exchange network, you agree to display random banner advertisements on your site in exchange for having your advertisement appear on the sites of other businesses. Participating in a banner exchange network is a great way to promote your site because: ! Advertisements with appealing graphics and highlighted text have been proven to attract the attention of customers. ! Advertisements are well distributed across the Web, resulting in increased visibility because a large number of Web users are able to view them. Topic Objective To provide an overview of the module topics and objectives. Lead-in In this module, you will learn about the advantages of promoting Web sites through online advertising. You will also learn how to use the Banner Network service of Microsoft bCentral to place the banners of your site on other sites. Delivery Tip When explaining banner exchange networks, access the site http://www.bcentral.com as an example. Show the banner advertisement displayed at the top of the bCentral home page. The page displays a different banner each time it is refreshed. 2 Module 6: Advertising Your E-Commerce Web Site After completing this module, you will be able to: ! Identify the benefits of online advertising. ! Describe the benefits of the Banner Network service provided by Microsoft ® bCentral ™ . ! Sign up for the Banner Network service. ! Categorize the content of your Web site. ! Insert LE HTML code to place banners. ! Submit a banner to Banner Network. ! Target your banner at appropriate sites. ! Block banners from specific categories of sites. ! View statistics on the number of user visits to a Web site. Module 6: Advertising Your E-Commerce Web Site 3 # ## # Advertising Web Sites ! Strategies for Advertising a Web Site ! Advantages of Banner Advertisements To sustain and grow a business, you must promote the business in order to make potential customers aware of it. Promoting a business involves informing the target audience about the organization’s background and the products and services it offers. A successful business promotion should be able to reach the maximum number of target customers. Advertising has proven to be an extremely successful business promotion strategy. Advertising increases the visibility of products and services and highlights special features and offers that help the organization to acquire an edge over its competitors. After your business is online, you need to drive as much traffic to your site as possible. Advertising on the Web is the key to the successful promotion of your e-commerce Web site. Topic Objective To discuss strategies for promoting Web sites and identify the benefits of using banner advertisements. Lead-in When you start an online business, you need to promote your business to ensure that you attract customers. To do this, you need to devise a combination of effective strategies for promotion. 4 Module 6: Advertising Your E-Commerce Web Site Strategies for Advertising a Web Site ! Exchange banner ads with other sites ! Send e-mail to Internet users ! Advertise on radio, television, newspapers, and so on ! Print Web site address on letterheads ! Advertise on Internet newsgroups or bulletin boards ! Sponsor online chats ! Distribute fliers containing information about your business ! Join a Web mall ! Sponsor a contest on the Web ! Begin an affiliate program When launching a new e-commerce Web site, you will probably want to experiment with different marketing messages and use different promotional ideas to determine what works best. The Internet provides a variety of different promotional opportunities, some of which are listed in this section. These promotional opportunities can be used to target mass groups or very specific demographic audiences, depending on your needs. Each time you execute any form of marketing campaign, it is important to carefully track results to determine what methods generate the most positive results for your business. Tracking results helps you to plan your future marketing and advertising strategies. The following are some ways to advertise and promote your e-commerce Web site: ! Exchange banner advertisements with other Web sites related to your type of business. ! Send messages through e-mail or direct mail to selected groups of Internet users, informing them about your company, brand, and products. This is referred to as an e-mail broadcast or targeted e-mail list. ! Advertise on various media outlets such as television, radio, newspapers, and magazines. Topic Objective To describe the advertising strategies that a new online business can adopt. Lead-in An online business can use a combination of methods to advertise itself and its products and services. Some of these are the same methods used by conventional brick-and- mortar businesses. Module 6: Advertising Your E-Commerce Web Site 5 ! Print your Web site address on letterheads and business cards. ! Advertise on Internet newsgroups or bulletin boards. ! Sponsor and participate in online chats. ! Distribute electronic press releases. ! Distribute fliers with information about your online business. ! Join a mall on the Web. ! Announce a contest. People like receiving gifts and prizes, so if you publicize a contest on your Web site, you will generate more traffic. ! Begin an affiliate program. A retailer’s affiliate program pays a commission to other sites whose links to the retailer’s site result in an actual sale. The goal is to build a network of affiliates who have a financial stake in promoting your e-commerce Web site. Of the above, banner advertising is one of the most widely used and effective online advertising techniques. 6 Module 6: Advertising Your E-Commerce Web Site Advantages of Banner Advertisements Banners advertising a site on the Web: $ Attract customers from all over the world $ Allow customers to quickly access information about a business and its products/services $ Can be updated constantly $ Can be modified based on customer response Advertising on the Internet is becoming increasingly popular. One effective method of advertising on the Internet is banner ads, which provide the following advantages to a business: ! Because the World Wide Web is accessible from millions of offices and homes, banners that advertise your online business can attract customers from all over the world. ! People who view your banner advertisements can respond instantly and find more information about the advertised product by simply clicking a link to your Web site. ! The World Wide Web makes it possible for your online advertising to be effective 24 hours a day, every day. Because advertising campaigns can be launched, modified, or stopped almost instantly, your site can be updated continuously. ! You can count the number of exposures your advertisement receives and the number of people who visit your site as soon as the advertisement is online. Based on this information, you can modify your message or alter the placement of your banner advertisements to reach a more focused audience. Topic Objective To explain the advantages of placing banner ads on the Internet. Lead-in Banner ads are crucial for a new online business, and can help in several ways. [...]... Locator) of your Web site ! The title of your site ! A description of your site ! The intended audience for your site ! The number of visitors your site receives daily ! The primary language of your site ! The type of your site (business or non-business) ! The type of site on which banners will be displayed (business or nonbusiness) ! The rating for your site (1, 2, or 3) ! The rating for the sites that... selection 23 24 Module 6: Advertising Your E-Commerce Web Site Exercise 4 Targeting Your Banner In this exercise, you will target your banner at a specific category of Web sites ! Target your banner at a specific category of Web sites 1 Click Control Center 2 Click Banner Network 3 Under Account Info, click Target Your Banner to select the Web site categories to target 4 On the Target Your Banner page,... the bCentral HTML code onto your Web pages If your page already contains old bCentral code, it will be updated automatically You can also manually insert the LE HTML code by copying and pasting the given HTML code into your Web site 14 Module 6: Advertising Your E-Commerce Web Site Submitting Banners Topic Objective To display the method for submitting the banner on your Web site by using Banner Network... confirm your selection Your banner ads will be targeted at Web sites related to this specific geographic region 18 Module 6: Advertising Your E-Commerce Web Site Filtering Banners Topic Objective To describe the steps involved in filtering banners that belong to Web sites in specific categories Lead-in You may not want certain types of banners, such as the banners of your competitors, to appear on your Web. .. on your site ! The rating for the sites on which your site will be advertised ! The source where you received information about bCentral ! Whether or not you want to receive advertising update subscriptions from Microsoft bCentral After entering these details, you must confirm their validity to complete the sign-up process Module 6: Advertising Your E-Commerce Web Site 11 Categorizing Your Web Site. .. need for categorizing your Web site on Banner Network Categorizing your Web site determines where it appears in the Surf Point directory This directory includes listings of all members of Banner Network, along with the account description, the submitted banner, and a link to the Web site of each member Module 6: Advertising Your E-Commerce Web Site 27 3 How can you restrict your competitor’s banner... visits to a Web site This is because it takes a few days before a submitted banner starts appearing on other sites and visitors start clicking on it Mention this fact, and show students the blank reports 20 Module 6: Advertising Your E-Commerce Web Site Lab 6: Using Banner Network to Advertise Your Web Site Topic Objective To introduce the lab Lead-in In this lab, you will practice targeting your banner... Your Information page, click Submit (Press only ONCE) 9 Write down your LinkExchange™ account number, or save the information as a txt file 10 Click the log in link to access the Banner Network start page 22 Module 6: Advertising Your E-Commerce Web Site Exercise 2 Categorizing the Site In this exercise, you will put your Web site in a specific hierarchy of category ! Define the category of your Web. .. choice of five site categories for targeting $ Offers three levels of categorization of target sites $ Allows a Web site to target banner advertisements at specific geographic areas For your banner advertisement campaign to be successful, your banner should be displayed on Web sites that are visited by your target audience To focus your Web advertising on the target audience, you need to target your banners... Content Category page, click Same to filter other Web sites in the same category as your Web site 3 Select the check box for the category by which you want to filter banners, and then click Done 26 Module 6: Advertising Your E-Commerce Web Site Review Topic Objective To reinforce module objectives by reviewing key points ! Identify the benefits of online advertising ! Describe the benefits of the Banner . categories of sites. ! View statistics on the number of user visits to a Web site. Module 6: Advertising Your E-Commerce Web Site 3 # ## # Advertising Web Sites. Robert Stewart Module 6: Advertising Your E-Commerce Web Site iii Instructor Notes This module discusses the need for an e-commerce Web site to advertise