The Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) reported that last year online advertising spending grew over 10%, outpacing other media and reaching $23.4 billion.

It is time for your brand to get on the Net. If it already is, then you might want to consider reviewing what you have and make the necessary changes to keep up with this medium’s pace. Ask yourself if you have a strategy or if you merely have a website.

Having a website just sitting there is not the same as planning and executing a detailed plan to achieve goals. This isn’t the 90s. Websites must be proactive in every way possible to attract new visitors. The website must also be carefully planned to be able to actually make money with that traffic. Neither of these things are easy to achieve, especially if you don’t have a lot of knowledge on how traffic actually works.

The noticeable increase in advertising is a clear indicator that the Internet is an important medium for sales and the accelerated growth raises questions as to the effectiveness of the traditional, poorly-targeted, mass media advertising efforts.  John Wanamaker said once: “I know that half of my advertising dollars are wasted… I just don’t know which half.” Spending on the Internet is a whole different story as you can usually track your ROI much more effectively and know which half is being wasted.

Given these key advantages, can you bring your offline store online and add another distribution channel to your sales plan? We can definitely help you assess the possibility and build it!

During a meeting on Sunday (yeah, our passion lets us work on Sundays), a rumor was thrown out on the table that really impressed me. A supermarket chain built an online version of their store a couple of years ago. At the time, several questions were raised since the local market didn’t seem ready for virtual supermarkets. Today, that store’s revenue compares to the income generated by any of their other physical branches.

Leap into creating or optimizing your online presence. Give us a call!

Oh, and read the 2008 IAB report. You may also opt to read Tech Crunch’s summary on the matter and, while you’re at it, check out the decline in newspaper advertising revenue.