Memorial Day Prom: Using Search to Drive Physica

Outdoor clothing and equipment retailer Cabela had been in the business for 50 years. Its sales strategy had been driven largely by catalogue mailings and aggressive online marketing. Cabela wanted to use online campaigns to not only drive online sales, but also increase physical store traffic.

Consumers use search to discover, research, and compare products, as well as find where they can be purchased. Cabela’s challenge was being able to connect in-store traffic directly to its paid search campaign. Campaigns were built and set to geo-target a 200-mile radius around each store. Keyword experts built online promotional campaigns for each store and focused on keywords for Cabela’s brand and key holiday events.

One group was created with terms themed around the event, such as “Memorial Day Sale,” and “Cabela’s Memorial Day Event” along with brand terms themed around the event like “Cabela’s boating sale.” Copy specialists developed ad copy that offered in-store coupons to the select audience.

The coupon could be printed and only be redeemed at one of the store locations during the holiday event. Copy highlighted the opportunity to receive $10 off any purchase over $50 with a coupon redeemed during the sale. Relevant landing pages were used to guide consumers through the coupon retrieval process.

The landing pages prompted customers to enter their email address in order to print out the coupon to bring into the physical store to get a discount. There was also an option to have the coupon mailed to the consumer. The campaign was live May 21-27, Memorial Day being May 26.