Multi-channel merchants suffer from a self-fulfilling prophesy, and it is completely understood. On the surface, it makes perfect sense.
For those that slept through Psychology 101, Self-fulfilling prophesy is when you tell yourself that you are no good at math, you keep telling yourself this and as a result, don’t study as much, give up easily, so that when you finally take the test, you score low, and you mark it up to the reason: “I’m not good at math”.
Multi-Channel marketers tend to overstate the reach of catalog sales, they see that catalog makes up 90% of sales, and the website makes up 10% of sales. So, they reason, the catalog will continue to have most of the marketing resources, and website will have a small amount of resources, because it doesn’t perform as well as the catalog.
Obviously, I have a number of responses to that proposition.
1. Is there a sales tracking mechanism in place that covers each channel?
Many catalog retailers that I’ve talked with don’t have sales tracking on the website. It is an assumption based on a number of factors, but mainly their gut instinct and initial sales numbers, which can easily reinforce that thinking.It’s not a wrong assumption at its face value, but it must be explored more in depth. Each channel must have a sales tracking mechanism in place in order to know for sure which channel accounts for a percentage of sales.
2. Have the basics of search engine optimization been implemented on your online catalog?
If not, then of course, your printed catalog will perform better than the website. If search engine optimization has not been performed on your website, then the average amount of search traffic is about 20% of total visits, and 80% of that 20% is most likely branded searches for the company.Search Engine Optimization reverses the traffic sources from your website. It takes general product searches that result in visitors and increases it to 60%-80% of your traffic. The branded searches and other means of accessing the website actually slightly increase their levels, but get dwarfed by the incoming search traffic very quickly.Because of the increase of search traffic, sales from the website will increase, as should sales from every channel; call centers, catalog requests, and the catalog itself. This is where tracking is critical. Knowing the source of growth and action is vital to continuing marketing efforts.
3. The Internet is not a single channel.
The internet is a broad term covering significant channels and it has changed the very definition of multi-channel to include: Organic Search, Paid Search, Shopping Search Engines, Email, Banner/Networks, Social Media, Online Public Relations, Link Building, Blogging, and more every day . . . .Tracking is vital again in order to understand the value of each channel. While some channels are more effective in providing a direct response for sales, others are just as vital in providing an accurate story of your company and product. Others are important simply for visibility, others for buzz.
4. The channel determines the motivation, expectation and the qualification level of the visitor.
Segmenting the channel is important because the source determines the motivation and the behavior of the visitor. To treat all visitors to your website the same, regardless of HOW they got there is to ignore the individuality of the consumer and the method of which you acquired them.Expectations of the visitor are everything; understand what they expect and tuning the message to them is vital to convert them into a long-term customer. I am surprised by the amount of companies that do not start with the simplest of segmentation analytics just by channel. There is an immense amount of intelligence to be gathered, but just starting with the basics will provide a significant reward.
5. The website gets no respect.
I remember talking with one multi-channel manager, who took the website to an amazing 70% of sales revenue for the company. But as he asked me – “Do you think I can get even 50% of the marketing budget for the best performing channel in company history?” Here is the case where the tracking, search optimization, and marketing were all in place and humming along, but the majority of the budget still goes to print. Maybe because “it’s the way it has always been done”? I’m not sure, but history will have to answer that one.
My guess? Print is tangible, and it wins awards, but the web will win sales.
Multi-Channel marketers are for the most part thinking too much of themselves and the importance of their work. It is just one part of the larger marketing plan.
I have been using my own site for 6 months and whilst it has taken a while for SEO to have an effect, it is now doing so.
Applications for mortgages were up about 50% in December on the previous month.
I have spent very little on the site, mainly learning as I go and paid for one good banner on a very pertinent forum where I write about my field of expertees.
Even though I did not have a site 6 months ago, today I cannot imagine trying to do business without one!
I was offered ads in the local press/radio etc but I very much doubt they would have delivered the quality and amount of clients I am now getting.
Good blog. I especially like the way you talk about the internet being a multi-channel entity in and of itself.
There are also a lot of companies that do cataloging that completely undervalue the catalog performance. Many times a catalog will drive someone to the web to make a purchase. The catalog was the ad source that drove that sale but without the proper tracking the credit goes to the internet and more specifically to the SEO channel, or to a branded PPC ad.
What we recommend is maintaining a database of all the homes that you ship your catalogs to. When you get an online order you want to cross reference the bill to and the ship to determine if a catalog was sent to either of these addresses. If you find a match you then want to determine if the catalog was received in reasonable time frame from the purchase. If so, the catalog should be getting some if not all of the credit for that sale.
To go even further you could you to see if the products sold were in the catalog itself. If so, you can give even more credit to the catalog itself.
Like with everything you need to diversify. You can’t put all your money/time/effort into one venue because if anything goes wrong you’ll be screwed. The same is true here – if they’re putting 90% of their resources into catalog they’ll never be able to check how other ways work.
wow!!!!There are also a lot of companies that do cataloging that completely undervalue the catalog performance. Many times a catalog will drive someone to the web to make a purchase. The catalog was the ad source that drove that sale but without the proper tracking the credit goes to the internet and more specifically to the SEO channel, or to a branded PPC ad.thank you!!!
I like your last line in this post: “Print is tangible, and it wins awards, but the web will win sales”.
I would agree that many business are still putting dollars in print, however in Real Estate, most brokerage firms are cutting way way back on print advertising. First sign is the real estate section in your local paper, the next is the drop in those little RE books at the grocery store.
The web will win sales and is more afordable than prints in some cases.
i agree 100 % that Internet is not a single channel. There is rapid change going on every second and marketing tactics keep on changing. but thanks to guys like you who are always keep blogging about changes and make us help understand new ideas.
We should realize that those responding to multi channel marketing are different from single channel customers. They tend to be more affluent. Even more significant: customers that make purchases on two or more channels spend more per year than single channel shoppers.