MultiChannel Marketing on the Cheap

Multi-Channel Marketing on the Cheap

If you’ve been following the latest trends in online marketing, you’ve noticed all the buzz about multi-channel marketing. Major players like IBM and Siebel (Oracle) are offering solutions for cross channel analytics and optimization. The problem with these solutions is that they’re not suitable for small businesses. Yet multi-channel marketing is one of the most powerful tools available to small businesses. According to a recent study by Google and comScore, more than half of purchases by those who conducted an online search is done offline. So how does a business with a small budget go about measuring the effectiveness of their site at driving sales to other channels?

The answer is to use a separate phone number for tracking sales originating from the Web site. Using this method, the phone number you’re going to display on your site is going to be different than the one on your business card, stationary or other listings. And in order to see how much phone activity you’re getting from your site, the only thing you need to look at is your phone tab.

You can use the same strategy for measuring your other initiatives. Want to know how many calls you’re getting from your Yellow Pages ad? Just use a separate phone number and now you have cross-channel analytics for a few dollars a month.