>> THE ORIGINAL AND BEST INTERNET MARKETING MAGAZINE DESIGNED SPECIFICALLY FOR THE IPAD, KINDLE FIRE, ANDROID AND THE WEB

PHIL LEAHY SECRETS OF A #1 EBAY SELLER

june 2013

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WITH OFFLINE MEDIAPAGE 13

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TRENDS 2013PAGE 17

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OPTIMIZATIONPAGE 21

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> TRAFFIC STRATEGIES WITH INCREDIBLE ROI

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HOW TO COMPLEMENT YOUR ONLINE STRATEGY WITH OFFLINE MEDIA

> USABILITY TESTING

By the end of 2015 it’s expected that there will be more than 3,400,000,000 global internet users (e-consultancy, 2013). In 2012 e-commerce sales grew to top $1 trillion for the first time and global mobile data traffic grew 70 percent. Over 144 billion emails are sent daily and users spend an average of 3.2 hours a day on social networking sites. (Cisco, 2013)

Clearly the future of marketing on all fronts is to ride the digital wave right?

Or is it that simple?

I see so many businesses and marketers today that seem to be solely focused on using digital for all their marketing. They have become so focused that they’ve cut themselves off from what’s actually go-ing on in the market and forget they are in reality marketing to only just one channel – online.

Think about it, whatever industry you’re in and whatever product or service you sell, it’s likely that despite the recent growth in online there’s still a similar or even bigger potential customer base con-suming media offline.

Potential customers who are looking for solutions to their problems that aren’t jumping onto Google or Facebook every day - BUT, still read posted mail, still watch TV four to five hours per day, still listen to the radio 1-2 hours a day and still read magazines and newspapers.

And, if you’re still not convinced here’s also another key point to mention.

What if not integrating offline media was costing you online traffic and conversions as well?

Even if people are consuming your online advertis-ing, there’s plenty of evidence that offline direct response marketing not only generates returns in its own right, but also boosts online traffic, revenue

per click, even social media & affiliate activity in-creases.

In a recent iprospect study about this ‘halo effect’, consumers were asked what prompted them to search online for a company, campaign, product, or service. The results were:

• Television advertisement: 44%• Word of Mouth: 41%• Magazine/Newspaper Advertisement: 35%• Radio: 23%• Billboard: 13%

Just looking at one path to market for most busi-nesses, without looking at offline options to en-hance your online strategy to me just doesn’t make business sense over the long term – and in my opinion is akin to playing a game of football and leaving half your team sitting on the bench!

So, whether or not you’ve considered moving for-ward with integrating your online strategy with your offline efforts like TV, print, radio, direct mail, etc, I believe going through the process of continually looking at and analysing what’s hap-pening in the wider market, what message your target market is exposed to and benchmarking the results you’re getting online versus what is likely offline is important.

By Andrew Benikos

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And the good news is, despite the seeming com-plexity of integrating offline and online media and changing consumer behaviour, if you’ve been suc-cessfully marketing online already (especially using paid campaigns) you’ll probably be able to imple-ment direct response offline campaigns using skills you already have.

Like anything, success starts with asking the right questions. Here are four key questions to ask be-fore you make the investment.

1. Do you know your definition for success?

Any offline direct response campaign starts and finishes with knowing your numbers. Data needs to be your best friend. Without understanding how much you can spend on customer acquisition, you’ll have a difficult time defining what success means for your particular campaign. When those first results come in, you’ll need to know immedi-ately whether or not it was a success. Fortunate-ly, the great thing about having a fully developed online strategy in place is you should know some of the key metrics which you can use as a starting point, such as:

- Average cost per lead- Average cost per acquisition - Average lifetime value- Average ROI of your campaigns

Not only will these numbers guide your decisions they will also let you know how much you can/should spend on direct response offline advertis-ing.

On a side note, in my experience lead quality for offline can be substantially higher than online leads. So, while the cost of advertising may seem higher, your conversion rates can often times

double or triple (especially using longer form print and TV). Testing your offline campaigns will tell you the full story of course, but it’s an over-looked point that you should look out for when starting out.

2. Are you ready to test?Many companies try offline advertising once, and if they don’t get the results their after straight away they often blame the medium itself rather than looking at all of the variables. It’s essential to test different methods (offers, executions, calls to action, etc) with several trials first in or-der to find out what works best. There can be many variables involved in direct response offline advertising, you have to approach it with a test-ing – rather than a one-time-mindset.

Two other key points to remember:I. Make sure you have a quantifiable test bud-get in place. Unlike online where campaigns can be switched off with a moment’s notice, most of-fline campaigns require a commitment for ad space over a period of spots or time as an example (even for a test) so have this budget in place before com-mencing.

II. Offline advertising can be very effective very quickly, but you have to be ready for the amount of leads and orders that could come your way. Proj-ect your cost per lead and cost per order and then work backwards. Can your business handle this much volume? Run the numbers first before you spend. It would be a shame to lose out on those leads due to a lack of planning.

3. Where can I get the best “message to mar-ket to media” match?Is your campaign fishing where the fish are? The great thing about mass offline advertising (i.e. TV, print, radio, etc) is that you have the poten-tial for massive reach. But, your customers often consume media in very specific channels and spe-cific places.

While testing will play a large role in ultimately determining the right media to advertise in, hav-ing a strong knowledge about your target custom-er and in particular which media they’ll likely be consuming is critical. Once again, analysing on-line metrics and surveying your database will give you a great guide to begin with.

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Test small in publications that offer low cost/high reach and are either very specific to your product (i.e. if you’re promoting a weight loss pill advertise in a ‘women’s fitness’ publication) or very specific to your demographic (i.e. using the weight loss pill example again, women’s ‘gossip’ magazines or en-tertainment channels could be good choices). Read-ing the media kits of each publication/channel/list or using direct response focused agencies can help further define your best target media for testing.

Once this is in place, enhance the integration of the campaign by:

1. Making sure you create a unique & compel-ling call to action that is backed by a sense of urgency will be one of the key reasons for suc-cess and help you cut through the mainly branded competitor advertising.2. Using multiple response mechanisms to en-hance the performance of the campaign (includ-ing phone numbers, URLs in TV and radio ads, or placing a QR code in your print ads or sales let-ters).

4. Is the online campaign funnel set up to op-timise your offline campaign results?This is where I often see offline campaigns fall down and one of the first things I look for when consulting with clients. I’ve seen it many times where a cam-paign is generating a positive response, but is let down by ‘gaps’ in the campaign funnel (ultimately leading to your advertising dollars sending custom-ers to your competitors); a lack of proper tracking put in place; and a clear definition on which cam-paign source you attribute the lead to. Here’s an overview on how to approach each of these issues:

I. You need to be able to track where the lead is coming from – Each potential customer calling you, filling out a form online, etc needs to be able to be tracked back to the advertising source.

The bare minimums to put in place are:a. unique phone numbers for each campaignb. a unique url (preferably to unique landing page also featuring the same offer advertised)c. if testing multiple campaigns in a particular medium use promo codes on your advertising which customers supply to you over the phone or lead capture form when making their inqui-ry. d. it is essential that Google analytics goals are

set up for all of your key campaigns sources. If you’re expecting large volumes, feeding all of this information into a central sales results dashboard is ideal and can be facilitated by several software options such as dynamic num-bering and the like.

II. Optimise your online funnel - If consumers don’t respond straight away to the call to action in your offline advertising, it is likely they’ll end up online to do further research. In fact, in a re-cent survey Nielsen reported that 40% of televi-sion viewers are now watching with a tablet or Smartphone and researching in real time. But, only 12% of marketers simultaneously integrate and optimize their search campaigns.

So, it makes sense then that two particular ar-eas be addressed when your media planning and buying: -1. Your advertising must follow your con-sumers journey to your website and 2. All of your advertising communication is kept consistent.

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It is essential to optimise both your SEO and PPC campaigns (and even your social platforms) to ensure that when customers are searching they’ll be able to effortlessly find their way to your website and that your don’t open yourself up to your competitor siphoning off your paid for traffic. Think of online as a ‘capture’ channel for your offline efforts. Matching the offer or style of offline advertising in your online executions will also further prompt potential customers to take the action you want them to.

III. Define where you will attribute the sale – A challenging area of online and offline integration is exactly which advertising source you’ll attribute the final acquisition of a customer to. There are many rationales for either the ‘first click/contact’ or ‘last click/contact’ attribution approaches and beyond the scope of this ar-ticle. My suggestion though is start small by choosing one or the other in your reporting and use the data you collect from your initial campaigns (like assisted conversion in Google Analytics) to guide your final decision. Over time, understanding the consumer journey will be an important distinction to make, especially if you’re doing serious volume.

Summary.Even though online lead generation offers affordable access to a near limitless number of prospects, traditional offline techniques deserve their place as part of your advertising profile as well. Not only can these strategies generate strong returns in their own right, they can dramatically boost traffic and conversion to your web and social me-dia sites. Taking a synergistic approach and finding the offline/online advertising sweet spot can create the pipeline of customers every business needs to sustain its growth.

Andrew Benikosis an online and offline consultant specialising in customer lead generation strategies, customer conversion strategies and strategic internet marketing. He is also the founder of web design and marketing firm The Conversion Company. You can contact him directly at andrew@theconversioncompany.com.au