This blog was originally published in business2community.com in January 2014, and is reproduced here with permission. It has since been updated for Minacs Blogs.
The days of blatant advertising, promotional emails, and “spammy” messages are over! Marketers are evolving beyond such advertising strategies using advanced digital marketing methods, platforms, and tools.
The latest entrants in this space are social media giants like Facebook and Twitter, who recently launched remarketing tools for advertisers and marketers. These tools allow them now to retarget prospects through their platforms. Unlike traditional advertising that works towards generating a demand, retargeting works on user intent—getting them to buy a product or service they have already shown an interest in (by visiting the merchant’s site, completing a form or when they have already made an initial purchase).
The concept of retargeting (or remarketing) isn’t new. Amazon has been using its basics from many years to retarget customers with special offers/recommendations based on a customer’s purchase history, likes, etc. However, retargeting is now being actively used in online marketing by businesses globally.
THE POWER OF PERSONALIZED RECOMMENDATIONS
While online shopping is growing rapidly (Forrester predicts online sales to reach $250 billion by 2014, up from $155 billion in 2009), it is also true that only 2% of shoppers convert on their first visit to a site. Marketers are challenged to reacquire these consumers quickly after they leave their website, and find ways to counter the risk of losing them to competition. Retargeting helps you engage with these prospects and drive them further down the conversion funnel.
The mechanism is simple. By dropping cookies on your browser, marketers are able to track your activity on the Web and then serve customized ads based on your interaction with their site. For example, you visit a travel portal and check out holiday packages before leaving. The cookies placed on your browser will inform the marketer of your next destination on the Web, where you could be shown customized ads with relevant holiday packages/offers that you might be interested in.
For those who are concerned about their “privacy” being compromised, the cookies or tracking codes do not collect any personal information such as name, email ID or IP. They just track whether or not a user has visited a site before, allowing marketers to focus their ads only on people that have previously engaged with them online.
Facebook’s retargeting tool is a great opportunity for marketers to capitalize on the enormous volume of social conversations. This also allows social platforms to go beyond traditional data sources (demographics, likes, followers, etc.) and offer marketers the ability to target customers using real-time data, and reach them right where they are!
TURNING INTENT INTO ACTIONS: HOW?
Technology makes it possible to track, monitor and process consumers’ digital footprints in real-time, telling marketers all about their interests and intentions! It is not surprising therefore, that brands are increasingly using remarketing and predictive buying techniques to understand and influence consumers’ buying behavior.
One of my favorite examples is the pregnancy prediction score used by Target. The retail giant can predict a consumer’s pregnancy from her shopping behavior (yes, you heard that right)! It can thus identify prospects to contact with offers specific to the needs of a new/to-be parent. Similarly, to improve its movie recommendations, Netflix invested $1 million in a competition to predict those movies that users like.
The coming years will see significant advancement in the remarketing space, as brands learn to engage customers using multiple channels and new touch points. Turning advertisements into personalized engagements will not only improve user experience, but also drive conversions and loyalty. In fact, businesses will harness insights from elsewhere too, not just visitor behavior on their website. Imagine reaching far back in your demographic/buying histories, to pull in the power of Big Data, combining it with online indicators of intent—to target you with the right offer at the right time!
Whether it is tailored advertising, predictive buying or integrated cross-marketing (including email, mobile and social media), you can today go where no one has gone before. Go engage with customers at the “tipping” point of their decision-making cycle! While I admit I find that to be rather scary, the marketer in me is looking very closely at what Facebook and Twitter’s new roll out will mean for consumers and sellers.
Can retargeting help you drive better conversions? What kind of marketing techniques have worked best for you? Do share your comments
