Have you seen The Customer-Focused Marketing Playbook?

This comprehensive and practical guide to the latest ideas in customer-focused marketing hands you over 200 packed pages of strategy, best practices, do's and don'ts, practical know-how, facts and figures, and ideas to optimise your marketing strategy, boost sales, market share, increase ROI and profit.

Get it on Amazon (Kindle/Print)

Combined channels provide best marketing results

The survey found that 60% of respondents believe that offline marketing, in the form of addressed mail or direct response advertising, is most likely to get them to visit the web site of a company they have not dealt with before, with the intention of buying a product or service.

Only 24% of the consumers surveyed said that a marketing message delivered through digital media such as email, a sponsored web link, or an ad on a social networking web site would drive them to a company's web site with a first-time purchase in mind.

The results were based on a broader European study which involved a survey of 10,000 adults in the UK, Germany, France, Scandinavia and Benelux. Interestingly, women in the UK were more likely to seriously consider a first-time purchase from a web site after being directed there by a traditional marketing message than men (63% compared to only 57% of men). But, when driven to a web site through an online platform, men were more likely to visit with a purchase in mind (25%) than women (23%).

Direct marketing is, however, more effective at driving serious consumer traffic than digital activity across all age groups, with UK consumers aged 35-34 (67%) being most likely to visit and consider buying from a web site for the first time after being directed there by an offline message. The next most likely age group was 35-44 (64%), followed by 45-54 (60%) and the 18-24 and 55+ age groups both at 56%.

When it came to UK consumers responding to digital marketing messages and considering buying from the web site of a company they had not bought from before, the 18-24 age group was most responsive (41%), followed by 25-34 (37%), 35-44 (25%), 45-54 (16%) and 55+ (14%).

Overall, the UK figure lagged slightly behind the European total of 62% for respondents who said that direct marketing was most likely to drive them to go to a web site and consider buying from a company they had not dealt with before, while the figures for digital marketing achieving the same goal was equal, at 24% for both the UK and Europe.

According to Gareth Stoten, general manager for Pitney Bowes in the UK and Ireland, "These figures show how critically important it is for businesses to find the right marketing mix. Online channels such as social networking are a hot topic, but it is traditional print and mail channels that are driving people to make web-based purchases. A digital presence on its own does not provide a strong enough impetus for brands seeking to make a connection with prospects, even when it comes to consumers looking to buy over the internet."

Have you seen The Customer-Focused Marketing Playbook?

This comprehensive and practical guide to the latest ideas in customer-focused marketing hands you over 200 packed pages of strategy, best practices, do's and don'ts, practical know-how, facts and figures, and ideas to optimise your marketing strategy, boost sales, market share, increase ROI and profit.

Learn the insider's tricks and techniques to turn every customers into a 'super spreader' for your brand. It's better than free advertising. Once you start this ball rolling, your brand can grow rapidly through word-of-mouth, advocacy, influencers, and customer loyalty. Super-charge your company's marketing strategy, build up your market share, and make more sales through repeat business and customer loyalty.

Find out what works - and what doesn't - and who's succeeded, and how they did it. See how the world's top brands keep their competitive edge against all odds.

The Customer-Focused Marketing Playbook walks you step-by-step through the techniques, metrics, reporting, analysis, marketing models, technologies, tools and innovations for successful marketing strategies - both traditional and emerging - with expert guidance from thought leaders in every major market. Find out the best ways to gather, analyse, and act on customer data to increase profitability, build your brand, empower your customers, beat the competition, reduce churn, and increase customer profitability. This is a marketing book you simply can't afford to be without.

This book aims to hand you all the facts, figures and research data you need for the best decisions for a more profitable, more engaging marketing strategy. It also highlights all the facts, forecasts and trends identified by our experts from the global Marketing Factbook's vast database of market data, news, studies, research and articles, and presents you with an invaluable library of ideas and practical support you can call upon at will.

With The Customer-Focused Marketing Playbook at your side, you'll have instant access to a true goldmine of easily adaptable and up-to-date strategies, walk-throughs, trends, research and market data, plus all the supporting arguments you need to build a solid, profitable marketing strategy.

Get it on Amazon (Kindle/Print)