Learn how to get the best results out of a local online advertising campaign.

Each local market in the country has a number of trusted media companies with loyal, devoted consumers. While these media companies built their loyal following as traditional media entities, they are now developing online versions and taking their following with them.

Local newspapers, both big and small, and local television and radio stations all have developed their own websites. As consumers move online they gravitate to companies they already know and love. Older consumers are still using the traditional version of the newspaper (print), but younger consumers are only using the online product. (Ask a teenager when he last picked up and read an actual newspaper.) 

As local businesses begin to explore online marketing they will begin to use more and more local media websites. To have a successful, local online campaign, these local businesses will need to understand how to use the local media sites and how to plan their online marketing.

Here are the top nine tips for successful local online marketing:

1. Know your target customer.
Like all other forms of marketing, success with local advertising requires that you understand everything you can about your target customers. It is particularly important to understand how they use the internet. Research how your target customers use local websites. Which do they frequent more? Which sections of the sites do they tend to spend time on? At what time of day are they on these sites? 

2. Plan your campaign from start to finish.
What will potential customers' experiences be like through the campaign? How will they become aware of the campaign? How will they react? What will compel them to go where you want them to go and do what you want them to do? What are the call-to-action triggers that will get them moving toward your goal?

3. Focus on increased sales.
While everyone wants more web traffic, sales are the key to success. When you plan the consumer's experience, also plan the person's movement toward a sale. What is the most direct path to customers making a purchase? Is it easy for them to make a purchase or is it hidden and hard to find?

4. Buy banners based on cost-per-thousand (CPM) rather than sponsorship (unless the publisher is very small).
In the early days of the web, you purchased a banner position and owned it for the month (sponsorship). The price was loosely based on website traffic, but just barely. As sites grow, and demand grows, most larger publishers have moved to a cost-per-thousand basis for their rates. This means you purchase a number of impressions in advance, and then the site shows your ad periodically to deliver the total impressions you purchased by the end of the schedule. Buying on a CPM basis makes the publisher accountable for delivery of a certain number of impressions. 

5. Analyze the publishers in the market (newspaper sites, TV station sites, radio station sites)
Bigger is not always better when it comes to sites. Sometimes you can get a much lower cost per thousand at a smaller site and still deliver the 10,000 impressions you are seeking. A thousand impressions in your target demo is a thousand impressions regardless of where you get them in your local market.

6. Buy lots of banners on lots of sites using a variety of ad sizes.
Frequency is the king of call-to-action. When you buy banner advertising, don't buy one banner on the site like you would buy one ad in the newspaper. Instead, buy it like you would buy television or radio commercials -- lots of commercials in lots of positions. Studies have shown that local media websites do NOT share audiences. In short, if someone gets her online news from the local newspaper site, that person does NOT typically visit another media site for online news. This means if you want to reach the market, you have to use lots of sites.

7. Use third party ad serving to optimize the media plan and creative.
One of the great things about online advertising through a third party ad serving company (like Mediaplex or Doubleclick) is the ability to fix things as you go. With third party ad serving you will have a third party providing stats on the campaign. If one of your banners is not producing clickthroughs, you can change that banner right now. If one of the publishers is under-delivering halfway through the campaign, call the publisher and tell it to increase the number of banners right now. Try that on TV! If one banner's creative is not working, or one ad size is not working, switch it out right now!

8. Use landing pages.
As consumers see your banners, make sure if they click on them, they end up on a separate landing page that mirrors the subject matter of the banner they clicked on. Dumping them on a home page means they have to go searching for what attracted them on the banner.

9. Use rich media like flash and video.
Movers and shakers are the most interesting to consumers. Grabbing their attention with a video clip or a moving rich media banner will result in clickthrough rates that far exceed those of a static banner.

Brett Stevenson is CEO of LION New Media, an online advertising service provider. Read full bio.