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clicked yet?”’ in Chapter 4 illustrates well). Many state ‘Visit our web site!!’, but clearly, a

more specific strapline can be developed which describes the overall proposition of the

site (‘detailed information and product guides to help you select the best product for

you’) or is specific to the campaign (‘we will give you an instant quote online, showing

how much you save with us’).

Offline response mechanisms

The different response mechanics such as web response and URL strategy which we dis-

cussed earlier in the chapter have to be used to maximise response since this helps to direct

potential customers to the most appropriate content on the web site. Different URLs are

also useful for measuring the response of offline media campaigns since we can measure

the number of visitors arriving directly at the URL by entering the domain name.

Public relations

Public relations can be an important tool for driving traffic to the web site if changes to

online services or online events are significant or if a viral campaign is discussed online.

The days of the launch of a web site being significant are now gone, but if a site is re-

launched with significant changes to its services, this may still be worthy of mention.

Many newspapers have regular features listing interesting entertainment or leisure sites

or guides to specific topics such as online banking or grocery shopping. Trade magazines

may also give information about relevant web sites.

Jenkins (1995) argues that one key objective for public relations is its role in trans-

forming a negative situation into a positive achievement. The public relations transfer

process he suggests is as follows:


from ignorance to knowledge;


 from apathy to interest;


from prejudice to acceptance;


 from hostility to sympathy.

This is a key aim of online PR which is discussed in more detail later in this chapter.

Direct marketing

Direct marketing can be an effective method of driving traffic to the web site. As men-

tioned earlier, a web response model can be used where the web site is the means for

fulfilling the response, but a direct mail campaign is used to drive the response. Many

catalogue companies will continue to use traditional direct mail to mail-out a subset of

their offering, with the recipient tempted to visit the site through the fuller offering and

incentives such as competitions or web-specific offers.

Other physical reminders

Since we all spend more time in the real rather than the virtual world, physical reminders

explaining why customers should visit web sites are significant. What is in customers’

hands and on their desk top will act as a prompt to visit a site and counter the weakness

of the web as a pull medium. This is perhaps most important in the B2B context where a

CHAPTER 8· INTERACTIVE MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS