Another data point in lead tracking: Print drives web traffic all by its lonesome

by drm on May 31, 2009

Here’s another interesting data point from a lead-tracking company.

But first, some context:

As regular readers know, I’m a believer in the effectiveness of multiple media platforms to drive results for marketers. No one media mix is the right media mix; a marketer can take advantage of multiple platforms and consistent messaging to create a powerful footprint with consumerCD2D3A78-95F5-4AC9-B583-5542C317A7E3.jpgs at a very efficient cost.

That point of view is often in disfavor among marketers who look at the discrete tracking and relatively low out-of-pocket cost of internet marketing and think that traditional media, particularly print, is ineffective and too expensive.

I recently pointed to some analysis by the call-tracking firm CallSource that showed that integrated print & media advertising generated significantly more response than internet only advertising.

Another survey looking at the effectiveness of print was released last week by Telmetrics, a lead-tracking firm in Canada that does a lot of work with the Yellow Pages industry.

This survey was focused specifically on trying to quantify how much web traffic a print ad could drive.

From November 2008 to April 2009, Telmetrics tracked the response to 1200 different yellow pages advertisements, using a customized URL to measure how many direct web visits the advertisement drove.

The findings demonstrated overwhelmingly that print advertising drives web traffic. According to the report in MediaPost:

Traditional print media drives online leads, according to data released today from Telmetrics, a Toronto-based company focused on advertising call tracking and measurement solutions.

Telmetrics found that URL visits represented 44% of leads on average, while call traffic generated 56% of leads. Tracking unique URL activity in addition to call measurement demonstrated a 78% increase in overall leads driven by print Yellow Pages.

Combine the CallSource research with the Telmetric research and you have the following conclusion:

A marketing campaign combining print and internet advertising will drive twice as many calls and nearly twice as many web visits as a campaign that only uses the internet.

That’s a very compelling justification for investing in traditional media. It may not be new and sexy, but it will pay off.

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  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Scott-Dixon/1599996287 Scott Dixon

    Great article Dan. I'm going to share. Thanks

  • http://www.apartmentveteran.com/ Eric Brown

    Dan, Hi,
    I love your site, but disagree with the content of your post. Folks should start listening to apartment operators as opposed to the data source that has a vested interest in you BUYING into their data they are providing. That is letting the Fox in the Hen House. Being from mid state Ohio and growing up on a farm, the Fox in the Hen House was Not Good.

    I agree with you that effective use of multiple media platforms drive results for marketers, and if you have a large enough marketing budget, Do It All, of course that yields a higher result. When talking with lots of Apartment Operators across the nation, those brave enough to drop their print ads, are saving huge dollars with little to no drop on leads and or rentals.

    Instead, why aren’t Property Management Companies more focused on their Google Ranking. It is amazingly easy to gauge and check. Just Google your name, which will give an accurate sense of your Brand Awareness. Google Urbane Apartments and we dominate the first 7-10 pages. Social Media is the key resource we have used to gain that ranking, NOT Traditional Marketing, Print or ILS Advertising. Heck, Urbane comes up mid page, Page One even when you Google just the word Apartments.

    According to lots of data, not produced by the Fox in the Hen House, 70% of folks start their purchase on line with a Google Search. That’s a pretty big number. So, why don’t Property Management Companies focus on where they rank on a Google Search for say Apartments (Your City) in a Google Search. Again, it is pretty darned easy to check. I check our ranking for Apartments Royal Oak every day, and we consistently come up Page One, Number One to Three at the top page, organically, most of the time in front of the ILS guys. I have always banked on the idea that if we could get the prospect to our Urbane Website first or faster, we can immediately begin to Enhance the Prospects Experience.

    And, we aren't all that tech savvy either, we just aren't buying in to Doing It the Way it has Always been Done, which has allowed Urbane to Break From the Pack of Apartment Commodity

  • http://www.nci.com drm

    Eric,

    Thanks for checking in….I appreciate the kind words and your readership.

    We agree on pretty much everything, unfortunately. (Since a little conflict would be much spicier.) I guess I take a little exception with being called a Fox, and I’m not a fan of henhouses, since we raised chickens when I was a kid. (I’d like to be modeled on the cat in Martin’s Mice, but that’s an obscure reference.)

    The whole web game is driven by Google juice and owning your footprint and driving your page rank by creating and refreshing a lot of content is the absolute best strategy. You’ve done a good job of leveraging that into a very unique position in your market.

    Since you read my blog regularly, you know I like data and research. I’m pretty particular about what I use, because I don’t like research that is skewed or focused into a small agenda. I’ve also got a lot of insight into different response metrics by virtue of all the businesses we are in and all the tracking that we do. If we can create value for clients, in a variety of different media and marketing outlets, then we get a chance to keep doing business with them.

    One reason I focused on the Telmetric study is that I have tracked and seen the same impact of print advertising on web traffic in our business. I know the Telmetric guys also, and know that they are pretty intellectually honest, which is the core of good data.

    What fascinates me is the ability to shift, leverage and optimize different media programs at different stages of the product life cycle. If you can find ways to drive volume at key moments at a low cost, that can supplement other marketing programs. Don’t ask me why….I just like that kind of stuff.

    There’s no question in my mind that using social media platforms is a terrific way of driving Google juice and that when you get it, you’ve solved a big puzzle. The discussion of whether social media works on not always seems to miss that point, until you come along and justifiably make it.

  • 30lines

    Dan, I appreciate the compilation of data here, but I think the conclusion you present is fairly common sense. You're essentially saying, “the more places where people can find you, the more likely you are to be seen.”

    I agree with your point: an integrated marketing program will almost always be more effective than one that puts all of your eggs in one basket. Even in the case of Urbane, I would argue that Eric has not abandoned print for an Internet-only approach … much of his company's success can be attributed to their word-of-mouth efforts, which can be an incredibly powerful marketing “platform” in its own right.

    What I would be more interested to see (and what was not mentioned in the MediaPost piece) would be the trend over time of those leads generated by the print ads. Is the percentage of website visits vs. calls increasing, and if so, by how much? I also like the idea of custom landing pages … I'd be interested to see the differences in conversion between those ads that direct readers to a specific landing page vs. those that only point the reader to the advertiser's homepage.

    Thanks for sharing the data and your perspective!

  • http://www.viralhousingfix.com danielrmccarthy

    Sorry for the slow response Mike. First, I like it when my observations rise to the level of common sense, as long as I don't get too simple.

    I've actually got some data over time about the conversion rate of print versus internet usage into leads and will try to pull something together. I don't have specific data focusing on the landing page issue, but we have looked pretty carefully at the kind of behaviors that drive high lead conversion online and two factors stand out: specificity of search terms, both coming to a site and within a site, and the amount of information that is consumed within the site. Again, feels like common sense: a shopper who is more intent and engaged converts at a higher rate.

  • http://www.viralhousingfix.com danielrmccarthy

    Sorry for the slow response Mike. First, I like it when my observations rise to the level of common sense, as long as I don't get too simple.

    I've actually got some data over time about the conversion rate of print versus internet usage into leads and will try to pull something together. I don't have specific data focusing on the landing page issue, but we have looked pretty carefully at the kind of behaviors that drive high lead conversion online and two factors stand out: specificity of search terms, both coming to a site and within a site, and the amount of information that is consumed within the site. Again, feels like common sense: a shopper who is more intent and engaged converts at a higher rate.

  • http://www.viralhousingfix.com danielrmccarthy

    Sorry for the slow response Mike. First, I like it when my observations rise to the level of common sense, as long as I don't get too simple.

    I've actually got some data over time about the conversion rate of print versus internet usage into leads and will try to pull something together. I don't have specific data focusing on the landing page issue, but we have looked pretty carefully at the kind of behaviors that drive high lead conversion online and two factors stand out: specificity of search terms, both coming to a site and within a site, and the amount of information that is consumed within the site. Again, feels like common sense: a shopper who is more intent and engaged converts at a higher rate.