Brainstorm for me; online to offline tie in.

[Gurtie]

can't help but think there's a way to do this, but I can't quite come up with a plan that works

website A has two main purposes, to sell product and to drive footfall to high street retail stores.

It has a functional, ecommerce enabled mobile website B

There would nbe a very (very very) long lead time to connect the e-commerce platform to the offline sales platform in any tangible way. Lets assume however that most customers have some type of smartphone (of non-specific brand, I'd rather not be iphone or android dependent). Lets also assume that reasonable work can be done on either website A or mobile site B to make things happen and we can make a case for people to [set up an account]

But finally lets be realistic and say that its really unlikely I can get them all logging into website A using a facebook account and also checking on on Places. Any type of checkin is probably unlikely, ideally it needs something to happen based on their mobile presence or on a distinct (but cheap to fulfil) reward for doing something instore.

Is there a way to connect website visitors with high street store footfall?

Some combination of online account and push voucher?

[dougs]

Quidco have such an app

[Black Knight]

Ah, tracking sales back to online actions, when the sales happen offline, in-store or by phone, has always been a deliciously tricky and difficult problem.

The simplest, of course, is the classic 'print your voucher' idea, implemented on the website and useable in-store.  Its nice because you can make people create an account and login to be able to print the voucher, and even include some sort of identification code number into the voucher that is printable and will be presented.  However, it depends on the company being willing to take some of their classic push marketing budget and put it into creating a special offer deal for the vouchers instead.

You can always add more value to the proposition by having the vouchers be a reward of some kind, for an action that has a value.  Perhaps they earn vouchers by completing online customer surveys, rating and reviewing products, or some similar small but valuable task that thereby 'discounts' the costs of the voucher discounts and system.  Referring friends to make accounts can also work, of course.

Going full circle can work too.  Everytime someone makes a purchase, their receipt (or a special ticket) can be given that entitles them to reward points, but the account for those points is an online one.  They get a voucher or number on their receipt that when entered in their online account gives them rewards points.  They can accumulate these if they like, and whenever they want, print out that coupon/voucher with its unique, one-shot code, to get money off their next purchase, or to get some special offer outright.

Naturally, telephone numbers on the websites should be dedicated ones only promoted/available online, so all activity on those telephone numbers can be attributed properly to the online presence too.

How are these ideas resonating?  Or have you already proposed all of those and are looking to go the extra mile somehow?

[Gurtie]

Thanks Doug, will check that out - looks interesting!

BK, definately resonating, and we haven't quite been through all those,so thanks  

The extra mile would be great though if anyone has a seamless solution..... I think I can tie in purchases with online visitors, its the offline sunday browsers causing me problems.

[anallawalla]

BK, a lot of food for thought. The bank I consult to has a constant challenge of a low take-up of Internet banking (IIRC <50% but that's not an easy number to calculate, there being many products). In addition to the "old people who don't go online" demographic, there are younger people who are Internet savvy but just don't trust it with their banking.

[Gurtie]

Jason - yes its occasional large ticket

I can use a tag within the confirmation email (almost certain to be opened) to connect with any existing cookies to connect any offline buyer who gives an email with an earlier browser (lots of issues here I appreciate - different machines, assumes they give an email, etc etc) and I am working on encouraging people to login, for a variety of reasons, which would make things easier to tie in - the real issue is people who are driven to store but then don't buy, at present they're almost impossible to measure.

Basically I have in my head that IF I could push a voucher out to smartphones in store, and then gather the data of phones I have pushed to, and IF I could link a phone number with an online visitor (through various methods including ones you've suggested here - helpful stuff) then I would be able to say that a given person had interacted online and had then gone in store, even if they didn't interact in store.

Its always an issue when a KPI on a website is to drive offline traffic, but measuring store finder views isn't a good measure of success of that, when 75% of the target audience already know where their local store is anyway.

[dogboy]

Hey, Gurtie, why not take Jason's idea to the QR level, and see where that gets you? It might add that element of getting them into a url and making a connection to their phone/online account.  Maybe Facebook Connect has a place here as well(?)

[Gurtie]

genius. Not quite Jasons idea but that as a basis and an account and QR codes amd it might work really well.

Thank you - I knew there was a way. Now I just need to explain it to the client!

[Brad]

Brilliant thread folks. That was a pleasure to read. Thanks.

[Rooftop]

I think that the QR Code appeals to the likes of us, but take up will be miniscule.  If you need to generate enough involvement for the data to have value I think you need to go low tech.  Lower the better.

Do you actually need to tie account to the meat in the shop, or is that just you as a marketer wanting to do that?  I ask that as your last post suggests it's more about measuring success at driving people to the store rather than knowing who they are.

If you don't need to tie them to the account it is obviously much easier.  Haven't had much coffee today, so only 1 idea comes immediately to mind: A code word. 
Have a fun graphic on the site saying something like:

Pssst.... the owl flies at midnight.
Say this phrase to any of our staff when you visit and get a free (insert random free piece of crap here).

OK - some people will feel like idiots and not play along. Others won't want the freebie. However I bet take-up will still be higher.  It's also cost you a few boxes of crap freebies, but it is surprising how well the cost of those stack up against developer time.  As long as it is recorded each time a freebie is given you have your metric.  If you want to be clever use different phrases for different segments.

Bit left field, but hey-ho.