Online links generate huge numbers of new customers
Note: the examples in this story are drawn from the education market, but as the references later on show, this approach can be used with all markets.
In September 2009 I started posting advertisements from Hamilton House customers on www.blog.schools.co.uk I did this for free, as part of our preparation for setting up www.ukeducationnews.co.uk – which picked up these items.
To my surprise the readership of www.blog.schools.co.uk went up and up, despite the fact that we were not advertising the site, linking to the site or anything. All we had was content. Here are the monthly individual readership figures – each person counted read at least two articles – but each individual is only counted once, irrespective of the number of times they came back to the site.
September 8,172
October 12,988
November 19,111
December 24,149
So where did these people come from? My guess was they found the site through searches using Google etc, and because they were using Google Alerts.
But I had no way to prove it. Until now.
Here is a note from Marketing Vox (link at the end). It refers to a study by Post Release. They refer to a “sponsored forum” which is their name for a site like www.blog.schools.co.uk
If you want to get your post onto www.blog.schools.co.uk or one of our similar sites, it is free – just book a listing on www.ukeducationnews.co.uk or use one of our email lists or shared or solo mailing lists. Call me on 01536 399 013.
Here’s the Marketing Vox article
The study also showed that 60 days after a typical sponsored forum post’s appearance, the total number of click-throughs increase by an average of 40%. After 180 days they increase by an average of 77%.
The reason for this effectiveness, according to PostRelease president Justin Choi, is that the posts remain in place for the life of the forum and contain content that can be discovered in search engine results long after the campaign is over. This enables the post to continue driving traffic to the ad not only from the audience of the forum in which it appears, but also directly from organic search listings.
“Consumers don’t have to be browsing a particular forum to discover an advertiser’s message there,” said Choi. “If a post offers useful content, it’s likely to show up when it is relevant to a consumer’s search for information – boosting traffic to the ad and to the forum. The click-through rates increase over time because posts are discovered by people who are actively searching for that content, and therefore are highly motivated to click through.”
Specific findings about reads and click-throughs of sponsored forum posts:
After 60 days the reads increased 28.8%
After 60 days the click-throughs increased 40.7%
After 180 days the reads increased 49.2%
After 180 days the click-throughs increased 77.1%
After 360 days the reads increased 60.6%
After 360 days the click-throughs increased 103.6%
In commenting on the increased effectiveness of sponsored posts, Choi also noted their durability vis a vis traditional display and search ads. “This is traffic they receive after the campaign has ended – for free. Whereas display and search ads turn ‘off’ as soon as the media buy ends, sponsored posts can play a powerful role in helping companies build a repository of online content that is available to be found by consumers searching relevant topics for weeks, months, even years to come.”
About the analysis: The company analyzed all PostRelease campaigns – which enable companies to insert clearly labeled, sponsored posts into targeted online forum discussions – that have at least six months of historical data, to see what residual traffic they were receiving after the campaigns had officially ended. Posts can include text, pictures, hyperlinks and links to video. A “click-through” is defined as when someone clicks one of the advertiser links that is embedded within the post. A “read” is when someone goes into the post – either from the forum discussion page or from a search engine. Overall, PostRelease click-through rates average 33%, with highs reaching nearly 90%.