UKBF Banners

[michelle @ business smart]

Hello

I have sent two emails to the UKBF by using their contact form on the site. I would just like some information about their banner advertising but no one has come back to me yet. I was wondering if anyone on here has had banners on the forum in the past and if you could maybe give me a little bit of advice as to who I should be contacting?

Thank You

[RayB]

You're better off asking this in "feedack and help" to get a response - ask a mod to move it :)

[michelle @ business smart]

Ok thank you

Michelle

[creacom]

Hi there,

I have brought your question to the attention of Sift and I am sure someone will be in touch on Monday if not before.

Jacqui

[DuaneJackson]

The person to speak to is, as far as I'm aware, Tom Dunkerly at Sift Media.

[michelle @ business smart]

Ok Thank You

[Darren Falkingham]

Hey Michelle,

Thanks for posting this up - very sorry your message didn't receive a reply. (in fact, I'm convinced that many of the messages sent through the Contact Us form are getting stuck somewhere...I'll need to look into this).

Re your banner request, I'll make sure someone gets in touch with you tomorrow - it's most likely to be a guy called Charlie Backwell.

Cheers for now,
Darren

[Boxby]

Hi

You can talk to Tom Dunkerly at Sift.

And if you want to know what the banners are doing for us, see this blog;
http://www.ukbusinessforums.co.uk/forums/blog.php?u=13471 (http://www.ukbusinessforums.co.uk/forums/blog.php?u=13471)

Kind regards
Sandra:)

[michelle @ business smart]

Hi Darren

Thank you for your reply. I did wonder if maybe my message was getting lost along the way some where. I am not sure how you will be making contact today but I will be in the office for most of the day.

Thank you

Michelle

[openmind]

Hi

You can talk to Tom Dunkerly at Sift;
Tom Dunkerley tom.dunkerley@siftmedia.co.uk

And if you want to know what the banners are doing for us, see this blog;
http://www.ukbusinessforums.co.uk/forums/blog.php?u=13471 (http://www.ukbusinessforums.co.uk/forums/blog.php?u=13471)

Kind regards
Sandra:)

Interesting. Granted the CTR is slightly above the industry average but how many of those clicks have turned into sales or are you using it more as a brand building exercise?

[Darren Falkingham]

Thanks Michelle - will pass your details on to Charlie Backwell (Tom's on hols today).

I've also edited out your contact details, as the forum gets Googled extremely well - and also to stop you getting spammed by the unscrupulous ones out there!

Cheers,
Darren

[michelle @ business smart]

Thank You Darren, that's great.

Michelle

[sabian1982]

Suggest removal of Tom's email address from post #8 (im sure he doesn't want his inbox caught by the spam spiders!!!

[Boxby]

Sorry!!
I am so naive!!!

[RayB]

And if you want to know what the banners are doing for us, see this blog;
http://www.ukbusinessforums.co.uk/forums/blog.php?u=13471 (http://www.ukbusinessforums.co.uk/forums/blog.php?u=13471)

Kind regards
Sandra:)

Interesting stats in your blog.

As a point of interest, I get much more traffic from my sig.......................;)

[Boxby]

Interesting. Granted the CTR is slightly above the industry average but how many of those clicks have turned into sales or are you using it more as a brand building exercise?

We are still getting more clicks through from the signature than from the campaign, per Google Analytics, although i will need to check with Tom to make sure that I am including all URL's of the campaign.

The arguements on the original thread about the uses/sucesses of banner advertising was that it was all about brand building rather than generating solid leads/jobs. At present I must say that I can't see any definite jobs have come about from the campaign.

But maybe people are more aware of what we do, or who we are now, than they were three weeks ago? Maybe at the end of the month we should run a poll - who know what Boxby does?:)

What I find hard to get to grips with is the very low conversion rates for banners etc. Maybe because my history is with face2face, and with banners and the like there is no opportunity to develop the customers interest in your product.

But with limited funds for marketing, its all got to be really well targeted. For the cost of banners, i could print up a load of flyers and walk around a trade show, and i am sure that the conversion rate would be higher.

But then, why do companies such as 3g and orange fling so much money at banner ads.

I'm still confused:redface:

[Spiderden]

Suggest removal of Tom's email address from post #8 (im sure he doesn't want his inbox caught by the spam spiders!!!

Sorry to go off topic, but you gave me an idea that could be of use to this and other vB forums. Using a similar technique to that that was used to allow nofollow URLs to be posted (http://www.ukbusinessforums.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?p=435313), non spiderable email addresses can be posted that can be clicked or copy and pasted that spam bots cannot read.

This is the replacement code required for the custom BBcode

<script language="JavaScript"><!--
var name = "{option}";
var domain = "{param}";
document.write('<a href=\"mailto:' + name + '@' + domain + '\">');
document.write(name + '@' + domain + '</a>');
// --></script>

The email address would be entered using something like this
your_domain.com
I've just tested it on a vB forum and it works perfectly. If Sift or anyone else with a vB forum wants to use it on their forums, you're welcome to (For instructions on how to implement it, see the nofollow link above).

[RayB]

But then, why do companies such as 3g and orange fling so much money at banner ads.

I'm still confused:redface:

Big brands through money at this to build brand awareness, it's part of the mix of how they become (and stay) household names.

Which is less relevant for smaller businesses (where we are looking for a direct ROI) and B2B

[DuaneJackson]

What I find hard to get to grips with is the very low conversion rates for banners etc.

We don't advertise anywhere for very long if we don't get a ROI. We've had decent conversion rates when we've run banners here, so I don't think it's a given that conversion lates will be low. If you have the message, the audience and the landing page right then there's no reason why conversion rates should be low.

[Boxby]

We don't advertise anywhere for very long if we don't get a ROI. We've had decent conversion rates when we've run banners here, so I don't think it's a given that conversion lates will be low. If you have the message, the audience and the landing page right then there's no reason why conversion rates should be low.


I don't think i meant conversion rates, i think i meant click through rates!
:redface: