Offline marketing is an investment, and, like most, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t, but how do you know? Businesses tend to focus on online strategies because they are easy to measure, but how do you go about determining the success of business cards and print assets such as brochures? The answer is to put many of the same online tools into play for those offline marketing tactics.
Make It Measurable Online
Take what’s offline and put online in a measurable way. For example, create one set of business cards for your next trade show and reference a custom URL on it. It should be a different URL than the one on the business cards you tend to drop at airports or pin on the grocery store service board.
With different URLs set up for different offline channels, you can quickly tell what pays off with and what is wasting your time and money with the help of Google Analytics. If you are not familiar with this metrics platform, it’s time. They offer an easy to follow tutorials that will help you set up your account to monitor the different URLs. Make sure to keep your URLs short and recognizable and use the brand name for added effect.
Give a Little Bit
Chances are you see this done a lot. The local grocery store sends a flyer with a discount, coupon or QR code. That’s their way of tracking the success of their offline marketing investment and it’s a brilliant one that can work for you, too. A simple code is all you need to know exactly where this buyer got the brand name.
- Use Discount code: TRADE for 5 dollars off your next purchase
- Use Discount code: FLYER to get a 10 percent discount on your first appointment with us
The small gift is a measurable hook that will pay off in the long run.
Pay Attention to What You Already Have in Place
Just looking at your online traffic before, during and after an event will tell you something. It’s not as sophisticated as the other methods but it’s enough to give you a basic idea of how a campaign is working. For example, if you run a television commercial, the online traffic for the ten minutes after it runs will be telling. People sit and watch TV while checking social media on their phones or playing games on their laptops, so that’s when you’ll see the most activity.
Offline isn’t really offline if you do it right. Use online tools to measure offline success and get the most from your marketing budget.
