Promotions Done Right

Yesterday we released a set of shiny new banners with an updated look and cool new messages. Our remodeled banners section (as part of your account’s control panel) now has a few hundred different combinations of banners and promotion tools, available in 7 languages in 9 different categories. In addition to the automatic banner generators we also offer guides on promotions via social networks here and some great video tutorials (one example can be found here).

Good promotions are key in anything that you do online: from letting your friends know about a service you like (see my post about the like button) to letting prospective customers that visit your site know about a new offering. Plenty of words and pages have been written about best practices for banners (1, 2)  or building great pages that drive and convert traffic (1, 2, 3) but at the end of the day the basics are simple:

• Know your audience – match your promotions to fit the style, language and overall expectations of your audience.
• Location is king – the best looking banners and wittiest promotions are worthless if people can’t see them. Make sure your promotions are placed in prominent locations.
• Make your message is simple and clear – it’s not always about being cool or trying to say too much (or visually show too much). Make sure your users get it.
• Optimize – whatever you do, test it. And then test it again and see what promotions work best. And then test it over time. Optimization is the key for better conversions over time.

As always, no one knows your site and audience better than you so the key is to choose the right promotion tools. With the new set of banners we hope to help you get a better selection so you can improve your promotions and optimize them over time. We look forward to getting your thoughts, feedback and suggestions for new banners and promotions tools!