Online? Offline? Integrate!

A couple of interesting articles came to my attention this morning courtesy of Internet Retailer.

Offline Marketing Drives Online Results

Do you integrate your online and your offline marketing campaigns? If not, you might want to take a look at this report describing the results of a JupiterResearch survey of 2,300 web users. (The survey was commissioned by search marketing firm iProspect.)

In the survey, 67% of the respondents said they had searched for the company name, product or service names, or advertising slogan that they saw in offline marketing or ads. And of those online searchers who started with an offline marketing message, 39% eventually made a purchase.

Now, I know site optimization experts have been saying for years that it's a good thing to prominently mention on your website a physical address and contact information — in other words, make it easy for people who first find you online to also find you offline. This has been shown to help your site in local search, boost your overall business credibility and improve conversion rates.

But are you also making it easy for people who first find you offline to also find you online? A few suggestions:

• Include your site's URL on all your company literature: letterhead, brochures, business cards, flyers, etc.
• Display your site's URL in your print ads (newspaper, magazine, billboard, etc.).
• Mention your website address in all your TV and radio spots.
• Optimize the appropriate pages on your site for search on your company name, your product or service names, and any marketing slogans or “catch phrases” you use in your offline campaigns.

Seems to me, sometimes when we think about search we get too hung up on the online side of things, and forget the effect messages in the offline world can have on search and buying behavior online. Don't forget the influence offline marketing can have on your web sales!

Online Searchers Extraordinaire

On a related note, if your business targets women shoppers (particularly moms), you might be interested in this report on the results of a survey conducted by DoubleClick in association with Microsoft and ROI Research, Inc. Of the nearly 1,000 moms who responded:

• 89% use the Internet at least twice a day.
• 86% identified search engines as the best way to find information online.
• 72% use search engines to compare prices.
• 71% use search engines to find retail locations and to gather product information.
• 70% use search engines to gather information before making any online purchase.
• 64% use a search engine to gather more information after seeing an advertisement.
• 57% use search engines to gather information before making an offline purchase.

The Password is: Integration

The conclusion I draw from both these reports is we can no longer think of online search optimization and offline marketing / advertising as two separate things that have no relationship to each other. Our customers are already trying to integrate what they hear online and offline. They already expect to find us in both places. Why not make it easier on them? Usability experts tell us the easier we make it for our customers, the better.

So, is your business visible, with a consistent message, both online and offline?