Link Internet Marketing to Off-Line Sales

Question:
How can a company that takes 70% of it’s orders over the phone, track how people who ordered found their website and what keywords they used on search engines?
~ Igor M

Answer:
In the off-line direct marketing world, toll free numbers are one of the best ways to track sales back to campaigns. This also works in the online marketing but you need to think through what information you are really after.

A lot of times, you don’t really need on-going data. Simple 1 or 2 month tests can give you reliable data that you can assume till the next time you do a test.

For example, before launching a landing page, we at Volcanic Marketing create 12 variations that allow us to test a variety of variables such headlines, benefit statements, calls to action, etc. On each of these variation, we assign a different toll free number. Toll free company gives us a break down in terms of number of calls and length of calls. We use this info to make decisions and move forward.

Using pay per click, you can direct people coming from different keywords to different landing pages. You can run a 3 month test to see which keywords are will get the phone to ring the most and make decisions based on this insight.

Do you want the data to be gathered and assigned to sales leads on an on going basis?

The other approach in linking your phone sales to your web traffic is to have an item on your site that collects simple info and tags it with search engine & keyword/campaign info. Don’t ask their family history. Just their name. When they call, have your reps look up your database of registered people and link the sale to that contact.
Examples of items that could help you collect simple info are:

• Email newsletter sign-up
• Downloadable ebook
• Multimedia presentation

Do you have other ideas on linking Internet marketing to off-line sales? Leave your comments below.
~ mel

Melvin Ram
Volcanic Marketing
916.743.9369

PS: Volcanic is an Internet marketing company that can help you with various issues surrounding Internet marketing. Give me a call if I can help with anything you need. I promise to do my best.

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This entry was posted on Friday, October 27th, 2006 at 11:10 pm and is filed under Internet Marketing Tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.