When you see an ad in the newspaper, on the radio, on TV, or in a magazine, you should see this as an opportunity to take full advantage of these customers online. People often times learn about different products/services offline before they migrate online to do research, and quite often, make a purchase online.

People who see advertising offline are also likely to be much further along in the purchasing lifecycle. This is because they have become knowledgeable of the brand, know what the company has to offer, and if the advertisement was effective, may be ready to purchase.

If it is in a magazine...

Someone that sees an ad in a magazine for example (see below) typically goes online if they want to find out more about the product, the price, and where they can get it. If it is sold online, that is best if you plan on trying to sell them something (not always the purpose of your traffic).

Anyways, someone that read this ad in this day and age and was a true customer, would likely go online to research this Rolex Watch along with others. Perhaps they might even buy it, perhaps they are a watch collector and you could get them on a list and sell them watches and accessories (high end of course). This is a case where you can leverage Rolex's offline marketing campaign to drive your online business.

What About All of Those Late Night Infomercials?

Another effective method of using company advertising is to use infomercials to your advantage. Infomercials do a great job of selling and by the time someone is done watching the show, they have made the decision whether they want to buy or not. Traditionally, people would make a purchase over the phone as it was the only method of ordering.

However, many now use the Internet to order infomercial products. This is a great opportunity for you to offer people searching the product keywords either the product, or a related product that will work just as good if not better.

To take advantage of company advertising, you have to use product review type keywords, as well as purchase keywords. Brand awareness is already there, so people will likely be typing in some variant of the brand name if they were to go online for more information. People will be more likely to buy if they are already familiar with a brand and have seen an advertisement prior to visiting your site (which typically do a good job of pre-selling the product).