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Top Retailers Using a Rotating Billboard Banner

Posted by jonpape | Filed under Internet Marketing

: Image by Getty Images via Daylife

Rotating banners on the homepage of top retailer websites is becoming more and more common. Out of the top 15 websites survayed, 7 had rotating billboard banners, approximately 47%. Most of the retailers who used rotating banners used Flash to display them. Sears used a JavaScript method probably jQuery.

Retailer	Status (1-26-2009)	Method
Amazon	No Rotating Billboard
Bestbuy	4 Button Rotating Billboard with Pause	Flash
Costco	No Rotating Billboard
Ebay	No Rotating Billboard
Home Depot	4 Button Rotating Billboard with Pause	Flash
JCPenneys	No Rotating Billboard
Kmart	No Rotating Billboard
Kohls	No Rotating Billboard
Macys	Rotating Billboard	Flash
Meijer	3 Button Rotating Billboard with Pause	Flash
Overstock	No Rotating Billboard
QVC	No Rotating Billboard
Sears	3 Button Rotating Billboard with No Pause	JavaScript
Target	3 Button Rotating Billboard with Pause	Flash
Walmart	3 Button Rotating Billboard with Pause	Flash

4 Button Rotating Billboard with Pause

Rotating Billboard

3 Button Rotating Billboard with Pause

3 Button Rotating Billboard with No Pause

3 Button Rotating Billboard with Pause

Tags: Business

Read more | Comments (1) | January 26th, 2009

USPS Smartbusiness, What to Do After Your Marketing Campaign has Ended.

Posted by jonpape | Filed under Internet Marketing

: Image via Wikipedia

What should your company do with landing pages created for a campaign after the campaign has ended? Most internet experts will agree that a great landing page is an essential part of any internet campaign. It is arguably, the most important element of a campaign, because from this page, the consumer decides if they are going to continue the relationship, make a purchase, sign up for additional emails, or “bounce-back” to the referring domain and look for additional information.

USPS Smart Business Magazine Ad

I collect magazine and newspaper clipping. I store these clippings in a file cabinet and refer back to them. I keep clippings because at one time, I thought the idea, product, or company was interesting enough to hold on to. Recently, I have begun to digitize these newspaper clippings and articles and that is how I stumbled on to this USPS ad.

USPS created a magazine campaign that referred consumers back to a specific landing page on their website. I’m not sure what was on the web page because when I finally decided to check the page out the USPS website returned a 404 error message (file not found).

I probably should have expected this. The ad was printed in 2006 and I finally decided to check out the web page in 2009, but I couldn’t help thinking there must have been a better alternative for USPS. Literally, the cost to host a web page is hundredths of a penny.

Alternatives:

404 page – the campaign is over and you no longer offer the service. What customers you had are long gone.
Leave the page up – random customers may find the page through outdated magazines or search engines.
Edit the page – if the service exists in some form or another (especially if you call it something as generic as “smart business”) editing the web page is the best idea.
Redirecting the web page -another really great idea if you are still in business. Direct consumers who were interested in an old service to a new service that they may find equally interesting.