ROI for Advertisers to be increased exponentially through "referral marketing."
San Francisco, CA (PRWEB)
January 31, 2008 -- Bay Area online marketing company TellAPal is
launching a revolutionary system of advertising to enable advertisers
to reach the hundreds of millions of users of social networks. Based on
"referral marketing," TellAPal is the first recommendation based ad
network optimized for social media and advertiser ROI.
Today, over 230 million people globally use social networks. In
2008, US advertisers will spend over $1.6 billion trying to reach these
users. Most of these ads are standard banner and display formats which
don't provide the engagement and ROI advertisers are seeking. Users are
simply too engaged in their social interactions to pay attention to
traditional banner ads.
Advertisers clearly need a new platform to capitalize on the social media opportunity.
According to TellAPal founder Faisal Qureshi, "Until now, referral
marketing never had the social media ecosystem it needed to become a
major online marketing channel." Qureshi adds, "Now that the ecosystem
is here, advertisers need an efficient way to be able to launch
referral campaigns that drive word of mouth across social media."
As opposed to the much-maligned social advertising models that were not
explicitly endorsed and initiated by the users, TellAPal's new system
is completely user driven. It enables advertisers to empower their
existing customers to recommend their product or service to their
friends. Recommendations are made through personalized emails or
widgets and are combined with exclusive "friends only" offers. For
successful referrals, the referring customer chooses from a variety of
rewards that they can keep, donate, or give to a friend.
Using this new platform, advertisers can reach potential customers
more effectively, as well as launch entire campaigns with minimal work
and pay only for performance.
Sam Bloom, VP of Dallas, TX ad agency Camelot Communications sees
clear value for his clients in this model. "Social media requires an
advertising model that balances the ROI needs of advertisers with
enough social currency and relevance to consumers," Bloom says. "Social
media's growth and peer-to-peer nature has all the ingredients for
'referral marketing' to take its place in the online marketing arsenal
and become a key online advertising and distribution channel."
###