Offline To Online Marketing From Print To Tablet

Oct. 14, 2011 - PRLog -- Smartphone platforms and software may be bringing the offline to online tantalising close with NFC, QR codes and Blippar in the frontline. Yet, the established route from physical print to website is a strand of multi channel still key to many brands who also publish onto a touch screen tablet.

Just as email marketing has often been declared obsolete yet continues to dominate the direct online marketing landscape, so too the traditions of physical print continue alongside digital channels. Indeed, some brands declare that print can engage with their market niche in ways other channels cannot provide.

It’s not unusual for eCommerce and high street outlet to regularly publish a brochure, catalogue or flyer, which also point to website, Twitter and a Facebook page. Conversely, of course, provision of online content to be downloaded as a PDF, eBook or White Paper for printing into hard copy is still carried out in particular organisations, even in the age of e-reader and tablet.

Marketing strategies, which still utilise physical print advertising, whether in a newspaper, magazine or catalogue, still remains an efficient and user friendly “social” route for specific companies to engage with their customer base. At the same time, on the page calls to action can more effectively entice prospects to go online to explore the website, become more fully informed of latest offers and access online-only discounts.

Intrinsic to some traditional organisations is the important marketing factor of long standing customer relationships built on an established range of individual types of products or services where a formal brochure aesthetic still plays an important role in imparting brand identity.

Multi channel studies have revealed that almost two-thirds of consumers are likely to read a catalogue at the research stage before visiting a website to buy products or services. Considered still as a powerful tool in driving online sales, the offline to online arrow of catalogue to website is actually a growing trend, up from 30 per cent in 2005 to nearly 45 per cent in 2009. A more recent multichannel retail survey from Econsultancy showed over 54 per cent of consumers had studied a catalogue
before making a purchase online or in-store.

In addition, nearly a quarter of catalogue shoppers will first visit a store to physically check out items they are considering buying before making the purchase and around a fifth will conduct research online for products they originally found in a catalogue.

With four out of five consumers now using two or more channels, the value of physical print as another key link in the sales funnel journey cannot be dismissed when brands create specific goals for integrated social media and content marketing campaigns.

Visit http://www.weprovoke.co.uk for more information and advice.

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