Retail Bounce Rate

Using internet metrics in my offline campaigns has become a staple to my marketing campaigns I am currently managing. One in particular that should be top of mind with every client spoken with is "bounce rate". Bounce rate is the percentage of visitors to a site who "bounce" away from your site to another site, rather than continue on to other pages within your site. For those unfamiliar with these terms, someone landed on your page because of a message that enticed them. After seeing where you have sent them (likely a landing page), they leave. Why? Because you failed to deliver the experience they expected after clicking on your advertisement.

Now let us shift our minds to the retail world. At some point in your advertisement you have a call to action; come to our store, visit us today, call today for more information, etc. At that point, unless someone tells you that they came in and purchased because of an advertisement they saw, the campaign ends there. However, having a good advertisement with a good call to action isn't enough in today's world to convert a sale from. In fact, it is just the beginning, the beginning of the retail sales process. An emotional decision was made to come to your store or call about an ad they saw. What are you doing to deliver the same feeling and emotion when they walk through your doors that they saw on television? The advertisement is the first step to a sale, but likely one of the smallest. When you design your campaigns you need to re-design your sales models and approach, deliver what the customer is expecting you to and you will convert more sales.

Let us use Best Buy as an example, when I see in the Sunday ad a laptop, carrying case, portable mouse, and a wireless router for $XXX, if that strikes me as something that will fulfill my needs I will go to a Best Buy to look at it. When I go there to look at it, they need to put it on an end cap that is clearly marked with everything I need. The second thing they need to do is staff someone to monitor (not hawk over me, because if I wanted that I wouldn't have researched first) to ensure that the questions I didn't get answered online (because if they were I would've purchased online) get answered timely. Fancy that Best Buy does this already, however how many of your retail clients think things like this through? I would argue not enough, the thought stops at the end of the ad.

Taking a step back sometimes and really focusing on the customer experience start to finish will give you an opportunity to notice things like this and make your marketing dollars really work for you. Bounce rate, remember that, and in every marketing decision remember you should be emulating your message in experience or your customers will not be as receptive to your campaign goals.