The Holy Grail of Digital Marketing Attribution

A very important concept to understand and master for your marketing to work well in the long-haul is marketing attribution. To understand marketing attribution, you need to know where and how your customers came across your product or service.

In the past, marketing attribution has been extremely hard to track, especially if your campaign used non-digital, traditional means. Marketing tools such as radio ads, tv ads, magazine ads, and billboard ads created a nightmare for marketers to track conversion (a person seeing an ad and purchasing a product) from.

Tracking conversion of traditional, non-digital marketing methods

One of the oldest ways to track marketing attribution, although one of the most flawed:  timing. In other words, you know you ran a marketing campaign at a certain time, and during that same time sales went up, so your campaign must have worked. Or so the thinking goes. But you don’t REALLY know if that’s the case; you’re just making a guess, albeit an informed one. But what if you run a lot of different campaigns on different media channels at the same time, like most businesses?

The importance of marketing attribution

So, the importance of marketing attribution cannot be overstated. You need to know where your ads work and where they don’t. I mean, just think about it. Say you have a national marketing campaign running. You rent a bunch of billboards for $5000 a pop and run radio ads for $1500 in each major city. Your sales increase, but you don’t know if your sales rose because of the billboard ad or the radio ad. But knowing could save you tens of thousands of dollars a month! Especially if the radio ads are where most of your customers are coming from.

What is the difference between online, digital marketing and traditional, non-digital marketing?

Up to this point, we have largely focused on traditional, non-digital or offline marketing. But what is the difference? Simple. Online marketing is exactly that; it’s marketing done online. The marketing techniques online: social media ads, banner ads, Google ads, websites, email, to name just a few. And traditional marketing is done offline; no digital footprint. These techniques: billboard ads, magazine ads, radio ads, TV ads, etc…

How online, digital and offline, non-digital marketing is attributed

Online, digital marketing attribution is easy to track. Google analytics and a host of other website trackers and ad trackers tell you exactly where and when a person saw your ad and then purchased your product.

Offline, non-digital marketing attribution is so much harder to track. But marketers have tried their best. They’ve come up with methods such as surveys, coupons, special phone numbers and vanity URLs. However, none of these methods result in 100 percent accuracy. None of them even come close to the online ad data.

Track offline, non-digital marketing with text message marketing

Text message marketing is the holy grail of offline, non-digital marketing attribution. It easily bridges the gap between online, digital marketing and offline, traditional marketing. And when you need data for offline, non-digital marketing attribution, a solid text message marketing platform really makes your job easy!

Text message marketing platforms track offline, non-digital marketing easily with keyword campaigns. Keyword campaigns allow you to bring the offline, non-digital world of marketing online and set up and run simply. Choose a keyword for customers to text to a specified number.

When a potential customer sees your call to action, which includes the keyword campaign, on some sort of print ad or on TV, and texts that word to your number; BOOM, they just became digital. Plus, a good text messaging platform makes keyword campaigns very versatile. Send customers to URLs, give them info in text messages, gather information from them, and even let a sales associate call or text them since you now have their cell number.

EXAMPLE: Text ROCCOS1 to 505-465-8101 to get our weekly pizza specials.

Let’s pull from the example above where you run a national marketing campaign. You still have your billboard ad for $5000 a month and your radio ad for $200 a month. But here’s the difference: the billboard ad and the radio ad have two separate “keywords” so you know exactly where the customers come from when they purchase your product. Each keyword campaign tags the customer in your database so that you know where they came from.

Where to use offline, non-digital marketing text message keyword campaigns

Engage potential or current customers and track marketing attribution using keyword campaigns. The list ranges from billboard, radio, TV, sporting events, convention signage, and magazine ads to window, car wrap, t-shirt, and pen ads. Also, consider the possibilities of using different keyword campaigns on your product packaging and in your shops for survey purposes; even use a keyword campaign to give a customer the set up instructions for a product. All of these offline, non-digital ads become trackable with text message keyword campaigns.

Even if you have multiple marketing campaigns going at the same time, tracking exactly where people come from in real time works! How agile?! That’s how powerful text message keyword campaigns become!

Text message marketing platform tools

So, not only are keyword campaigns one of the best ways to engage potential customers, but text message marketing platforms that offer keyword campaigns come with all the digital juice you need.

First, you capture the real cell phone number of everyone who engages in a keyword campaign. The option to capture emails too if you want. Second, you use different keywords for all the campaigns you run, there’s no limit! Third, each keyword campaign tags customer data so you’ll know exactly where a customer came from and what they’re interested in.

Fourth, with a good text message marketing application, you link your existing applications to it and have automated customer data going back and forth between your company’s systems. This exchange of information is invaluable! Once you know where your customers come from and what they want, make their wish a reality.

The holy grail of marketing attribution: text message marketing

Text message marketing bridges the gap between online, digital marketing and offline, non-digital marketing. It puts you in the driver’s seat of your company by seamlessly tracking marketing attribution, while also offering you the tools to change your marketing strategy. TextSanity, a unique text message marketing application, helps you accomplish all your marketing goals. Try it now!