Graphics Reference
In-Depth Information
In addition to designing your banners in a visually pleasing
manner, consistency will help attract users to the ads and sub-
sequently to the site itself. The consistency of the banners should
be thought of on a few different levels of design. Not only should
you pay attention to making sure the banners all look alike, but
they should also have similar animations. By doing this, you
ensure that no matter what size banner users see from this
campaign and no matter where they see it, they
ll recognize it.
If a user previously clicked on one of the banners from the
campaign and liked the site, they will probably click on another
one that looks and acts the same. Keep in mind that the consis-
tency should not stop with the banners themselves, but should
also tie the banners to the site. This consistency from banner to
site will help ensure a smoother transition from the site a user is
currently visiting into yours.
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Keep Your Promise
When a user clicks on your banner ad, he or she is usually expect-
ingsomethinginparticularatthesitewhereheorsheisbeing
taken to. That something is whatever you have told her that she
should expect when she first viewed the banner. Delivering on
your promise is not only good business, but it
s something that will
drive traffic back to your site after the initial visit. If users click on
a banner because they are expecting to fill out a form for travel
reservations, then that
'
'
s what they should get. However, if they get
to the site and can
t find the form, they may become frustrated and
go elsewhere to topic their travel plans. Once that happens, they
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'
ll
only remember that they had difficulty on your client
'
ssiteand
they may not return at all.
From Main to Micro
Another form of driving traffic to a microsite is by way of the main
Web site. Because your clients probably own their own main Web
site, driving traffic from there to a new microsite is going to be
extremely low cost when compared with a banner campaign. The
fact that they won
t have to pay for the actual placements on their
own site is one thing that helps keep the cost down. In addition to
the lower cost, you can rest assured that the people viewing the
site (and the advertisement) are all but automatically your target
audience. Because they are visiting your client
'
smainWebsite,
you know that they are already aware of, and interested in, the
brand. They can be considered the largest built-in audience of the
new microsite, and all they need now is a little push in the right
direction.
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