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7th November 2016

4 Ways to Track Print Marketing through Digital Methods

8
minute read

In the past, it was often hard to track the effectiveness of print marketing. Although you might know the circulation figures of a newspaper, you couldn’t guarantee that all those readers will see your advert, or that they’ll become your customers.

But thanks to digital technologies, it’s now very easy to see what effect those adverts are having. Here are four ways to track your print marketing through digital methods and help you work out what your return on investment is.

1. Use Google Analytics to help you

If your print marketing encourages people to visit your website, this Google Analytics ‘hack’ is very useful to check whether it’s working. It highlights the point in time on your Google Analytics data when your print marketing goes ‘live’ so you can see the impact on visits to your website.

For example, if you have an advert in your local paper that has a call-to-action directing readers to your website, and is scheduled to go live on 15th February, or a direct mail campaign which you send out on 3rd March, you can make a note on your Analytics data on that day. You can then see the difference between your website traffic before and after the campaign went live.

To make a note on your Analytics data, follow these steps:

  1. Sign into Google Analytics
  2. On the dashboard, click the small grey arrow under the main graph
  3. Click ‘Create new annotation’ on the right
  4. Select the date when your print marketing is going live
  5. Add any details (for example, what sort of marketing it was)
  6. Click ‘Save’ to add the note to your data

There are more sophisticated ways to track your marketing using Google Analytics but if you're just starting out with it we'd suggest that this is the simplest method.

2. Use specific URLs

This technique is a little more complex, but it’s a great way to track print marketing if you’re sending out a number of different adverts which link to different pages on your website.

Using a specific web address (URL) in your print advertising means you can see exactly how many people visited specific pages on your website after seeing your print marketing. You can use specific URLs in a few different ways.

Landing pages

First, you can set up landing pages for each of your print marketing campaigns. For example, if you’re a local restaurant running tasting events and are promoting them using print marketing, you could set up a landing page all about the events. Give the page a simple, memorable URL, like ‘www.carlos.com/tasting’ and include this in your print marketing.

You can then use Google Analytics, or another website reporting tool, to see how many people have visited this specific page. As long as you don’t share this URL anywhere else, then you’ll be able to see the effectiveness of your print marketing. You should always bear in mind that although Google Analytics will be able to give you a good idea of effectiveness, it can’t account for some things, such as people passing promotional information between friends, in this case.

URL shortener

Alternatively, you can use a URL shortener to create a specific URL from one of your existing webpages. A URL shortener takes the address of your webpage and generates a unique ‘shortlink’ which is easier for customers to remember and use. Some popular URL shorteners include bitly, tinyurl and ow.ly.

After shortening one of your URLs, you can include this shortlink in your print marketing. The website you used to create the short URL can then tell you how many people visited your website using that specific address.

3. Use call-tracking software

This method requires you to work with an external partner, but gives you incredible amounts of information about whether your print marketing is encouraging people to contact your business.

Call-tracking software is often used to help you monitor which of your online marketing methods result in potential customers giving you a call, but it can also be used for print and other traditional forms of advertising. This means you can clearly see the links between offline and online marketing.

Using call-tracking software from a company like Response Tap, Media Hawk or Infinity Cloud, you can assign a unique call tracking number to each piece of your print marketing. All of these numbers will 're-route' to your main phone number, so you won't have to have separate lines installed.

When someone calls one of the unique tracking numbers, the software will record the location of the call, length of the call, and lots of other data. Most importantly, you'll be able to see which pieces of your print marketing are giving you a clear return on investment by getting customers to call you directly.

4. Use letter and number codes

Ok, so not strictly a digital method but it's still definitely worth using. This technique has been used for years to help track the effectiveness of print marketing, and can now be used with online marketing too. On your advert, flyer, direct mail or other printed materials, include a code which customers can use to get a discount or other benefit and you can track simply.

This code should be short and memorable so your customers are able to quote it without having to refer to the advert – for example, you might have a code for 20% off Christmas products which is ‘XMAS20’.

The most important part of this technique is that everyone in your business knows about the code and records it accurately. You could use a simple spreadsheet in store or over the phone, and if you sell online you could set up the code as a discount on your system.

Recording how many customers used the code, and what they bought, will give you a good estimate of the return on investment you’ve got for this bit of print marketing. Recording this information is a good habit to get into, as you can start to build an understanding of what campaigns are most successful for your customers, and re-use similar strategies in the future.

Instead of wondering whether your print marketing is having the impact you want, try a couple of these techniques to help you see what’s working and whether you’re getting a return on your investment.

To find out more information on reporting, here are some articles which will help you along the way:

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