The Benefits of Synergy between online and offline marketing
02/02/2011
- Is offline advertising dying?
- Should all marketing spend by directed online?
- Why spend money on traditional advertising in magazines when online is so much more effective?
Recent studies show without any doubt that businesses are moving advertising spend online. Why? Because it works. And because it is usually more effective than offline spend.
But there is still a place (albeit a reduced place) for offline marketing such as TV advertising, press advertising, exhibitions and PR. This is partly because offline costs are falling as channels seek to keep or replace advertisers. But also because offline advertising can help the effectiveness of online advertising.
Offline marketing increases Google Search volumes.
Offline marketing plays an important role in encouraging a higher volume of Internet searches. This is particularly important from areas such as TV, cinemas and film/DVD advertising, the national press and promotional advertising at events.
This was first highlighted in the Mercedez-Benz study of 2008 which looked closely at the impact of marketing spend in different areas. The offline advertising helped increase the numbers of relevant online searches, which made the online advertising even more effective.
An iProspect study in 2009 asked users what prompted them to carry out an online search for a particular company, product, service or slogan. The results of this study were that on average 40% of online searches were influenced by offline advertising. The breakdown by channel was:
- Television advertisement: 44%
- Word of Mouth: 41%
- Magazine/Newspaper Advertisement: 35%
- Radio: 23%
- Billboard: 13%
This again hints at the benefits for offline marketing in a supporting role to online marketing. The offline can help generate the interest to search in the first place.
Of course over 60% of online searches were still not influenced by any offline advertising, and this highlights the relative importance of the offline and the online.
Conclusion
- Is offline advertising dying? No, just lower in importance than online marketing.
- Should all marketing spend by directed online? No, not all. But most companies should be directing the majority of spend online.
- Why spend money on traditional advertising in magazines when online is so much more effective? Because offline spend actually helps the effectiveness of online spend.
Cornish WebServices provide the full range of marketing services, including both offline and online marketing. We initially specialised in all forms of online marketing and developed significant expertise in SEO (search engine optimisation) and PPC management. However to help SEO for some clients we needed to include forms of offline PR and advertising, precisely because of the synergy noted above between offline and online advertising.
