It’s common knowledge that digital marketing measurement is far from ideal. However, it can seem almost impossible to track offline marketing channels and campaigns and their effects on businesses.

You could or might not have additional funds available for marketing at this time. It’s fantastic if you’re one of the fortunate 64% of marketers anticipating a budget boost this year. You must still ensure that the entire increased budget offers a meaningful return on investment, though.

Additionally, it’s time to maximize every dollar if your budget is the same or lower.

In the same manner that you may track digital results, let’s look at some strategies to determine whether your offline investments are producing the desired results by reaching and converting your target audiences.

Consider offline channels as those that existed before the internet, like print media like radio, television, and newspaper advertisements. Offline channels also comprise real stores, billboards, leaflets, brochures, and direct mail marketing.

For marketers, offline channels provide a number of benefits. Initially, they let companies connect with a wide range of people, such as those who don’t have internet access or who like print media. Additionally, offline channels offer a real, physical presence that strengthens trust and brand recognition. Additionally, offline marketing can be extremely focused, enabling companies to target particular demographics or geographic regions with their messaging.

Furthermore, offline marketing gives consumers who are tired of internet commercials a respite. Nine out of ten consumers believe commercials are more obtrusive now than they were a few years ago, and eighty-seven percent believe there are just more ads overall, according to a Hubspot study. Interestingly, nearly 8 out of 10 say they feel like retargeting is tracking them, which may bother some customers. Even with the growth of digital marketing, reaching customers through offline channels is still important.

Direct mail marketing is one type of offline marketing tactic. Sending physical advertising items like catalogs, postcards, and brochures straight to the mailbox of a target demographic is known as direct mail.

By using this tactic, companies may connect with prospective clients in a real and intimate way, increasing the likelihood that they will interact with the advertisement.

Businesses can target certain demographics or geographic areas with their message thanks to the high level of targeting that direct mail marketing offers. Additionally, it enables businesses to give incentives or promotions.

To increase brand exposure and engagement, direct mail can also be used in conjunction with other offline marketing strategies, such as events or trade exhibits.

How To Measure Offline Marketing ROI

Only when marketing techniques are periodically monitored can they be considered effective. Assessing the effectiveness of your offline marketing plan will enable your company to fulfill its mission of spreading awareness of its goods and services.

The methods listed below can be used to measure your offline marketing. Technology solutions make it simple to measure offline marketing strategy.

• Be specific in your URLs: You can create a different landing page and URL for every offline channel and then engage your audiences via the specific channel’s URL in marketing views. Using customized URLs is among the easiest and best measures to track the performance of your offline marketing. 
• Create Google Analytics with search console: Google Analytics is an online tool used to track the performance of offline marketing by installing the tracking code on your web page. After setting up your Google Analytics, the next important tool is the Google Search Console, which allows you to search for vital analytics about your website. 
• Using Geofilters: Another great way you can measure your offline marketing (if there is an increment in foot traffic) after some online promotions; is the use of Geofilters. Geofilters can be useful when you have a different location for your targeted audience.  
• Pay Attention to Non-referral Traffic: measuring your offline marketing will bring about an excellent result if you pay close attention to your non-referral traffic analytics. To do this, go to your Google Analytics and click on the Acquisition tab. Click Overview as it appears on the drop-down menu. You have to select a timeline, which needs to show the date you started your last offline marketing strategy. Direct will pop up, and you just have to take a look at it. You will get information about those who visit your site by typing the URL into a browser.
• Pay Attention to Search Volume During Campaign: a good way to measure your offline marketing is to know how well your business name is being searched and the changes occurring in the search as you are running your campaign. Using Google Keyword Planner will help you know how people are searching for your brand name, and you will know whether the volume is increasing or decreasing.

Undoubtedly, a lot of people still choose offline marketing even in the modern corporate world, where digital marketing is widely accepted. In the local marketplaces, it is both crucial and successful. Even though tracking offline marketing campaigns can be challenging, it is not insurmountable. Making use of digital marketing tools will enable you to see clearly the contributions that your offline marketing makes.

In a world dominated by online marketing, it’s natural to wonder if offline marketing still holds its ground. In addition to the benefits mentioned above, offline marketing can significantly enhance brand recognition and credibility. With physical channels, businesses establish themselves as beacons of trust and reliability in their industry.

In today’s highly competitive landscape, where digital marketing dominates the industry, professionals must understand the value of incorporating traditional strategies into their overall approach.

Think about it: while digital marketing offers convenience and immediate results, traditional methods provide consumers with a tangible and memorable experience. It’s like having a face-to-face conversation with someone instead of just texting them.

While online marketing may be the shiny new toy, offline marketing remains a force to be reckoned with.

How do I Track an Offline Marketing Campaign?

One of the hardest parts when it comes to running and managing an offline marketing campaign is tracking the results of it.

For example:

1. How many people viewed your ad?
2. Was there an increase in phone calls after the marketing campaign?
3. How many people went and bought something after viewing the ad?

Online tools like Google Adwords are quite easy to use in contrast to offline ads. It’s simple to see how many people visited the website and made a purchase after clicking the advertisement. All of your other data, like cost per click, conversion rate, cost per conversion, and so forth, is also comparatively easy to view. With all this information at your disposal, you can decide whether to suspend, continue, or expand the campaign in a way that makes sense for your business.

Read Also: Which Digital Strategy Has the Highest ROI?

However, it can be challenging to get all of this information in front of you and your board for offline ads.
The good news is that you can monitor the effectiveness of your offline marketing effort in a few different ways.

1. Create a new separate website

The first way to track your offline marketing campaign is via a new website. Basically, you create a new website and any visitors who visited the website were people who viewed your ad. If you realize this is what most film studios are doing in their movie trailers.

For example, in the trailer of the 2016 Batman v Superman movie, they had a link to their website at the end of it. Any visitors who visited www.batmanvsuperman.com are people who viewed the trailer. From there they can gauge how big the movie is going to be based on this number.

Another thing, they can do is track which country gets the most visits to their website which will most likely determine the success of the movie in each country.

2. Generate QR Codes

The second way to track your offline marketing results is via QR codes. What this does is when a prospect scans the QR code, they will be sent to your site where you can track where they came from.

What you need to do here is create a custom URL for each QR code with a URL builder. My favorite URL builder is the URL Builder for GA by Raven and QR code builder is Kaywa QR Code.

So let’s say you want to start promoting your business via brochures and business cards. What you can do here is create 2 QR codes, one for your brochure and the second for your business cards. Both QR codes will send them to two different URLs as shown below:

• www.selbys.net/?utm_source=offline&utm_medium=qr-code&utm_campaign=brochures
• www.selbys.net/?utm_source=offline&utm_medium=qr-code&utm_campaign=business-cards

The above URL might look complicated but the only difference between them is the bold text after “utm_campaign=”. Now when a prospect scans your QR code from your brochures or from one of your business cards, you will know where they came from.

3. Use landing pages

The difference between creating a new website and a new landing page to track your result is a landing page is an existing page on your website that you create specifically for that marketing campaign.

When Lucas Films was promoting Star Wars: Rogue One, they created a landing page just for the Rogue One movie (http://www.starwars.com/films/rogue-one). From there they can gauge the level of interest for the movie before it releases.

They can also compare this to their other movies such as Star Wars VII.

For e.g:

• Rogue One got 1,000,000 page views after 2 months of running its marketing campaign
• Force Awakens got 2,000,000 page views after 2 months of running its marketing campaign

Of course, this isn’t 100% accurate but it definitely gives a good indication of how popular a movie is going to be before it releases.

4. Use annotations in Google Analytics

In Google Analytics, you can create an annotation/note. What this annotation does is that it puts a note on the date when you started your marketing campaign. From there you will get insights into questions such as:

• Was there any increase in website traffic after our TV ad?
• Did we have an increase in sales or quotes from our website or trade show?

Some examples of when you would use annotations are:

• Just finish a trade show.
• Completed a webinar with 500 attendees.
• Gave out 1,000 brochures.
• Interviewed by Channel 9.

5. Renting numbers from call tracking providers

The fifth way to track your offline marketing campaign is by using a call tracking service provider such as CallDynamics and Delacon. What you will do here is rent a number from the provider and place that number on your marketing displays.

When you receive a phone call from the rented number it will get redirect to your desired phone line. With this, you will know that the call was generated from one of your marketing displays. To get even more specific, you can rent multiple numbers and place each number on each of your marketing displays.

For example, you will be running a large marketing campaign all over Australia. You can rent one number for each city. From there, you will be able to track which city is generating you the most phone calls.

Another example would be placing different numbers for different marketing materials such as one number for your trade show brochures, one for your business cards, one on your marquee, one on your pull up banner, and one on your website.

6. Search for (insert marketing campaign slogan)

This tracking technique has been increasing in popularity quite rapidly especially with radio or TV ads. If you paid attention to those radio or TV ads, at the end they will mention something along the lines of “Search (insert marketing campaign slogan here)”.

For example: Search Jaguar Villains to bring out the villain within you or Google “Nimble home loans” to get your pre-approval today.

One thing to be aware of this tracking technique is you are counting on Google to show your targeted landing page or website on the #1 spot. To ensure, your landing page or website holds the #1 spot for the keyword you are mentioning in your ad, you have to do some on-page SEO or even link building before running your ad.

On the other hand where this tracking technique shine is when you have a very long website URL such as www.boostlawyersaustralia.com or www.rollybookclub.net.au. No one would go out of their way to type in your website URL.

A better way would be to mention in the ad “Google Boost Lawyers to book your free appointment” or “Search Rolly Book Club to find the most extensive book range in Australia”.

How Effective is Offline Advertising?

Print, radio, television, billboards, and direct mail are examples of offline advertising, also referred to as conventional advertising. For many years, offline advertising dominated the advertising landscape, but as digital advertising has grown in popularity, offline advertising’s efficacy has decreased. The following are the most popular keywords associated with offline advertising:

1. The cost of traditional advertising
2. Measuring ROI on traditional advertising
3. Targeting options in traditional advertising
4. The impact of traditional advertising on brand awareness
5. Creative ways to do traditional advertising

Reality of Offline Advertising

1. The cost of traditional advertising: Traditional advertising is generally more expensive than online advertising because it requires physical production and distribution. Businesses must pay for printing, postage, airtime, or space, which can add up quickly.
2. Measuring ROI on traditional advertising: Measuring ROI on traditional advertising is challenging because it is difficult to track how many people have seen or engaged with an ad. Businesses must rely on surveys, focus groups, or sales data to measure the effectiveness of traditional advertising.
3. Targeting options in traditional advertising: Targeting options in traditional advertising are limited compared to online advertising. Businesses can only target specific geographic locations or demographics, but they cannot target specific interests or behaviors.
4. The impact of traditional advertising on brand awareness: Traditional advertising can have a significant impact on brand awareness because it offers a broader reach than online advertising. Billboards, radio, and television ads can reach audiences that are not online, In today’s digital age, businesses have a plethora of options to advertise their products or services, ranging from traditional offline advertising methods such as billboards, newspapers, TV ads, and radio commercials to online advertising such as social media ads, display ads, search engine ads, and email marketing. With both online and offline advertising methods offering different advantages, businesses often face a dilemma on which one to choose. In this blog post, we’ll explore the most searched keywords on “What is a better online advertisement or offline advertisement” and weigh the pros and cons of each.

Last Words

Campaigns for offline marketing are an excellent method of attracting new customers and businesses. However, it is meaningless without adequate tracking. The only way to truly see which of your marketing tools are generating income is through marketing attribution. From a business standpoint, is there anything more you could ask for?