Gain Buy-In for Integrating Online & Offline Campaigns

A recent study conducted by JupiterResearch shows that only 55% of search engine marketers are integrating their search marketing efforts with offline channels.

So why aren’t more marketers integrating their offline and online initiatives? The fact that separate departments manage these marketing initiatives independent of one another is one of the most common factors.

It’s clear that a large percentage of marketers are not coordinating search and offline, but why should they? Yes, we understand that search captures demand generated by other offline channels. Surveys, studies, and figures aside, coordinating these two channels can improve bottom-line. It costs less to process a transaction online than it does in-store, by phone or by mail. Therefore, the more your offline efforts drive consumers to search and convert online, the better your company’s bottom-line.

Now, you’re ready to prove the benefits of integrating your online and offline marketing efforts. But where do you begin?

First of all, keywords, key messages and calls-to-action that have been identified as most profitable within your search marketing campaign(s) need to be leveraged in your offline mediums. The online team, whether done in-house or by an outside agency has the availability of data to show the offline team how they’ve optimized to maximize ROI, CPA, or any other key metric.

These concrete numbers can help gain buy-in for integrating the two departments.

Furthermore, there are ways to track the ROI for your offline channels. The key to tracking offline media performance lies within the URL.

For radio, it’s a little more of a challenge as users typically will not be able to directly access the internet following a 30 second spot, yet alone remember the URL, verbatim. As a result, working basic keywords related to your campaign along with branded keywords is the best route to take. You’ll be able to bid on these keywords within your paid search campaigns and direct traffic to your custom landing page for offline media.

The same principle can apply to television. With print and direct mail, you can purchase additional domains, define a rule set to redirect users to a custom landing page, and append a tracking parameter to identify the original source: print ad, direct mail piece, or any other offline channel.

By integrating your online marketing campaigns with your offline campaigns and leveraging the above tactics, you’ll be in a better position to understand the effectiveness and profitability of your offline media spend.