Talk about taking the Internet to a higher plane!
Grizzard Communications Group, an Atlanta-based direct marketing agency, is putting together an Internet advertising network for those who want to reach the "evangelical market."
A group of Christian and church-related "Web publishers and e-mail newsletters has hired Grizzard to be its full-service sales agent. The company will offer advertisers both placement and technical support, including serving the ads to sites.
Most of the sites are run by Jesus Fellowship Inc., a large nonprofit ministry in Miami. But since starting the network this year, other sites have contacted Grizzard about becoming part of it, according to William Greene, Grizzard's director of Internet marketing.
By late February, the Grizzard Internet Ad Network was already serving 20,000 banner ads per day. It is selling the ads on a cost-per-thousand or an impressions-served basis.
Most of the publishers issue online newsletters that accept text advertisements of up to five lines, plus a return e-mail address or a hyperlink to the marketer's Web site. There are about 30,000 recipients of these publications. (Right now Grizzard does not rent out the e-mail lists.)
"It's a niche market that's a good target for a number of different products that sell well over the Internet - music, videos, T-shirts, jewelry," Greene says.
This is Grizzard's first big plunge into Internet marketing. About 60% of the company's clients are in the nonprofit sector, including the Salvation Army, the Red Cross, Bowery Missions and the Humane Society.
Greene says that the commercial business is growing and he expects at some point to expand the Internet service to include some commercial World Wide Web sites.
Jesus Fellowship's sites include Churches dot Net (www.churches.net); CIRnet, the Christian Internet Radio Network (www.cir net.com); CITV, the Christian Internet Television Network (www.citv.com); and the Miami Christian University Virtual Library (www.mcu.edu/library).
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