Comparison in Measures of Lift
When measuring the effectiveness of advertising, it is a mistake to assume that there is complete division between online and offline worlds - that a newspaper advertisement will not drive customers to a Web site, or an online marketing campaign will have no effect on shoppers at a brick-and-mortar store. However, this is the approach many forms currently take, for lack of metrics that measure the effectiveness of advertising in other channels.
Measure Online Lift from Offline Activity
A few case-studies are given - primarily one company that sent "thank-you" cards to people who made in-store purchases, providing them a discount code to use on the Web site. Hidden in the discount code was a tracking code, that helped the company identify when a customer purchase online was motivated by a promotion they received in the mail.
Also, the accounts these customers created on the Web site were flagged, so that the firm knew how the customer had been acquired, and compare their Web site and in-store purchasing habits.
Measure Offline Lift from Online Activity
In many instances, it is common for a person to gather information online prior to an offline purchase, and accommodating that behavior is the reason many manufacturers or franchisers have Web sites to promote products that aren't' sold online at all. Even when online sales are offered, some customers still prefer to make purchases offline. It is much more difficult to track this behavior, because unlike the Web, it's difficult to track the motivation of individuals to enter a physical store.
Online coupons can contain tracking codes, and a "special online offer" may require an individual to bring a print-out to a store or provide a tracking code to a telephone operator, but this generally is effective only when the promotion involves an immediate offer or incentive.
It is also possible to correlate trends between the Web site and the store: if the number of shoppers who visit a physical location increase after an online promotion is run, and this occurs on a regular basis, the correlation seems more and more likely.
While you cannot provide a vanity address for the sole purposes of tracking visits sent from the Web site to a physical store, you an provide a unique phone number on a Web site to isolate those calls.
There are also some experiments with hybrid uses: where a person makes a purchase online and takes delivery of the merchandise at a brick-and-mortar store (or where a local store makes delivery).
EN: Most of this is very hypothetical or is based on case studies. I'm not sure if these are common practices, or "best practices," just some examples of experiments to bridge the gap.
Success Metrics for Lift Between Channels
Quantitative Metrics include:
- Cross-Channel Referrals - Gross number of customers referred from one medium to the other
- Cross-Channel Responses - The number of customers who acted on that referral
Qualitative Metrics:
- Additional conversions/sales attributable to cross-channel referrals
- Cost/ROI of incremental sales
Of special interest when customers are encouraged to swap channels is the effect of cannibalization: does a customer make the same amount of purchases over both channels (merely dividing their purchases between the two), or does the use of multiple channels increase the overall amount of their purchases.