These are exciting times for web analysts, online and offline marketers. Maybe a bit scary too. Change is in the air. The online and offline are fusing into two sides of the same coin. As a consequence, web analysts increasingly find themselves in the midst of the fusion reaction. We are making new friends in both camps every day.
Until now, Internet and offline marketers have, well, might as well say, avoided each other more or less. OK, offline marketers display the web site URL on every brochure while web marketers squeeze a “Find a store” or “Contact us” page into their sites. That was it for the most part. Yet, that won’t do anymore. If your company has the right leadership team in place you will be asking questions such as:
What is the true ROI we got from Google AdWords including our offline sales?
What happened on the web site after we direct mailed our catalogs to households in New York City?
If a customer just bought a bicycle in our store, what are the most relevant offers that our behavioral targeting algorithms should display when she returns to our web site?
If a customer just checked the loan pay off amount on our web site, when, were and how should we contact the customer with an effort to retain them?
These are some of the questions that we hope to open for discussion with the help of this blog.
