If you want to attract new customers, first you have to get their attention. There are all sorts of ways to do it - from walking up and down the high street wearing a sandwich board to spending thousands on TV advertising - or you could consider the internet.

When it comes to any form of advertising, what matters most is that your product or service stands apart from the rest in the eyes of the people who most want to buy them. So, wherever they're looking - that's where you want to be advertising. Increasingly, that means you need to get yourself noticed online.

Surveys show that as individuals, we're spending an average of more than eight hours a day surfing the internet - proving that time spent online now seriously rivals the time we spend watching TV. Furthermore, statistics reveal that more and more shoppers are choosing to buy online. And it's the same story in business. If we want to find out about something or track down a supplier, chances are we'll turn to the internet to point us in the right direction.

Effective promotion
So, armed with this knowledge, what's the best way to achieve effective online promotion?

Tonya Hills, director of A Recipe For Success, recommends maximising the potential of online advertising, by developing an e-marketing strategy that's just right for your business. Explaining the benefits at a recent website marketing seminar, Tonya guided 50 local businesses from the Ipswich area through the key steps to online advertising. She pointed out, for example, that an incredible 85 per cent of us use search engines such as Google and Yahoo to look for products, get quotes, and place orders.

Tonya said: "It's right here that getting your online advertising strategy right is critical to success. Of course, there's a range of options open to businesses choosing to raise their profile in this way. But if you want to get quick results, the most effective option is to use search engines and pay-per-click marketing.

"This means you get to choose who sees your advert and how much you're prepared to pay to get someone to visit your website. Better still, you only get charged when someone clicks through - so it's totally based on results."

So how does it work, exactly? Tonya explained: "Google claims to be used by 80 per cent of internet users, so let's use their site as an example. There are five key steps. First, you need to decide which, out of the millions of internet users, you want to sell to. Where do they live? What languages do they speak? It isn't an exact science but, if you want to target only English speakers near Ipswich, you can say so and Google will do its best to identify them.

Clever keywords
"Second, decide what your potential customers will be searching for. This is the most difficult step. What you have to do is choose a list of keywords - words people will use when they're searching for the products and services you offer. If you're too specific or list too few keywords, not many people will see your advert and you'll miss out on opportunities to sell. But cast your net too wide and your money will be spent attracting people who won't be interested in what they see."

Tonya continued: "Third, you need to write your advert. It's a bit like writing a text message - you only have a limited number of characters at your disposal. Google's limit is 95 characters, for example, so every word needs to be chosen with care and match your potential customer's requirements."

Top of the list
And finally, according to Tonya, step four is to decide how much you want to pay -each time someone clicks on your advert, and per day. The more you pay per click, the higher up the list of sponsored links your advert will appear.

Tonya said: "That might sound like it's going to be expensive to get a good listing, but it isn't - depending on the keywords you choose, as little as 10p or 11p a click can get you at the top of the list! And aside from paying the bill, that's it - all it takes to get your advert posted and start attracting new visitors to your site."

So what's step five? Like any other form of advertising, you need to measure the results and learn from your experience. Check the statistics for your web site to see who's visiting and why, then think about adjusting your approach. The internet never stays still, so you need to do this regularly. Tonya added: "It's straightforward, but it's also a bit of a black art - something it's easier to get right with experience. But don't let that put you off - our consultants at A Recipe For Success will be happy to take you through this process. One of the best things about pay-per-click is that it's easy to keep changing your recipe until you achieve success."

Pay per click advertising was one of the topics Tonya Hills covered at our recent seminar on search engine optimisation, held on November 16th. Our consultants have a wealth of experience of online marketing techniques, and can help you get the best from pay-per-click and other approaches. To find out more about how we can help, contact Tonya Hills on 08458 409933.