If you’re selling through retail and online, you can easily confuse the customer with different pricing and promotions. You can also create a lot of partner channel conflict if your inventory or discount is better online. Here’s a checklist on how to better coordinate online and offline marketing activities:
☐ I have a promotion calendar
☐ I synchronize my online and offline promotions and messaging
☐ I synchronize my online and offline evergreen messaging
☐ My web inventory mirrors in-store products and merchandise
☐ I actively manage my business/retail location listings for maps and local intent
☐ I emasure in-store lift based on online promotion
☐ Customers can pick up purchases in store
☐ I run local-level offers or test media to measure in-store/online lift in specific region
☐ Different channels drive different purchases
☐ We leverage Amazon as a channel for selling our products
☐ We leverage Facebook Marketplace as a channel for selling our products
Coordinating your pricing and promotions isn’t the only consideration. You’re still working with separate distribution channels, but your online and offline marketing drives demand everywhere. Below is our basic scorecard for better connecting online and offline selling.
Multi-Channel and Retail Marketing Support (Retail and DTC Can Compliment Each Other)
☐ We have distinct budgets for direct marketing versus retail support
☐ We have larger inventories and selections online versus through any individual partner
☐ I measure store sales lift from online marketing
☐ I have a call-tracking solution
☐ We are proficient at geo-targeting to maximize marketing for store impact
☐ We have clear marketing rules to minimize channel and partner conflict with our brand
☐ We strive to reduce customer friction and confusion in marketing online and selling through stores
☐ Our online and offline marketing promotion calendars are coordinated
☐ We understand how to promote online without cannibalizing our retail store partners
E-commerce opens up a world of new customers and opportunities for health products and services. The best strategy is to think from the customer’s point of view and strive to better coordinate your marketing through all channels while optimizing each media channel according to its features (i.e., paid search offers different opportunities to drive demand than DRTV does and must be tactically optimized differently). These represent the best practices to help you maximize sales and profits from the digital marketing of your health brands.
If you’d like a more detailed audit of your marketing, let us talk.
