Guide to Successful Banner Advertising

Expertsites LoanStar.net provides a powerful vehicle for reaching qualified viewers -- potential mortgage customers -- through banners and text links on our Mortgage Directory. 

A targeted banner ad campaign can be very successful as a lead-generating tool.  However, lead generation alone does not justify your online marketing expenditures.

Your business goal is to run a successful online marketing campaign and gain new customers.

We can help!

1.  Grab attention fast. Communicate briefly. A good rule of thumb is that a web page has 3 seconds to grab a viewer’s attention -- and your banner is a small part of that web page.

2.  Make banners fast loading. Statistics show higher click-throughs on faster banners, rather than banners with a lot of fancy programming. It's critical to grab the eye as the page loads.

3.  Bigger is better. You can communicate more in a larger space, but don’t try to cram too much into a single banner.

4.  White space is good. Fewer words are better. It’s best to communicate one message or benefit at a time in one banner.

5.  Images are eye-catching. The human face sells. Most viewers skim rather than read a lot of words.

6.  You need a Call to Action.  You will be amazed at how viewers respond when you just tell them what to do next!  Tell viewers to "click here."

7.  Use the right link.  If your call to action is “apply online,” the link should go to an online application, not to your home page.  Dare we say that no link should ever go to "404, File Not Found"?

8.  Cheap banner tricks don’t win customers. Annoying blinks and too much motion have become banner ad clichés that cause bad will more often than good, especially if many banners on a single web page are blinking for attention.  Experienced viewers use the stop button unless they hit the back button first!

9.  The viewer is ready to commit.  Viewers want to work with (and buy from) businesses that they trust. To convert more clicks into sales, establish a basis for trust with each and every viewer.

10.State the benefit to your customer -- be specific! A free offer that grabs attention is good, especially if your next step reassures the viewer that they can trust your company with their mortgage.

A successful banner ad campaign brings viewers to your website or your online mortgage application, but your job has just begun.  Here are some tried and true ways to succeed online.

The bottom line is NOT how many click-throughs you get! A better measure of success is how many of those click-throughs actually become customers!

Banners can have significant marketing impact without being clicked on. A recent study shows that banner ads can contribute to achieving marketing goals normally associated with click-through banner ads.

This study shows that nearly half of all responses were indirect, generated by the branding effect. It also showed that indirect respondents were more likely to return to the destination site than direct respondents, making the indirect responses higher-quality traffic to your website.

What this means is that your website is a crucial element in converting viewers into customers!

• Check your site to be sure it loads fast, content is clearly communicated and there are no errors. This is essential -- no typos, no link failures, no errors at all!
• Successful websites focus on converting viewers into loyal customers by building a long-term relationship based on trust. If the potential customer arrives at your site only to discover confusing pages, poor navigation or broken links, reaction is likely to be hitting the back button. If you were confronted with a website full of mistakes, would you trust that site to process your mortgage?
• Eliminating extra steps in the buying process improves conversion rates. Get directly to the point! Respond immediately to each and every inquiry.

When you communicate clearly and give viewers reasons to trust you, you position yourself as the best answer to their problem of securing a mortgage.

Always address the question, "What is in it for me?" from the viewer’s standpoint. The next question you should anticipate is "Why should I buy from you?” Answer both questions on each and every web page of your site.  Not all viewers come in to your home page; few viewers visit ALL your web pages.  But every viewer is a potential customer!

If you send viewers directly to an online application, give that viewer a good reason, a REALLY GOOD reason to trust you with their personal data and their mortgage. When a viewer is confronted with a blank application, they often will hit the back button rather than fill out the form.  In fact, more than 60% of all online transactions are abandoned before completion.