Digital marketing is one of the most effective, measurable ways to develop online sales and audiences, but knowing exactly who your audience is – not only to reach them the first time because they meet your desired attributes, but also when someone has expressed an interest in your products or services – is the difference between potential success and potential failure.
In the first instance of marketing, we tend to define audiences by a number of key parameters of interest that match our business sector, whether it’s products or services.
People who fall into this broader set of parameters are generally ‘cold’ leads who may or may not choose to engage with your advert but probably won’t find it irrelevant either way.
However, once a person has clicked on your advert or ads similar to yours, they become a far ‘warmer’ lead – if they proceed from click to purchase (which you should be able to track) then great, you’ve turned a lead into a customer.
But if they click and browse but don’t convert to a sale or enquiry, then you need to have a re-marketing strategy that re-engages that person effectively to increase the likelihood of a conversion to your goal.
This is known as re-marketing, and it’s a highly effective way to build both sales and repeat customers.
So how do you go about creating segmented audiences to re-target your marketing to, so that you can ensure to send the right messages to the right people based on the interest they’ve shown?
Here are some tips to ensure you don’t apply a ‘one-size-fits-all’ strategy…
#1 Start by identifying your audience by where and how they first engaged. Did they visit your website? If so, which pages? How deep into the site did they go? Did they put an item in a shopping basket, for example, but abandoned the checkout process? What does that tell you about how to engage them in your next communication?
#2 Focus on users, across multiple channels – by which we mean, don’t think of ‘Facebook users’ as one group. Rather think of ‘people who’ve asked about XX product on Facebook, come to us via Google, visited the relevant page on our website etc.’ as the group so that you can re-target by interest, rather than platform.
As an example, if you’ve advertised a particular pair of shoes on a Facebook advert, you’ll be able to re-target people who clicked on that advert as well as other people who’ve expressed an interest in that pair of shoes using Google Display Network, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and more. The lesson is to focus on interest, not channel!
#3 Don’t be afraid to target your competitor’s users – it’s often the case that a user who’s dropped out of a competitor website a) has an interest in the product or service, and b) probably hasn’t been re-marketed to by your competitor. That’s an opportunity for you to do just that!
You’re also able, conversely, to use tools like Remarketing Lists for Search Ads in Google to find and retarget users who have been on your website but are also searching for your competitors’ website, giving you the chance to win the business before the chance disappears!
#4 Set up ad campaigns that link sequentially or thematically to each other – a series of ads that tell a story in sequence gives you the chance to re-target users who’ve clicked on one or two ads but not the next in the sequence. By knowing that their interest has been piqued, you’re able to serve them the next in the sequence of ads and give yourself the best chance to convert them back into the path towards a purchase decision.
#5 Find users who are already engaged with a process of kind that may need your product or service as an add-on – for example, people who are looking for wedding dresses are likely also going to look for flowers, wedding cars, honeymoon options and more. Put yourself in the mix by re-marketing proactively to users in this way.
#6 Re-market to your most valuable audience segment by using personas – by analysing the amounts a person spends or the number of positive engagements they have with your brand, and matching that with demographics information, you’ll be able to create a series of buying personas that you’ll be able to speak to in a relevant way, because you already know what they like!
Find out more about digital marketing in a competitive online environment, and how to get the best results from well-planned, well-executed re-marketing campaigns, get in touch with Realnet today on 01223 550800 or info@realnet.co.uk.