How do I combine the print and online marketing?

Now this is the true $100,000 question isn’t it? The truth is, there is no real easy way to track the ROI of print advertising for your online business. There are a number of techniques you can do to help give you a better picture of the success of print marketing, but it is still really nothing more than a guess. Below I will outline a few various ways you can use printed materials to help drive traffic to your company website:

1. Turn Your Business Card Into a Coupon
If you are like many small business owners, you give out or leave your business card with almost every person you come in contact with. While the traditional business card is a business staple, many people underestimate its value as a marketing tool. Yes, having your contact information on it is important, but is that really enough to get people to visit your website? Why not turn your business card into a coupon? Adding a simple line that says, “redeem this card for a free social media strategy consultation” is a lot more likely to get people to contact you.

2. Create a Synergy Between Your Print and Online Image
Many designers already know that keeping a cohesive look between ads, website, and marketing materials is important. But, you would be pretty surprised ( or maybe you wont!) at how many small business owners aren’t aware of just how important this is. Using your logo on all your materials is not enough to create a cohesive look. You need to make sure things like colors, fonts, photos, logos, all match up. You don’t want someone thinking they went to the wrong website because it looks nothing like the flyer they have do you?

3. Create a Custom Landing Page for Printed Materials
First, let me say that this is not the same thing as creating a custom URL to try to track ROI from printed materials. Adding a www.mysite.com/nytimes url to your ad the auto redirects to your homepage is a fools attempt to track conversions. The majority of people out there, even the dumbest ones, are smart enough to know they don’t need to type that into the browser. What you need to do is create a landing page that is specific to your printed material and that persuades them to visit that url directly. For example, say your are a wedding photographer, you could create a custom landing page with a contest for seniors to get a free 8×10 print. In this instance, people are a lot more likely to visit the contest url before the root url, thus helping you track your ROI from printed materials.

4. The Power of Curiosity
Many small business owners are afraid of this tactic, but many could greatly profit from it. That said, this idea won’ work for everyone. The idea here is to say as little about your business as possible. For example, if you were a designer, try only printing your website url on the card. Obviously you can’t really track this method, but it is still worth while. Many people will be intrigued at what you do and want to see what you are all about. On a side not though, you need to have a somewhat descriptive url for this to work well.

5. Drive Traffic from Your Website to Your Printed Material
Say what?!? How does this work you are probably asking yourself. This is another tactic that requires a little more work, but one that could work very well for the right business and industry. The idea here is to make your customers have to do some work to be able some sort of discount or special from you. One idea here is to blog about a special on your website. Then tell your readers in order to get it, they must find your “secret flyer” at local downtown retailer. If launched correctly, this could lead to a nice little viral marketing campaign.