Customer Intercepts - Online and Offline Marketing Tactics

ICC/Decision Services has long used customer intercepts to gather intelligence for retail operations. By getting real customer feedback, retailers are able to polish their operation and make nice advances in both customer satisfaction and profitability.

Offline marketing is still thriving, even in the face of encroaching web retailers. There is something very powerful about a person-to-person interaction.

What about online marketing?

After a lengthy discussion about the confluence of online and offline marketing channels, I did a quick keyword search for ?SEO is dead.? There were 3,850,000 results in Google for that keyword search!

This piqued my interest, so I did a companion search for ?pay per click is dead? and ? get this ? there are 124,000,000 results.

Clearly, there is chatter in the marketing community about the validity of the two most prominent online marketing vehicles.

The truth is, online marketing is not dead at all, but it is changing. And it?s changing in a big way.

Online marketing has developed to include a litany of tactics including SEO, PPC, Social Media, Email Marketing, and a million combinations of these. Each of these marketing tactics has evolved over the past decade and a half. Internet speeds, new applications, and the expansion of the web has all made the online marketing world a very dynamic place.

So why the chatter about ?SEO is dead??

Because it has changed so dramatically.

As businesses become more sophisticated in their marketing strategy, as truth has emerged: There must be coherence between online marketing and offline marketing.

Capturing the lead using an online vehicle is certainly important, but companies are now becoming adept at taking that lead and bringing it into an offline sales funnel. This can be observed particularly with higher value sales that require a longer sales cycle. But it is also pronounced in the retail world.

Today I saw a wonderful example of how online and offline marketing are becoming hand in glove. Guitar Center is the worlds largest musical instrument chain operating 228 locations in the United States. Tuesday morning, I received an email from Guitar Center (I am on their list) touting the ?Save200? campaign. The coupon allows me to save $200 on purchases over $999. Nice deal.

Since the online/offline paradigm was on my mind, I opened a browser and typed a random keyword search in Google: ?guitar effects pedals.? Guitar Center is ranked in the first position.

Not only are they ranked #1 in the main listings, they also have the top ranked paid (PPC) advertisement.

When I clicked on the link, I see the page of retail merchandise and at the top of the page is a large banner: SAVE200 Print Coupon for In-Store Use.

Guitar Center is masterfully combining email marketing, search engine optimization, Pay Per Click ads, site banner ads and offline marketing. Sure, there are musicians who know exactly what they want and will buy online. But there are also many who will print the coupon and head to the store.

And playing the Gibson Les Paul in the store is the equivalent of test driving the hot rod ? once you drive it, you?re going to buy it.

Then, employing tactics like customer intercepts can polish up the operation and bring it all home.

This is a fantastic illustration of combining online and offline advertising, and also of a comprehensive marketing strategy.

There is no question that those companies that combine online and offline marketing planning will come out on top.

Source: http://www.iccds.com/online-and-offline-marketing-which-is-better.html

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