BUSINESS TODAY
How to drive on-line sales with off-line marketing
If you believe many of the current crop of marketing
commentators it would be easy to become convinced that
on-line marketing rules and that off-line marketing is dead.
I don’t believe this – and neither should you. Especially if you
want a business that continues to grow and prosper.
Marketers talk about on-line and off-line media with incredible
frequency, and this industry chatter has led to a kind of “either/
or” situation, in which on-line and off-line marketing is spoken of
as two entirely separate things.
•
Newspaper ads and inserts guide Gen Y prior to
shopping in several ways:
•
By alerting them to sales (68%);
•
Driving them to purchase (51%);
•
Reminding them of a need (46%);
•
Helping them decide where to buy (35%);
•
Alerting them of a product or service (26%).
So print may be old but it still appeals to the young…
And it’s just not that simple - a strategy that only focuses on one
This means that off-line marketing and use actually drives on-line
form of marketing or media simply doesn’t work…
purchasing behaviour.
In what is now a million channel world, it is those businesses
Online/Offline doesn’t exist
whose marketing encompasses both on, and off - line strategies,
who win.
We are constantly surrounded by both technology and print
We all know that the print edition of newspapers is media, other people, and physical advertising strategies like
losing readership; that TV – both free to air and Foxtel / Austar billboards all the time.
are suffering declining audiences and revenue as clients choose
Maybe you see a house for sale and you use the web address to
to read / watch on-line. Likewise radio and cinemas are suffering
view a 3-D walk through of the property before you call the Agent
audience drops…it all seems a bit grim. But…
to arrange a viewing…
Off-line is NOT dead!
Maybe you see an ad at the train station for a take-away place, and
Recent research tells us that In the six months to June 2013 the use your tablet to place an order to pick up on your way home.
Commercial Economic Advisory Service Australia (CEASA) showed
There’s a constant interplay between the “off-line” and “on-line”
online ad spend amounted to $1.63 billion - about 24.2% share
worlds in our lives – in fact research shows that two-thirds of onof the market. In comparison, newspaper advertising reported
line search queries are driven by off-line advertising. Two thirds.
spend of $1.5 billion or 21.6% market share.
That is over 60%.
That is still $1.5 billion and a 21.6% market share…
Businesses can’t live in one ‘world’ of marketing because their
customers certainly don’t. Consumers are immersed in a digital
However this does point to the fact that traditional
world but still live in the physical one.
advertising is now becoming diluted.
Television is no longer a single experience as ‘multi-taskers’ Simply – you must market your business to your target customers
make it a multiple experience by interacting with tablets and by a combination of off-line and on-line marketing techniques that
support the sales of each other.
smartphones while simultaneously watching TV.
28% of Australians STILL watch TV and read newspapers. This A word of warning though – not all offline advertising still works.
is 2% higher than those who watch TV and access a Social But there are a number of unique and effective off-line methods
media site; and 6% more than those who watch TV and access the of advertising that do work, like:
internet via Smartphone.
• Coupons / Vouchers
• Catalogues
In other words, there is still a significant part of the
• Direct mail
population that can be reached through off-line marketing – and
• Loyalty cards
this prompts on-line activity in a number of ways.
• QR codes (go to https://www.the-qrcode-gen• It is common to use tablets and smart phones whilst
erator.com to get yours for free)
watching TV, listening to radio or reading magazines or
NB QR Codes – These are 2 dimensional barcodes that when
newspapers to look up information on:
‘scanned’ via mobile device automatically perform a specific
• the programs watched (especially if binge
action such as opening a website, showing a video, sending a text
watching dvds)
message to the device, etc. QR codes can be a powerful tool to link
• Products advertised during commercial breaks offline and online efforts.
(how good is that Jeep?)
So how do I do this?
•
Products advertised in general
•
On actors, artists, bands, other series, books or
clothes or…
•
•
22% of them clock up 3+ hours of TV viewing per day.
•
Older internet users (aged 50-64) are most likely to
watch a lot of commercial TV.
•
10
90% of Australians who spend 15 or more hours online
watch weekday free to air commercial TV as well.
70% of heavy internet users also read magazines.
TV, Radio, National Press and magazines can be expensive. But
you can still use off-line techniques to get results.
Creating an effective online presence is not difficult. At the very
least it should include a website, email list and some search
engine optimization.
So first up you need a combined on- and off-line marketing sales
plan. When you advertise off-line, you have to give customers
a reason to go on-line. If you are advertising on-line, then give
them a reason to visit with you in the real world. You need to use
tools and tactics that use both ‘worlds’ to drive customers to each
other.