Blurring the Lines with Non-Line Customers
Understanding this blurring of the line is essential to how we develop and measure an effective channel strategy moving forward, irrespective of whether we’re selling a business or consumer product.
What we’re already experiencing is how the online platform is having a huge impact on the way we do business beyond e-commerce. We can see its effects on trade, in changes in efficiency and effectiveness, as well as the transformation of business processes.
Social networks
So what’s changing? The major new factor at play is the rapid rise of social networking sites and how they interact with established e-commerce. Twitter and Facebook have become accepted channels for engaging directly with key audience. They drive measurable revenues from promotions and competitions. These tools can encourage brand ambassadors who influence their peers - to varying degrees depending on the relationship - and increase awareness to ultimately drive potential customers to our website.
What ecommerce practitioners routinely fail to understand is how important our online presence is to the 98% of shoppers who don’t visit to purchase. More and more evidence is showing that people research online before purchasing offline. Why they do this doesn’t matter, what matters is that we deliver an integrated strategy that bridges on and offline to meet the needs of all of our customers.
Unfashionable but effective
So this relationship is not one-sided. ‘Unfashionable’ offline is still proving to be effective in its own right – but much of online is converging with offline to help us gain market advantage. For example, according to OMD Metrics more people listen to digital radio on PCs and TVs than on DAB radios. People are watching television with a laptop and mobile to hand. Outdoor advertising, such as billboard or poster campaigns, have also looking to activate customers through the use of mobile barcodes, Bluetooth downloads and RFID technology.
The effectiveness of traditional offline or “faith based” initiatives has also historically shown to drive traffic to online entities such as websites or microsites by using techniques such as vanity URLs or traceable coupons. Whilst software vendors like us who have successfully built their brands online have in more recent years embraced offline promotions. Experiential marketing and print advertising are used to reach new market segments or activate potential customers through multiple touch points.
Having a physical presence on the high-street has its benefits - customers have the opportunity to “see” the product, or ask a “neutral expert” any questions they may have.
