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The last two Pamoja Media posts have outlined how SME owners can use social gaming and email marketing to boost their sales during the 2011 festive marketing season. However, we realise some of you may not want to rely sorely on metrics such as Facebook Insights or Google Analytics to measure your festival marketing results. You want foot traffic to your bricks-and-mortar business and physical receipts to complement these tools.

Web appetizers

You will still need to debut your festive season offers online whether you use Facebook Ads, Google Adwords, or email marketing. The fine print will be that your customers will have to redeem the offers at your physical location. The advantage of this tactic is that you have an opportunity to introduce them to other products and services you provide through physically interacting with them, a chance that you can miss if you finalise the transaction online. If you run a coffee shop the better for your cash registers. Kenyans tend to shop in ‘packs’ during the festive season, so there’s no way the voucher winner will redeem the voucher and leave those accompanying her to spectate.

Location-based applications such as niko hapa can also aid your business increase sales during this festive season. Basically, location-based applications function like ‘live report’ transmission stations. People tell their friends via social media like Facebook that they have ‘checked in’ to your shop. You can then offer a discount which is normally stored in a quick response code to anyone who says they are in your establishment, in the hope that their friends will join them. But first observe whether a substantial number of your regular clients have smartphones before you opt for the location-based method. Basic handsets can’t scan quick-response codes.

Theatre and charity

But perhaps the biggest beneficiaries of online marketing-into-offline sales are theatre troupes and charities. Plays and charity concerts are a festive season staple.  Both parties can promote their wares online, but require their audiences to buy the tickets at a physical location.

Using online marketing strategies to benefit your brick-and-mortar business is a great interactive strategy that should not only benefit your bottom line during this festive season, but also assist your brand to remain in your consumers’ minds even in the New Year.