My wife and I fancied a week's break in the sun [lecturers? ... always on holiday], so I tried a couple of 'comparison' sites, including this one. Sadly - and it is a brand leader here in the UK - the site wouldn't let me choose a destination. Message for Teletext's marketers and techies : there are plenty of other sites out there on which punters can book a holiday.
One of the key issues in online advertising is making sure that when the customer clicks on the ad they are taken to a landing page that plays its part in the sales funnel that will - eventually - lead to a sale. Remember that any click on the ad will cost the advertiser money - so take a look at this ad from GQ magazine that appeared on one of my web pages:
Now take a look at the web page that anyone clicking on that ad was taken to. You will notice that there is nothing about a restaurant guide for anywhere in the world, never mind in Athens.OK, so there was a link the size of the 'taste news' below the fold of the web page that appeared - but it was a restaurant review, not restaurant guide.
All in all, a perfect example of poor Internet marketing.
This email landed in my in-box the other day. Good idea, green and all that stuff - indeed, I've signed up for similar schemes with other services. But here's the problem:
Just the day before I received a letter [yes, paper] saying that MBNA were closing my account. A distinct lack of joined-up thinking.
And if you are thinking I'm a bad credit risk - they closed it because I haven't used the card for over two years. As I recall I left it 81p in credit to annoy them after an incident where they added on a load of interest because one [yes, one] payment got caught up in the Christmas 'Bank Holiday' season and was a day late.
