Product Awareness:

Why Advertising with BritsinCrete works!

Direct sales is not simply what display advertising is all about on the Internet.
It is so much more.
For the smaller entrepreneur it is important to understand that placing an advertisement on BritsinCrete.net (itself an established brand) is as much about awareness and product re-inforcement as it is for a sale.

Visitors get used to seeing ads on our website.
I call it the "comfort factor". How many times do you go on the Internet to your favourite sites, and remember an ad when you come to need a product or service that ad represents!
That is what I mean by "the Comfort Factor".
Every day we see so many informational messages. And yet when we come to want a particular product or service we try to recall where it can be found. Was it in a newspaper, a magazine or a website etc.
To recall it was on BritsinCrete is proof the ad worked for the client!
Regular members to the BritsinCrete forum, and many more frequent visitors (referred to as 'lurkers') become familiar with fixed position ads, and being able to quickly recall such advertisements' locations is important in this day and age of growing use of Internet.
The role of advertising on a website then, is to act as a flash point, a conduit to get a visitor to click through to an advertiser's website as a "sales lead", as a potential client.
It is up to that advertiser then to make the "conversion" to a sale.
This is done by getting an e-mail address or some other interaction with the visitor. If BritsinCrete sends a visitor to a web page that just says "welcome" and does not grab the attention right away, that is a lost prospective client. Research has proven that it takes just 8 seconds to grab the attention on the path to getting a new customer.
If you advertise "ball bearings" in your ad on BritsinCrete do not take the visitor who clicks on their BiC advertisement to a general page of bolts, spanners, screws and somewhere on that landing page there are ball bearings.
No, it should be a fully informational page on "ball bearings" product information, all sizes, all uses they can be put to and at the end of the information there should be a link to a shopping cart, a live "sales person" or another link to capture a sale.
BELOW is a classic case example of when an advertiser decides not to renew an advertisement on BritsinCrete. This is taken directly from a BritsinCrete Forum member's posting (abridged to focus on the main point):

"Just to let you know that we have eventually landed in Crete, and are renting a renovated large Cretan house...I have one question though. A company selling splash pools etc......used to advertise on this site, and I haven't seen the ad for ages. Anyone got any ideas as to their name or web address......"

Now, that man could not see the advertisement that he knew was there but is no longer!!
That is the power of a well designed advertisement giving strong market perception.
The name could not be recalled but the forum member knew the ad for splash pools was there, but gone....

If you are considering BritsinCrete as part of your advertising campaign here is my advice:

1. Still advertise online, but think beyond direct sales from online advertisements unless your web site is geared up to capturing and converting visitors who click on ads!

2. More importantly - Advertise to create product awareness, brand awareness, launching a new company or service, notifying Internet surfers and visitors of special offers, new product lines, emphasising a company's contribution in general community issues - such as greening of the environment, contributions and working to better the community (charity work). Use BritsinCrete to grab attention to your product or service.

Attention:
Greek
and
multi-national companies!

OUR website mainly emphasises expatriate living in CRETE, as well as where issues that relate to Crete also can be applied to the rest of Greece.

This means BritsinCrete reaches other English-speaking expatriate communities, as well, such as the Dutch, German, Scandinavian etc - in other words other EU citizens who can all come to stay in Crete/Greece without special permission.

Of the four prefectures on Crete, Chania is regarded as the place where the cost of living is the most expensive on the island of Crete, while the highest per capita expenditure is in Heraklion. Lassithi is regarded as one of the poorest of all Greece's prefectures in GDP.

Yet English speaking foreigners are now buying properties across the whole of Crete. BritsinCrete has them covered when they find us from Internet searches.

The above is advice from Gerald, the BritsinCrete webmaster, - an experienced, marketing pro- fessional in radio, TV and the Internet.