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Multimillion-dollar Web sites go out of business on almost a daily basis after spending hundreds of millions of dollars in advertising.  Why do these companies with sheer girth and unlimited funds tend to fail?  The Internet, while composed of millions and millions of surfers, can be a myriad of confusion.  It seems that the majority of "nay-sayers", and the online population in general, want instantaneous results. Not next week, not tomorrow, not five minutes from now, but right now!  If they do not get it, then good-bye.  There are no second chances.  Your strategy had better work right away, or you could see your ad business dry up like the Sahara. What is being left out in this simple equation is a complex formula that has withstood the test of time, and has been proven to work year in and year out. Test, test, and test some more!  

A typical campaign sent through the postal mail could take anywhere from 3 months to a year before the mailing gets completed, and results start to come in.  The time involved includes creation of the ad copy, testing a list, then maybe testing a different ad with the list, and finally deploying the campaign.  Wow! Three months to a year is a full life cycle for some Internet companies.  (No offense to some of my past employers :-)).  The full results can take months before they are completed and straggling respondents abound. Throughout an offline (postal mail) campaign, much painstaking time is given to the layout, the content, and the audience for an advertisement. The sluggishness of a postal campaign could be a godsend to advertisers.  For the time it takes to test a list, you could brainstorm new ideas for the campaign.  That time is invaluable for making changes, and moving with the current market.

Let’s take a look at a campaign run through the Internet in a newsletter.  I will use a recent campaign I ran in a sweepstakes newsletter, because it epitomizes the difference in time frames between Internet advertising and postal advertising.  I used a company in Sweden. The results poured in within the first week. Even four weeks after the mailing was done, more customers came from this one mailing!  Composing the advertisement took just as long as any other company. The testing, deployment, and results took about four weeks.   Most Internet campaigns will finish receiving results in 9-10 days.  The swiftness in which I could perform tests, allowed me to make changes to my ad copy and stay ahead of the market.  I was also able to personalize my ads with a far greater depth than through postal mail.  

The benefit of the Internet is quicker results from testing.  The once yearlong campaign can now be tested and executed in as little time as two weeks via the Internet!   From day to day, market fluctuations change prices and debut new products.   The Internet allows quicker rollouts of new products, along with faster dissemination of sales information, and Beta testing.  The implications are enormous, but with all the speed in the world, we car drivers know patience is still needed on any highway.  Traffic jams happen, and making rash decisions or turning a blind eye can cause serious physical and financial damage to ones' self and others.  Time must still be taken to come up with catchy slogans, attractive graphics, and action driving descriptions of great products.  Minus these elements, one could mail to 180 million people and be out of business in a few months.

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Author: Roen Branham is the Co-founder/CEO of Opt2Opt,Inc., an online marketing corporation. (Web site www.2-opt.com)