Analytics and Measuring Your Offline Marketing Efforts
Digital marketing has become a must for many companies, especially the ones that have built a presence solely online without any sort of physical store at all. With this development has come some fantastic ways to measure marketing success vs dollars spent – marketing ROI – without the need to question which half of the budget is working and which isn’t! Of course while all of these measuring techniques are great, it’s not to say we can or want to completely abandon traditional marketing, as it can be hugely effective based on your industry and target audience.
In fact, as far as you’re aware, all that money spent offline can be having a direct influence on your online success. With an average 1.7% conversion rate online, producing your comfortable $1 million profit, wouldn’t you like to know what’s happening with the other 98.3%? Yes, a few of these visitors inevitably ran away after seeing your site, but certainly (or hopefully) not the majority. What if these “multi-channel interactions” add up to $3 or $4 million in value?
Unfortunately, there currently isn’t a key to link people to a personal ID when they buy something at a store and online, so instead we use some tricks here and there to measure…
Measuring Marketing Effectiveness
Digital Marketing Coupons and Promos
Create unique (single use) coupons, prices, and promotions within your digital marketing,
- Set-up redemption tracking in your offline channels, whether that’s a phone call or at your store(s).
- Targeting ideas for these offers include only sending them to repeat site visitors, people within a certain geographic area, offering them at certain hours or days of the week, and for certain products/services.
Rewards Card
A more simplistic way to track individuals’ activity online and offline would be to offer a rewards card that they would use in the store and online.
Email Marketing
Create an email campaign to customers in specific areas, drive them to your website to learn more, and see if that causes an increase in store visits. Or tailor a specific message in your PPC campaigns, and measure the impact on your site and in store or through phone calls.
Experiment
If you have newspaper inserts with ads or coupons, try stopping those for a week or two and replace them with online digital banner ads targeted to the geographic reach of the newspaper, and see what changes you detect in sales, if any.
On-Exit Survey
One last thing that is sometimes overlooked – just ask your customers what you want to know! Implement a survey that pops up as they go to exit the browser with simple questions asking their likelihood to buy offline or visit a store. They will tell you. Better yet, send an email blast twice a year with a survey asking more detailed questions so you can keep track of how your company is doing as a whole.
If you’re interested in learning more about measuring your marketing success and save yourself a pretty penny, or would like to partner with an experienced digital marketing agency with real world capabilities as well, please contact us and we will be happy to have a conversation with you! We specialize in B2B marketing but have experience in B2C marketing as well!
