Tuesday
Don't Sell Yourself Short!
By judging campaigns by only one channel, multi-channel marketers may be short selling their efforts.
Direct response and branding budgets will both continue to grow online – it’s crystal clear. Noting the rise of broadband usage, media consumption patterns online, TV fragmentation, and better ad packages, it all leads to the same conclusion.
Online advertising is working brilliantly, pushing marketers to a critical tipping point for media mix allocations.
Currently, most direct marketers view the success of an online campaign by comparing how many dollars flow into their online store versus how many dollars go out into their online advertising campaign. Historical click-through rates, conversion rates, and view-through metrics are all used when deciding where to place the media budget.
However, if the marketer also has brick-and-mortar stores, catalogs, or call centers, it becomes much more difficult to understand the true impact of its online advertising across all sales channels.
If a marketer does have multiple channels and bases its success only by online sales, it is selling its campaign short against its true impact on the total business.
Some refer to traffic to a Website that is not attributable to any online media efforts as “organic” traffic. When online sales come from organic traffic, most marketers are quick to credit their offline promotions or word-of-mouth for creating that customer.
However, any and all sales that take place offline are automatically attributed to offline promotions, period.
Growth in online direct marketing budgets will occur as a result of two things:
1. An increase in consumer confidence and spending online. Looking at many of the research studies that continue to surface and trends with clients, this is already happening.
2. Smart marketers with multiple sales channels will begin to track offline sales behavior to online advertising and Website behavior.
Most studies indicate that between 70% and 90% of all customers for “high consideration” products begin their research online. They may use search engines, the marketer’s Website, or comparison shopping engines to help with their decision.
Ultimately, a consumer may continue that research process into the retailer’s store to see, touch, feel, or try on the merchandise. If that behavior is not tracked, all the clicks and site traffic leading to that purchase is dismissed and considered wasted.
The concept for making this happen is not complicated. Packaged goods and pharmaceutical companies use coupons to track offline sales and prescription patterns to online efforts. Auto manufacturers are using geographical and registration information to link dealer sales back to online advertising efforts. Travel advertisers use special call-in numbers and rewards programs for their online media and Website to track that activity offline.
Notice that these sectors are among the hottest in the industry, and include some of the Internet’s most sophisticated marketers?
Regarding online retailers of clothing, technology and financial services, the correlation between online efforts and offline sales becomes more difficult, but is not impossible. The impact of offline sales by online advertising has been as high as 20% for Avenue A clients in these verticals.
Customer data is the glue that holds the media mix together. To identify customers online, marketers must first serve and track on a cookie level and gather anonymous information about those customers. Offline, marketers can collect data at the point of purchase. Rewards programs and charge cards help to identify customers. At this point, it is a matter of matching the data while maintaining the cookie’s privacy.
This approach requires more analytical sophistication and clear communication across all sales channels. But when that correlation is made, the picture of online advertising becomes more complete. It is a medium that not only drives online sales, but it drives offline sales as well.
There’s no reason to sell short, both from a branding and a direct response standpoint. The online medium enjoys the luxury of being accountable, even in the offline world.
Direct response and branding budgets will both continue to grow online – it’s crystal clear. Noting the rise of broadband usage, media consumption patterns online, TV fragmentation, and better ad packages, it all leads to the same conclusion.
Online advertising is working brilliantly, pushing marketers to a critical tipping point for media mix allocations.
Currently, most direct marketers view the success of an online campaign by comparing how many dollars flow into their online store versus how many dollars go out into their online advertising campaign. Historical click-through rates, conversion rates, and view-through metrics are all used when deciding where to place the media budget.
However, if the marketer also has brick-and-mortar stores, catalogs, or call centers, it becomes much more difficult to understand the true impact of its online advertising across all sales channels.
If a marketer does have multiple channels and bases its success only by online sales, it is selling its campaign short against its true impact on the total business.
Some refer to traffic to a Website that is not attributable to any online media efforts as “organic” traffic. When online sales come from organic traffic, most marketers are quick to credit their offline promotions or word-of-mouth for creating that customer.
However, any and all sales that take place offline are automatically attributed to offline promotions, period.
Growth in online direct marketing budgets will occur as a result of two things:
1. An increase in consumer confidence and spending online. Looking at many of the research studies that continue to surface and trends with clients, this is already happening.
2. Smart marketers with multiple sales channels will begin to track offline sales behavior to online advertising and Website behavior.
Most studies indicate that between 70% and 90% of all customers for “high consideration” products begin their research online. They may use search engines, the marketer’s Website, or comparison shopping engines to help with their decision.
Ultimately, a consumer may continue that research process into the retailer’s store to see, touch, feel, or try on the merchandise. If that behavior is not tracked, all the clicks and site traffic leading to that purchase is dismissed and considered wasted.
The concept for making this happen is not complicated. Packaged goods and pharmaceutical companies use coupons to track offline sales and prescription patterns to online efforts. Auto manufacturers are using geographical and registration information to link dealer sales back to online advertising efforts. Travel advertisers use special call-in numbers and rewards programs for their online media and Website to track that activity offline.
Notice that these sectors are among the hottest in the industry, and include some of the Internet’s most sophisticated marketers?
Regarding online retailers of clothing, technology and financial services, the correlation between online efforts and offline sales becomes more difficult, but is not impossible. The impact of offline sales by online advertising has been as high as 20% for Avenue A clients in these verticals.
Customer data is the glue that holds the media mix together. To identify customers online, marketers must first serve and track on a cookie level and gather anonymous information about those customers. Offline, marketers can collect data at the point of purchase. Rewards programs and charge cards help to identify customers. At this point, it is a matter of matching the data while maintaining the cookie’s privacy.
This approach requires more analytical sophistication and clear communication across all sales channels. But when that correlation is made, the picture of online advertising becomes more complete. It is a medium that not only drives online sales, but it drives offline sales as well.
There’s no reason to sell short, both from a branding and a direct response standpoint. The online medium enjoys the luxury of being accountable, even in the offline world.
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