actionable big data. maximum roi. HOW TO DRIVE OFFLINE RETAIL SALES USING ONLINE MARKETING Building a bridge to overcome the online to offline gap

Transcription

1 actionable big data. maximum roi. HOW TO DRIVE OFFLINE RETAIL SALES USING ONLINE MARKETING Building a bridge to overcome the online to offline gap

2 Why read this paper? We are inundated with online marketing messages from the moment you check your daily s from your smartphone, through checking stocks online on your desktop PC during to the day, to catching up on your favorite TV show marathon on one of the network websites on your tablet. While these messages obviously influence your online shopping behavior, do they impact offline retail shopping too? While online shopping adoption continues to explode with no sign of slowing down, many purchases are still made offline. How do you integrate your online marketing so you can motivate offline sales? Digital marketing obviously has a decided impact on offline purchasing behavior. A 2103 Mobile Path-to-Purchase study released by xad and Telemetrics found that 45% of consumers searching for local products and services tap their mobile devices first, while 49% use PC/online. The study also revealed that mobile users have very high purchase intent with 60% of smartphone and 53% of tablet users completing their purchases. 2

3 Forrester corroborates that there is a cause and effect linkage in online affecting offline sales. A Forrester cross-channel shopping survey estimated that 43% of all retail sales are influenced by the web. And a Screenwerk article last year extrapolated U.S. Commerce Department estimates to arrive at the conclusion that the Internet impacts roughly $1.83 trillion in offline buying. In fact, the trend of users to first research online before they purchase is so prevalent, an acronym has been coined to define the practice: ROPO (research online, purchase offline). Researcher, Experian, found in a 2013 ROPO study that 88% of consumers engage in online research before they buy offline. And a new study by Twitter and Datalogix revealed data that underscored the relationship that exists between online ads and offline sales; users engaging with a Promoted Tweet were 12% more likely than users who did not see the tweet to make a purchase. Even though there is ample evidence of a correlation between the two as evidenced by the proliferation of hyper-local group buying sites like Groupon to increase offline sales, many advertisers do not integrate their online and offline efforts. That is why it is imperative that marketers start influencing the purchase decision-making process at the online research stage. 3

4 Digital Tactics to Boost Offline Sales Even if your products or services are offered offline only, online marketing is still worth it. The customers that do not buy online are still influenced by online marketing and advertising. There are a number of tactics you can use to help increase online research to convert offline sales, these include: Creating A Unified Message Successful marketing is all about consistency to get your online and offline marketing working together. These strategies will give you a stronger brand and more leads and sales from your marketing. Identify Brand Promoters tcrm is a vital component of your digital marketing mix. Identifying your loyal customers, who can act as your brand evangelists, spread positive word of mouth recommendations and increase sales, should be a priority. The easiest way to do this is through surveys, where you ask the question How likely is it that you would recommend a company to a friend or colleague? Those who rate you highly are your promoters. Online Reviews With 90% of respondents claiming that online reviews influenced their buying decisions (2013 Dimensional Research study), the reason for using them is quite evident. Add to that the fact that Google will rank higher local listings that have more reviews, and you have a solid case for leveraging them. It is perfectly okay to identify your loyal customers/brand advocates and encourage them to write reviews. Customer Support Community You can also establish a moderated on-domain customer support community. By answering FAQs, you create a significant level of SEO-friendly user-generated content that is directly related to your brand. 4

5 Social Monitoring & Engagement According to Forrester reports, consumers spend approximately 25 percent of their web browsing on social media sites, consuming more than 500 billion social brand impressions per year. As such, it is a must to monitor and engage on external social media network sites to track and respond to relevant conversations. SMS & Campaigns When you consider that according to ExactTarget, 93 percent of U.S. online consumers receive at least one permission-based per day. Not to mention the proliferation of text-based messaging. So it is obvious that these two marketing channels represent huge opportunities for cross selling and up selling. Brand Search Advertising While most marketers engage in payper-click (PPC), many are reluctant to bid on brand terms, especially if they rank first in organic search. A Google study showed that 89% of clicks on PPC ads were incremental. It is vital that you capture brand awareness from traditional media, synthesizing the power of both traditional and digital media. (Source: research.google.com). Local & Mobile Search Advertising Local search is rapidly becoming a critical marketing channel. According to Google, of those using a search engine on their smartphone, 77% end up contacting a business and 44% end up purchasing. To capitalize on this, you need to have a mobile presence. Getting data insights gleaned from your online activities are essential to your success. The data-driven intelligence needs to be communicated to your sales, community, and marketing people offline that interact with customers and prospects who can use and test them. These insights should be predictive and forward thinking and above all must be customer-centric, not what will promote your favorite product attributes. 5

6 Integrating Online Marketing to Impact Offline Sales Advertisers spend a sizeable portion of their budgets on promoting their products/services both online and offline. What is often missing in these initiatives is a coordinated plan to integrate their online presence to help drive offline activities and sales. At Adaptive Audience, we have a platform that integrates all customer data (online and offline) and technology platforms into one. It is called the Adaptive Audience Platform and it synthesizes profile segmentation, user research, MVT testing and surveys (incorporating off-site behaviors and loyalty) to deliver customized message across all digital channels so the messaging can be optimized for offline sales as well. To ensure that our online marketing is in sync with any offline activities, we undertake an offline to online data onboarding using customer CRM records, anonymous cookie match, cookie targeting and tracking and online-to-offline sales reporting. We drive ROI by optimizing programs that leverage multichannel attribution to match all online engagements to offline sales. Integration is vital because you are likely missing out on several opportunities or potential customers if you re online and offline are not working in tandem. For example, if a prospect sees a product for sale on your website but does not see a similar product for a similar price point in your stores, they could become frustrated or confused and shop elsewhere. To ensure you are getting the most bang for your buck out of all your marketing, follow these steps to integrate your online and offline marketing activities: 6

7 1. Match the look and feel of your website and online marketing to your offline branding. 2. Use consistent branding in terms of messaging. 3. Put your web address on everything regardless of whether it is online or offline. 4. Use the keywords in your offline ads in your online SEO activities. 5. Any campaigns, online or offline should have a link to a landing page; offers will generate far more leads and sales if they link to an effective landing page. Proving that Online Marketing Can Drive Offline Sales & Optimize ROI A leading big box retailer that spent the lions share of their ad budget on print FSIs realized the limitations of relying strictly on traditional media. As such, they sought to broaden their horizons by tasking Adaptive Audience to activate and measure a digital media program. To connect digital engagements to offline sales, we launched a comprehensive digital program that was designed to help the retailer: Reach their core customers with greater accuracy Attract prospects more efficiently Gain insights that maximize in-store sales consistently over time 7

8 To activate audiences for greater accuracy, we recommended: Onboarding the retailer s CRM records into a digital management platform to activate display media campaigns Leveraging their CRM records to build custom lookalike models for display media prospecting To optimize media for greater efficiencies, we recommended: Setting up a programmatic media plan that targets audience profiles in viewable premium ad inventory placements Building dynamic ad units to display specific messaging and offers based on each audience profile To maximize insights for better results, we recommended: Activating a channel attribution program to optimize the full digital channel media mix for in-store sales Integrating analytics for all audiences, channels, creative and competitors into one simple reporting dashboard By employing these techniques with the big box retailer, Adaptive Audience was able to: Increase the in-store conversion rate by 41% Lower in-store CPA (cost per acquisition) by 42% Increase in-store return on ad spend by 74% With ongoing monitoring of the retailer s online-to-offline conversion funnel, Adaptive Audience is able to reveal more strategic opportunities to improve results. 8

9 The Measure of Success Okay, so you are taking the initiative to use your digital marketing to impact offline sales. Now the question is, how do you measure the success of your efforts? Measurability is the hallmark of success and the Holy Grail of digital marketing. It also comes into play when marketers want to measure the success of their online initiatives on offline sales. To measure the successful investment of your digital marketing and its impact on offline sales you should use the services of trusted third-party research vendors such as Nielsen, comscore, and Datalogix. While the percentage of marketing budgets being spent online is increasing exponentially, the majority of purchases are still made offline. This dichotomy makes it difficult to accurately measure which channels and campaigns have the highest ROI. But there are solutions such as LiveRamp that can match offline purchase data to online browsers so your data platform can attribute offline sales to online activity and measure true ROI. It s key that you tie online ad impressions to offline conversion data to measure the true ROI of your online ad campaigns. And you need to measure digital media s impact on in-store sales. Adaptive Audience working in conjunction with marketing performance management firm, Adometry, can provide advanced marketing attribution that addresses: How online marketing drives in-store purchases and revenue Which channels and targeting strategies work best and what optimal spend levels What creative and messaging work most efficiently and motivate action 9

10 Using Adometry s Offline Conversion Connector and Adometry Attribute reports, Adaptive Audience was able to demonstrate to its big box retail client the direct correlation between its online initiatives and offline sales. The reports showed that: Out of a capture of 5.5 million in sales conversions, 14% of conversions (equal to $24.3 million in revenue) could be tied back to a digital touchpoint 15% of the total offline sales had multiple conversions It s a real challenge extracting anonymous online behaviors into measurable results that generate more product sales at local stores. Here are five steps to help you make offline sales measurable and that will allow you to optimize your online campaigns so they convert at brick and mortar point-of-sale. 1. Measure offline sales Use Nielsen comscore, Datalogix or Korrelate to measure offline sales with a traditional offline sales study. Or use your CRM database via a data management platform to measure offline sales directly. 2. Focus on in-market shoppers and not necessarily brand loyalists Focus your media on consumers who are in-market for your products. In the CPG market, it translates to people who shop frequently and share in the shopping duties for the household. Use short-form in-banner surveys. Use the survey data to optimize your campaign to the strongest target segments. 3. Drive increased consideration and/or purchase intent Expand beyond your loyal customer base; i.e. people who might be-market for a competitive product. Use short-term surveys to measure the lift in purchase intent asking such questions as, Which products do you plan to purchase on your next shopping trip? 10

11 4. Ignore clicks, coupons, leads and everything else you track on your ad server Run A/B tests to optimize one part of a media campaign to coupons or leads and the other portion to drive offline purchase intent. The bottom line is survey sampling can help drive offline sales value when you take the responses of the surveys and accurately optimize your campaigns. If you measure and optimize to the right real-time metrics in your digital campaigns, you can drive 2-3 times more offline sales. To achieve this: measure your offline sales impact, determine what optimization metric aligns best to your offline sales, and focus on the metrics that matter to drive real results and ROI for your brand. You Can t Have One Without the Other Online marketing has a definite impact on offline transactions. Online and offline marketing are not two completely separate entities. They complement one another. And digital can be a very effective driving force that propels your offline sales, especially if you use your offline data to coordinate activities between the two and have accurate attribution and measurement in place. While some marketers think online and offline commerce exist in two different worlds, the truth is they do not. Even if they use different methodology in attracting customers and making sales, in the end they are designed to achieve the same goal. By understanding the role online has in impacting offline sales, you can optimize your ad spend and increase ROI. 11