A large company recently completed an offline attribution test with a small restaurant. The ambitious enterprise was intended to determine the influence of ads on offline restaurant visits using online-to-offline analytics. The company also measures how the ads affected customer’s visitation and purchases, and provides Wi-Fi and targeted email marketing to small businesses in its area free of charge. Of course, it also has online-to-offline analytics matching capabilities which are used to build marketing lists for these small companies.
The Test Went Like This
Researchers allotted a one-day attribution window for subjected users who opted not to click on ads and a 30-day window for those who did click. Average ticket value and table size supplied to the users calculated the return on investment. Genuine individual customer transaction data was not available for this analysis.
Email addresses of registered users were matched with email addresses provided to access guest Wi-Fi. Unfortunately, many users who saw the ads did not sign in for Wi-Fi access, so even if they went to the restaurant, they were not tracked, nor were users who signed in with a different email. Consequently, the data got skewed.
Preliminary Findings
During this one-month test, roughly 12,500 people saw the ads. Data suggests this small restaurant saw a $110 return for every dollar spent on advertising. The data also showed that more than 30 percent of these customers were new to the restaurant. This company also runs a loyalty and purchase-incentives program which helps capture offline transactions.
Growing research and survey data illustrates that small businesses are not tracking their return on investment from digital ads. Online-to-offline visitation data and analytics have not been available to small businesses even though they have been available to larger enterprises for several years. More and more companies are offering guest Wi-Fi services and targeted email marketing capabilities to small businesses.
Small Business Offline Attributions
Large corporations have been heavily investing in offline attribution capabilities and location analytics. Although they currently focus on established enterprises and large agencies, offline attribution capabilities will inevitably integrate into small business marketing soon. There is no way around it.
Recent Insights
Small businesses can have access to the same consumer analytics that the corporate behemoths do, although it does take some effort. This information is used to scale business and identify customer trends. It can also be helpful for marketing, staffing and inventory purposes if it is reliable and current information. The website gathers data and automates a consumer experience based on the insights collected within the first few minutes they landed on the page. This type of stacked, intelligent marketing is also driving analytical insights which emerge as invaluable information for future reference. Online-to-offline analytics and marketing combine the initiatives that create opportunities.
Not only are companies driving home the fundamental message of consistency, but they are using integrated services to align their message with the trends of the ever-evolving digital marketing landscape. Location-based services are paving the way for real-time marketing based on the analytical data. Online and offline marketing efforts provide continuous audience experiences and reinforce one another simultaneously. This constant experience leads to more prolonged engagement and conversion. Online return on investment is relatively equal to the offline return on investment if we are considering both sides of the analytical field. However, one can be markedly higher than the other when it is used to reinforce the marketing data. The bottom line is that online-to-offline marketing is emerging as the leading conversion generator for brick and mortar businesses as long as they have a digital presence.