Tracking Your Offline Campaigns

(From the tutorial, Marketing Your Online Business in the "Real World")

It is absolutely necessary to track your offline marketing campaigns just like you do with your online campaigns. Never assume that you know what's going to work best, even if you're part of the market that you're targeting!

Use a promotion code.

Ask customers to supply you with the code when making a purchase. For example: let's say you sell something for $50. You can "split" a marketing campaign, where you offer half the prospects a $10 discount if they order by a certain date… while the other half receives an offer for a 20% discount (which is the same as $10 off in this case). Give each offer a unique promotion code. You'll then be able to see which variation 'sells' better.

For postal-mailed orders: you can either ask for the promotion code on the order form, or simply list it as part of the return address, ie: YourCompany, Promotion #ABCD, 123 Something Street, Some State, USA, 12345.

For phoned-in orders: again, ask for the promotion code… or list the phone number as something like: 1-555-555-1234, ext. 698. The "extension number", in this case, is the promotion code. When the customer calls, simply ask them for the extension.

Make sure the promotion code is prominently displayed on your marketing material. It helps to also tell a customer, for example, "There's a 4-letter code printed in red in the top right corner of the first page… can you please tell me what that is?"

Use a unique URL if you're redirecting people to your website.

You can create a separate URL for each marketing campaign. Keep your URLs short and simple. Remember, URLs on brochures, sales letters, postcards, etc. aren't clickable, so make them as easy as possible for prospects to type into their browsers. For example, instead of listing your URL as:
www.YourDomain.com/buy/index.html
… list it as:
www.YourDomain.com/buy (these two URLs are the same thing)
You may want to create additional website addresses to cover common misspellings or typos too. Just redirect them to the correct page.

BEFORE YOU PRINT YOUR MATERIALS: double-check your materials, then check them again. Get someone else to do it too just in case you missed something. Check the address and phone number. Check the website address and type it into your browser exactly as shown. Make sure everything's right before you print and deliver your message!

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