Simran Jaiswal
Whether your business is reaching a client through in-store assemblage, social media, or face-to-face interactions, the expertise you give ought to be positive, consistent, and important. Learn how to develop a singular, coordinated promotional strategy when running a business with both a physical and digital footprint.

According to the study of Harvard Business, Customers who shop online and in-person spend on average 4% more on each in-store trip and 10% more online than shoppers visiting only one channel. Online and offline marketing requires best omni channel practices—including being mindful of your budget and resources, keeping consumer data uniform, and offering a seamless, experience to customers. Whether your business is reaching a client through in-store assemblage, social media, or face-to-face interactions, the expertise you give ought to be positive, consistent, and important. 
Learn how to develop a singular, coordinated promotional strategy when running a business with both a physical and digital footprint.

Why should you integrate in-store and online marketing?

Technological developments have made buyers hyperconnected and empowered. They want to benefit from both the advantages of digital platforms (access, variety, interactivity) and the offline convenience of personal service and touching physical products. Customers expect to consume product information across channels whenever they want wherever they want, disrupting the linear buying journey. The channel where a product was discovered is not the same as the one where it is purchased.The proliferation of marketing channels means that integration is necessary for marketers to have a single view of the customer and for consumers to have a consistent brand experience. It is said that marketing channel integration has a positive effect on customer loyalty through satisfaction. Moreover, online and in-store communication integration has a higher impact and is more cost-effective.

Both online and in-store marketing have advantage and disadvantages. The beauty of integrating the two types of marketing is that one’s advantages cancel out the other’s disadvantages so marketers get the best of both worlds.

From in-store marketing to online marketing

Directing customers is the easiest from offline channels to online channels simply through calls to action. One can drive to visit its website or social media channels through print collateral, TV ads, radio ads or billboards. The call to action can simply be “visit our website for more details” if your target is brand awareness or more specific such as “book your appointment now on www.yourbrand.com” if conversions you’re aiming for. It’s good to have your web address on your print collateral even there’s no call to action. Another great way to get consumers is the QR codes, they are beyond black and white designs nowadays and you can get more creative make it more aesthetic and entertaining to discover your brand online.

Nike is one of the great example of how QR codes can be used for marketing integration and great in-store experience. Consumers can scan a QR code that’s on the wall in the shop to download the Nike app which then gives them member benefits. For instance, they can use the app to scan mannequins and have the shop assistants bring them the clothes in their size to the fitting room or use the Nike instant check out service.

In-store to social media

Another way of engaging in-store audience to your online channels is by including your social media handles /icons on print collateral. 

When running a social media campaign do include hashtag on collateral as an encouragement to your in-store audience to join in on social platforms, which you’ll be able to mediate and tack engagement levels for. 

In-store to email

An efficient way to grow brand and business is through emails.

It is important to have a reliable way of collection of email address as a quality list is vital for your campaign’s success. 

Own a physical shop? Then run promotions, customers will be required to provide you details in exchange for prize or discounts. Attract them with a business card raffle or a questionnaire. Giveaways and boxes set ups where customers sign up for prizes. Most restaurants ask to fill feedback survey form printed or on tablet at the end of their meal. There is usually a call to action for customers to provide with their email addresses at the end of the questionnaire. Make sure you offer a valuable reward in exchange of their information because the amount of junk mail people get they tend to be reluctant to sharing information. You’re after the newsletters then make sure to include the landing page URL on print collateral. Use customised URL to track the registrations are coming from and identify most effective channel. 

Keep in mind! 

Whichever way you choose to collect emails offline, please make sure your list is GDPR compliant and your subscribers know what they’re signing up to.

Traditional PR to online channels

Think of PR stunts and look beyond press releases that will get people talking and sharing online. A lot is possible when the low budget is compensated by a lot of creativity however, your budget might not stretch to sending a car into space.

Cadbury built a giant thumbs up statue made out of chocolate bars to celebrate hitting 1 million fans on Facebook. The whole process was filmed and a fan was selected to place the last bar on top. An infographic containing details of the effort put into building the like button was published together with the video which has been seen over 260,00 times.

Lacoste replaced its famous crocodile logo with images of endangered species. Each T-shirt design was a limited edition run in the same number as many animals of the species were thought to be left in the wild. Needless to say, the T-shirts sold out immediately and the brand gained lots of coverage from the online press.

From online marketing to in-store marketing

An offline point of purchase or offline channel for businesses work better where they can use online channels to draw audiences in-store. 

For example, in B2B face-to-face interaction is more important than online interaction and offline lead generation presents a higher conversion rate than online methods.

Search engine to In-store

You can’t not afford to not optimise your website for ranking in search results with 63,000 Google searches per second every day. Do set up Google my business and make sure to update it regularly.   

For example, listing a phone number on Google My Business will allow the increasing number of mobile users to call your office for enquiries. Having your address listed increases the chances that a user will visit your shop.

An event coming up? Running a limited time offer? To communicate all this information online Google my business allows you to encourage customer to book for event or go to shop for purchasing. Make sure you follow local SEO practices for your business to appear at the top of SERP and trigger the knowledge box. An extension introduced in 2016 enables viewers to text business directly by clicking on the texting button if running PPC ads on Google. Another extension allows users to book appointments directly from their mobiles. The beacon technology offered by Google helps you to track offline footfall determined by Google ads.

Social media to In-store

Organic or paid posts and stories can raise awareness of your next event/workshop, in-store discount or the increase of a new dish to your menu. Organic and paid social media can be used to induce a variety of offline actions. The “Book now” call to action button on Facebook business pages allows users to book dates. The button can also be set to “Contact us” and users are able to call your brick-and-mortar business. Instagram is another social network that allows users to book a table or make a phone call without leaving the app.

Website to in-store

Alike to social media, websites can be used to state your offline activities, it also encourages user to call you or visit your shop or book an appointment or event through landing pages and calls to action.

Digital PR to in-store

If you’re launching a new product or opening a new branch, making the headlines online can contribute to top of mind awareness and drive footfall. Send a press release out to online press outlets and get coverage online.

Other methods of online and in-store marketing integration

As mentioned at the beginning of the blog, brand consistency and matching keywords across channels will help integrate your marketing efforts. 

Snickers’ “You’re not you when you’re hungry” campaign is a case in point. The campaign won an Effie Award for its global integration tactics. The Snickers team achieved double their objective in just 3 months – grew total Snickers volume sales by 8.0% and singles sales by some 13.4%.

Online marketing advantages and disadvantages

Advantages:

  • broad (international) reach
  • more granular targeting based on the decision-making stage/level of intent
  • automation
  • cost and time effective
  • measurable
  • personalisation
  • instant conversions

Disadvantages

  • intrusive (people use ad blockers)
  • technical issues on websites and advertising networks
  • specialised workforce is needed
  • high competition for customer attention
  • clutter
  • people get distracted and have a short attention spans
  • can’t reach audiences that are not internet savvy

In-store marketing advantages and disadvantages

Advantages

  • variety of channels (TV, radio, billboards, print, direct)
  • tangible, face-to-face experience
  • audience accessibility
  • credibility

Disadvantages:

  • longer conversion times
  • measurement and attribution issues
  • costly
  • limited audience targeting
  • time constraints

References
https://hbr.org/2017/01/a-study-of-46000-shoppers-shows-that-omnichannel-retailing-works
https://www.digitalcommerce360.com/2018/07/19/mobile-takes-the-starring-role-at-nike/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHtDRw4ujYw
https://www.lacoste.com/se/saveourspecies.html
https://serpwatch.io/blog/how-many-google-searches-per-day/
https://www.campaignlive.com/article/case-study-fame-made-snickers-youre-not-when-youre-hungry-campaign-success/1413554