With the end of financial year fast approaching, I’ve been analysing our web traffic to see what content has been most effective in engaging our audience online. This kind of self-reflection is necessary at least once a month to keep improving the way potential and existing clients use our website. It also encourages new insights into the association between online social interactions and offline activity.
According to the ‘Beyond the Click’ survey carried out by ACTIVE Network that shows which social networks drive the most offline action, the three most popular offline actions taken as a result of online engagement are to:
- contact a person directly
- attend an event and
- participate in an activity such as a sport or a class.
We’ve had some valuable online interactions morph into offline results. Most recently, an online conversation with a Twitter cohort resulted in a speaking opportunity at the HR Summit for our Director, Online Engagement, Kate Crawshaw.
Separately, on and offline strategies can be effective, but in order to get the most out of both, they need to work together.
Here are 3 tips to help marry your on and offline activity:
Know your audience.
Do your research. Be clear on who you want to target and find out where they congregate on and offline. Place content in these places be it a guest article in a specialist magazine or a guest blog piece on a well respected website.
Use online learnings to inform your offline strategies.
Online marketing gives you a peek into success metrics. Use these to better understand what time of day your target audience is active and their geographical location. Demographical information can be extracted by looking at who is clicking on links and who is retweeting your content.
Follow up.
It is not enough to simply cast your net and wait. All on and offline PR leads must be followed up. Where possible, get on the phone have an actual conversation; ask questions like ‘how many clicks did my article receive?’. Otherwise a friendly email never goes astray. Keep a record of who commented on your content. Always reply to comments and, if appropriate, get in touch with commenter to continue the conversation and get the most out of your interaction. It may well result in a business lead.
Whether you’re B2B or B2C, the synchronisation of on and offline PR and marketing efforts should not be overlooked. Reading between the lines will result in the curation of valuable insights into your business and clients.
