As consumers get more and more savvy and connected, it is critical for small business owners to effectively market to them no matter where they might receive their message. I want to discuss a couple of ways in which the small business owner can reach offline customer with online effectiveness.
Offline Efforts
Regardless of whether you are using business signage, yard signs, billboards, direct mailers or other forms of offline marketing, it is critical that you make these mediums “trackable” and not continue to market blindly. For the sake of this example let’s use temporary yard signs and direct mailers to improve offline marketing efforts. Let’s assume that a small bricks and mortar location in the city core is trying to gain traction with customers spread throughout the suburban areas in order to drive more foot traffic to the store. On a limited budget the store owner has decided to use temporary signage such as yard signs and direct mailers. For simplicity sake, we’ll assume his customer base congregates in areas that are open to to yard signs such as parks and that he can have his children deliver direct mailers door to door at minimal cost. Notwithstanding the low cost of advertising the owner is concerned about how effective these strategies are. Let’s look at some ways to measure the success.
Geographic Specific Landing Pages
One of the easiest ways to track return is to build out specific landing pages for different areas where you are advertising. These pages would need to be “hidden” on your website in the sense that you don’t want online traffic navigating to them if the sole purpose is to track offline effectiveness. Such traffic could skew the data and lead to even more ineffective marketing decisions. Thus, don’t include them in the main navigation or other easy to find places on the website. Rather, by putting calls to action on offline signage or direct mailers, as in our example, the business owner could direct customers directly to their specific geographically targeted landing page.
As a business owner you can then use Analytics to evaluate the effectiveness of these signs. This could be accomplished by looking at the Landing Pages report within Google Analytics. This will tell you both the user engagement metrics as well as the goal conversion data assuming you have goals set up on the website. For even more in-depth analysis a small business owner could use the “secondary dimension” to see what city is sending traffic to the page. This will ensure that in fact the majority of traffic landing on your geo-targeted landing page is in fact from the area your signage is placed or direct mail ad is distributed.
While the above analysis is a good first step there is an even more effective way to track such advertising. In order to gauge how many people end up visiting the store location after seeing the signage, or reading the direct mail, a store owner could use unique promotional codes only redeemable in the store. These promotional codes would differ based on the medium where they were seen. For example, the offline signage, direct mailer and landing pages could each have different promotional codes based off location. In essence, the business owner would be setting up the equivalent of online tracking parameters by attempting to tie in store visits to a certain location or medium. While it may sound like too much work and overly complicated, with a little bit of forethought a business owner could invest in offline spend with a much greater confidence that their money is well spent.
SEO Note: In light of the Panda update in February of 2011 the geo-targeted landing pages would need to be properly handled. These pages should either be no-indexed or built in a way that each page offered unique and valuable content to the end user. Due to Panda’s effect on thin or duplicate content, creating many pages that are carbon copy in verbiage may be more detrimental to a website’s online visibility than the ability to effectively measure the marketing effectiveness.
Social Media Integration
Another way to improve offline marketing is to leverage social media to drive desired actions – which not just small businesses are testing out. In our example, the business owner could use some kind of social media action instead of a promotional code or website call to action. Whether it be a Tweet, Facebook comment or a Foursquare check-in, the offline materials could lead to an online engagement that hopefully entices or motivates the customer to visit the store itself. Perhaps, a Facebook comment on a certain thread would enable an in store discount only valid during slower periods. The business owner would benefit in multiple ways. First, in the ability to more effectively allocate marketing dollars through better offline measurement. Second, the business would see more social media engagement by participating customers and hopefully by extension brand visibility through social shares. Lastly, the owner could potentially offset slower days or times by using promotional codes or discounts to drive traffic during those periods.
Undoubtedly using offline marketing with an online mindset will never be as easy as it sounds. Nor will it be a perfect measurement tool. Notwithstanding, with some careful planning implementing some of the tactics used in the above example can have a quantifiable and long lasting impact on a small business’ financial success.
Dustin Heap is a digital marketer at Signs.com. Signs.com is a leading online sign company that serves both businesses and individuals with custom banners, yard signs, decals and more. Before starting at Signs.com, Dustin worked on both the organic and paid side of search marketing in New York City, Toronto and Salt Lake City.
Related posts:
Contributor
Latest posts by Contributor (see all)
- Climbing Out of the Pressure Cooker: Dealing With Anxiety Without Stressing Yourself Out - August 18, 2024
- 7 Things That Matter Most in a Website: The SEO Perspective - August 8, 2024
- How to Avoid Common Problems When Filing a Business Insurance Claim - August 3, 2024
