Does Online Marketing Contribute to Brick and Mortar Sales?

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Online marketing is continually on the rise, with an estimated $23.5 billion being dedicated to the channel in 2010 thats more than 15 percent of overall marketing budgets. Despite the production and labor expenses incurred to produce and deliver online offers, it has been impossible to tie such offers to retail store purchases. Hans Theisen, chief revenue officer for Cardlytics, explains how transaction marketing a highly targeted, customer rewards program is making direct marketing more valuable than ever by providing marketers with the ability to track the success of webbased offers in terms of specific in-store sales as well as online sales.

Although online direct marketing is extremely popular, marketers find themselves left in the dark when it comes to realizing its true effectiveness in terms of real-world, in-store customer redemption of online offers. Essentially, marketers must hope that offers reach customers and are actually relevant enough to prompt recipients to change their purchasing behavior as intended; while tremendous expense goes into presenting supposed targeted customer offers online, there is no accurate way to determine if offers are contributing to sales, or if they need to be adjusted to better suit the purchasing behavior of customers. Fortunately, transaction marketing - increasing in popularity among regional, national and global marketers alike - is presenting an efficient solution to this dilemma.  

Transaction marketing enables marketers to track the effectiveness of online offers redeemed both online and in brick and mortar locations without printing coupons, or entering promotional codes that impede redemption.  Through transaction marketing, retailers present highly targeted offers for loyal customers and prospects based on the actual purchases a consumer has made. Retailers directly target consumers based on who has recently shopped at their store, or competitors stores, and narrow their reach based on geography, purchase frequency, how much is spent, and more.

Offers are redeemed through the use of the debit, credit or prepaid cards associated with the consumers bank account which provides an absolute line of sight between an online advertising spend and a retail store or online purchase. Banks securely present retailers offers to account holders underneath line-item transactions in their online banking statements. Offers are highly relevant to recipients as transaction data indicates actual purchasing behavior. For instance, an offer to save at a drycleaner would be placed directly under a dry-cleaning transaction. The average account holder is known to review their transactions seven times a month, while over 25% are known to check those transactions every day, so the timeliness of such a placement ensures that the data is still relevant and consumers are certain to notice the offer. The platform is targeted without being invasive, and, more importantly, it is entirely safe for the consumer, as their data never leaves the bank.

Transaction marketings ability to provide an accurate and precise ROI is a monumental advancement, since over 94% of sales are still made in physical stores. Without tracking the relationship between online offers and in-store redemption, retailers risk losing significant time and money on ineffective offers; a risk that is no longer necessary.

Another benefit to marketers is that transaction marketing requires minimal investment. The cost effectiveness lies in transaction marketings use of online banking statements as a delivery channel and bankcards as a redemption mechanism for offers. Transaction marketing platforms do not require employee training or any changes or modifications to point-of-sale hardware, nor do they require graphics or page set-ups, eliminating the need for production labor and design costs. Additionally, because platforms are based on a pay-for-performance model and do not entail cost per click or cost per impression, retailers can offer much more attractive incentives to customers. Retailers also maintain their brand value through the platform, since offers are given and granted through debit and credit cards.

By tracking in store and web redemption of online offers on a dashboard, marketers can easily determine whether or not they need to make adjustments to maximize their individual goals. The ability to track results and make adjustments in real time, can increase purchases from current customers and/or new customers, increase the volume of purchases made, or meet other marketing goals a level of efficiency that is not presented by any other marketing channel. Because results are reported in real time, marketers can watch the results of their changes and respond accordingly before any drastic momentum shifts, providing a maximum impact with minimal risk.

Similarly, detailed reporting also helps with budgeting web marketing. Once a retailer knows exactly what results the campaign is yielding, budget forecasting can be based on solid data, rather than a guess. Or a retailer can provide a specific budget amount and the offer is managed according to that budget. Furthermore, many retailers have individual marketing budgets for web sales and in-store sales, and clear metrics will help allocate transaction marketing properly between the divisions.

The direct correlation between online advertising spending and retail store purchase is a breakthrough for all marketers. Transaction marketing enables retailers to truly analyze their campaigns and tweak results to meet the desired goals. With accurate measurements, online marketing now has a purpose and a clear set of goals. Marketers can feel confident investing into a transaction marketing platform, knowing that even their most specific demands can be met with the utmost accuracy and efficiency.