What is retargeting?

Retargeting is a digital marketing tactic for targeting people who have visited a website or specific page (thus demonstrating a deeper level of interest in that brand or website) with a display ad campaign.

Learn how to increase your conversion rate and generate more revenue on your website by retargeting visitors with online retargeting ads!

So you’ve already got a solid amount of traffic flowing into your website. The problem? Visitors aren’t converting — you’re not taking advantage of the opportunity that your traffic is bringing.

By implementing a retargeting strategy, you can bring visitors back to your website by serving them display ads as they browse other websites on the internet.

It’s a very interesting tactic because it allows you to keep your brand at the center of attention even after visitors leave, increasing the rate at which you convert normal visitors to your site into paying customers.

How does retargeting work?

Retargeting works using web browser “cookies” that are stored in a visitor’s browser. By installing a little bit of JavaScript code in the footer of your website, you can place one of these cookies that is stored in your web visitors’ browsers that contains uniquely identifying information, allowing you to find them with ads — even when they’re browsing other websites!

Explanation of the different steps of retargeting:

1. Start by setting up a snippet JavaScript that will place a tracking cookie in your visitors’ browser storage. Although the name is the same, browser cookies (or HTTP cookies) are a bit different than their homonymic baked good counterparts. The “cookies” that I’m talking about are actually small pieces of data that allow websites to “remember” certain information about a user as they browse the web (sorry to disappoint anyone looking for something more in the chocolate chip department).
2. Once a visitor visits your website, the JavaScript code that you put in your website sends the visitor’s browser a packet of data (i.e. the cookie) containing unique identifying information.
3. As the visitor browses other websites, this cookie is included in the HTTP requests sent to these sites’ web servers. If the website is using an advertising service (such as Google AdSense), it will be able to use the data from the cookie in order to identify the visitor as someone who has been to your website before.
4. If you’ve set up retargeting advertisements on platform like AdRoll (which serves ads across many networks, including sites running AdSense), the networks will identify your cookied users as they visit other websites and the platform will serve ads to them according to the logic and frequency that you’ve set up in your ad platform.

What is retargeting used for?

The biggest advantage of retargeting is that it allows you to reach out to people who have already demonstrated an interest in your brand.

Depending on your goal, retargeting can be a super effective way to help you achieve your business goals. For example:

Increase brand recognition

If you want people to remember and recognize your brand, you can launch a retargeting campaign that targets any person who has visited your site before.

People like things that are familiar. That’s why it’s much easier to convince someone to buy something from you if they are already familiar with your brand — even if they don’t remember why or how they found out about you in the first place!

But, people don’t remember every brand or website that they’ve seen before. By re-exposing your brand to people who have already visited your website, you can reinforce this recognition, build trust, and increase the chances that they will convert and become a customer further down the line.

Plus, even if they aren’t trying to make a purchase, your brand will be top-of-mind in discussions that they might be having with other people in their network! Word spreads fast.

Example: ANA uses retargeting to increase brand recognition for people who have visited their site to browse flights to position themselves as the leading provider of flights to Japan.

Nurture and qualify leads

Retarget people who have seen your content before by inviting them to subscribe to your newsletter or offering them new resources to download in order to get them more interested in your product or service.

If you’re following an inbound marketing strategy, it’s likely that you have downloadable resources and a newsletter opt-in form on your website to obtain contact information from interested contacts and build an engaged email contact list.

With retargeting, you can supercharge the impact that these resources have by following up with people who have visited your blog before and offer them your downloadable content so that you can get their contact information and continue moving them closer to a conversion with your other marketing campaigns and communications.

This strategy of lead nurturing helps you position your business as a resources and leader in the industry because you’re offering relevant and detailed content that educates your leads.

Example: Velostock retargets people who visited their website by inviting them to sign up for their newsletter to stay in the loop about product/company updates.

Follow up with qualified leads

Retarget visitors who have spent a certain amount of time on a product page or pricing page to see if they’re ready to convert.

Not every visitor to your website is the same — some people will inevitably be closer to making a purchase than others. So how do you distinguish them and get the most from your marketing strategy?

To get more from the people who have a higher level of interest in your business, you can for example retarget people who visited a specific page that indicates a closer proximity to conversion (e.g. pricing page or contact page).

Visitors who are truly interested and close to converting will also generally spend more time on page because they are reading the information more carefully. With this in mind, you can also add a condition to target only visitors who visited a specific page and spent a certain amount of time on that page if you want to be even more sure that they’re a qualified visitor.

Example: DataCamp uses retargeting in Gmail to showcase new projects that are related to users who have worked on similar products in the past.

Reduce lost revenue from cart abandonment

Retarget people who have abandoned their carts to try and win them back.

Even if they didn’t end up completing their purchase, visitors who abandoned their eCommerce cart after adding items to it are highly qualified leads that were just one click away from conversion. All they need is a little encouragement!

By serving ads to these users, you can reduce the negative impact of abandoned carts on your site and win back some of this revenue. To make them even more effective, you can include images of the actual products that the shopper left in their cart before abandoning it.

Example: Here you can see an ad from Best Buy that sends users who left items in their cart directly back to the checkout page.

Encourage repeat purchases

Retargeting people who have already made a purchase on your site is a very effective strategy for getting more sales and increasing the lifetime value of your customers while simultaneously boosting retention by making your brand more sticky.

Building relationships with customers doesn’t stop the moment they make a purchase on your site. In fact, that’s just the beginning! Products don’t last forever, and businesses often sell more than just one thing. Retargeting can be an effective tool for following up with customers who may be looking to upgrade or replace an item they purchased from you before, as well as for cross-selling customers on your other offerings!

An essential pillar of your marketing strategy

Of course, retargeting isn’t only useful for eCommerce sellers:

• For nonprofits, you can convince website visitors to subscribe to your emails or make a donation to keep your mission alive!
• If you’re a SaaS company like us, you can use retargeting to attract leads back into your conversion funnel depending on where they lie in the purchase process.
• Bloggers can bring visitors back to their blog in order to consume new content.

You can adapt your retargeting strategy however you want to find the best fit with your global marketing needs and objectives.

Different retargeting channels

There are several different platforms that provide brands with retargeting, each with unique benefits and characteristics.

When trying to choose the right platform for your retargeting campaign, there are a few criteria you should keep in mind:

• Budget
• Objectives
• Typical customer behavior (e.g. Do they use Facebook? Where are they most likely to click on your ads?)

1. Display banner retargeting ads

Display retargeting refers to the banner advertisements that are displayed on websites allowing external advertisements (e.g. Google Display Network). Users are identified using cookie data from websites they have visited in the past. It’s the most common channel used for serving retargeting ads.

For this type of retargeting, you have to go through a company like AdRoll, which allows you to set up ads and serve them on sites that make up different display networks.

Your advertising software works with the different display networks to identify the most relevant audience for your ads according to the cookies stored in their browsers. You then pay according to a formula based on the number of impressions you get or the clicks you receive on your ads.

You’ve probably seen these types of ads before on some of your favorite websites. For example, here are two display banners on the BBC homepage:

2. Retargeting on Facebook and other social networks

Almost everyone is on Facebook, so you can be sure that you’ll find your customers here.

Retargeting on social networks lets you show sponsored social media posts to people who have visited your website while they’re browsing through feeds on their favorite social sites.

Facebook is probably the most common platform used for retargeting because it’s the most general in terms of content and it has the broadest audience. But, that may not always be the case — you should always think about adapting your methods of retargeting based on the specifics of your business and customers:

• LinkedIn for B2B companies and companies targeting a specific industry or professional segment
• Instagram or Pinterest for fashion and eCommerce
• Snapchat for brands looking to target a younger demographic

However, Facebook is the platform with most options for setting up your retargeting campaigns. For example, you can choose to target your visitors using a tracking pixel explicitly created for this purpose by Facebook, or you can target only leads for whom you have contact information. If you have an email address that Facebook can tie to a specific user, they will be included in this audience.

On Facebook, you can show ads on the right side of the screen or directly in the newsfeed like a normal post:

On mobile, ads are displayed only in the newsfeed:

3. Email retargeting

Track your leads all the way to the inbox!

While it’s not quite the same as retargeting ads, email retargeting is the process of following up with known contacts in order to get them to convert on your website. The most common example of this would be abandoned cart emails. Because they’re known contacts, it requires you to know who they are, but the goal is still to drive visitors back to your website and get the to convert.

Retargeting best practices

No matter what platform you’re using, there are a few universal tips that you should always keep in mind:

• Create different audiences
• Set up a targeted landing page that is optimized for conversion
• Manage ad fatigue by setting rules and changing things up

Categorically segment your contact list

Create different audiences according to various types of users you want to target.

Not all of your visitors are going to be searching for the same thing from you. So, if you try just using a generic message that is served to all of your leads, your retargeting messages are going to be a flop.

Instead, you should use the information you have about contacts to create custom audiences based on interests or behavior (previous visitors, people who visited a specific product page, people who added a product to their cart, previous customer, etc.).

Creating custom audiences also allows you to exclude visitors who have little chance of ultimately becoming a client, such as people who visited your website but left the page within 3 seconds.

Direct visitors to pages adapted to their interests

Boost the likelihood of conversion by providing a more targeted experience with landing pages that address their particular situation.

When setting up your advertisements for retargeting, you have to think about more than just the ad copy and creative. Make sure the destination you’re sending them to from the ad is also optimized for your goals.

Your goal should be to reduce the level of friction to conversion on your website as much as you possibly can.

My advice:

• Create a specific landing page for each segment that you’re targeting.
• For visitors who looked at specific product pages, send them back to those same products (or suggest similar products).
• Bring customers who abandoned carts directly back to the checkout page so all they have to do is finalize the order.

Regularly change up your offers to avoid ad fatigue

People get tired of seeing the same ads over and over again (I’m about 2 Geico ads away from upgrading my Hulu plan), so it’s important to change things up and keep your ads feeling fresh.

Although you can have tracking pixels last for months or even years, it might not be the best idea to continue targeting your visitors over such a long period of time like this.
Ad fatigue is real, and it can really hurt your brand in the eyes of potential customers. If you keep showing the same ad to the same targets, you’ll quickly lose their attention and they could even be tired of your brand before ever making a purchase!

That’s why it’s a good idea to change up your ads and offer so you can capture the attention of your targets with new added value or a different type of offer each time you make a change. For example, you can promote a sale on certain products or propose a limited-time offer discount.

Limitations and drawbacks of retargeting

The biggest concern and criticism with retargeting is the question of privacy. Because of that, there are a few issues that you should keep in mind:

Online privacy

Although much of the discussion around the GDPR centered around the shake-up of the email marketing industry, the new regulation also has a big effect on the use of tracking cookies for retargeting.

Essentially, websites with visitors who reside in the European Union must get consent from visitors to use cookies for advertising and analytics. This consent must be given in the form of a positive action from the user (so no more “By using this site, you agree to…”). You need to give users a real choice and make it easy for them to opt out at a later time if they change their mind.

Ad blocking software: a marketer’s worst nightmare

Ad blockers are software tools that allow users to block ads from showing up on websites as they browse the web.

As online advertising becomes more and more ubiquitous, many internet users have made the choice to install ad blocking software to eliminate (or at least reduce) the ads they see while they browse the web. The tools usually work both in desktop browsers and mobile devices — but while it may be good for creating a more fluid user experience, it’s not ideal for achieving your goals with retargeting!

However, tools like AdBlock have programs and guidelines for creating “acceptable” ads that won’t be blocked by the software. The idea is this: ad blocking software is meant to provide a more fluid user experience, so acceptable ads would be ads that do not disrupt the user experience (no pop-ups, properly placed, non-spammy content, etc.). Check out the guidelines to learn more so you won’t get filtered out like your competitors!

Conclusion

Retargeting is one of the most powerful levers for customer acquisition in digital marketing — but only if done correctly. To be really effective, you have to have a deep understanding of your overall marketing strategy and customer journey. This will give you a clearer idea of where you can fit retargeting into the mix and have the most impact.

If you want to learn more about retargeting and other aspects of digital marketing strategy, sign up for our monthly blog newsletter or follow us on social!

The post The Art of Retargeting: The Complete Guide appeared first on Sendinblue.

Boosting sales can be a daunting topic to cover. There are numerous techniques that you can use, but which ones do you think are right for your business?

However, it doesn’t have to be that hard. Creating a sales plan to boost your revenue can be accomplished without having to go out of your way.

In this article, I’ll cover actionable insights on growing your mailing list, using lead magnets, and harnessing the power of retargeting.

Starting Off – The Definitions

A lead magnet, in the strictest digital marketing sense, is anything that you could give away in return for your client’s contact information.

Think of those “special free eBooks” that require you to enter your email address before you can even download them. This is the traditional example of a lead magnet.

On the other hand, retargeting is continuing the lead nurturing process after a client leaves your website.

You know those ads about certain companies that appear after you have left a site without making a purchase? Those are retargeting ads.

Simply put, building a systemic and planned approach using a combination of these two strategies can boost your sales in the long run.

Using Lead Magnets

Ever wondered why bread and peanuts are sometimes given away for free at certain establishments? Or, why companies spend so much time and money giving away SWAG (stuff we all get) — like pens, shirts, and lanyards?

The answer to the first is simple: when we are given something for free, we are more likely to reciprocate in some way. The second is to maintain brand retention and increase recognition.

Lead magnets work in a similar way.

Lead magnets come in different shapes and sizes. They are kind of like a present that comes in exchange for a potential customer willingly entering their email address or contact details to receive “gated content” – content that requires an action to be completed before being released.

Lead Magnets That You Should Be Using

However, some digital marketers don’t realize that there is so much more to a lead magnet than just giving away whatever they can find in their digital arsenal for free. They’re one of the most effective tools at gathering qualified leads for your business at great scale.

But, digital lead magnets are only effective if you are willing to give away a resource or service that is:

• Actually worth something; and
• Can solve a problem faced by consumers.

With that in mind, here are a few examples of lead magnets that you can try out for your business.

The Free Trial

It’s undeniable that most of us love free trials. But some of us are still more hesitant to register because we know they often require our credit card information, which basically feels like a sneaky way of getting us to sign up for a subscription.

Zapier solved this problem by simplifying their free trial and eliminating the requirement of entering a credit card at signup. This works well because they have a free-level plan that users will be relegated to after the free trial expires.

Wait, what?

The great thing about this is that you now can enjoy the application firsthand and are more likely to buy it. Plus, this company has established themselves as a transparent business because they don’t need your credit card details.

Calculators

We might not enjoy math, but we love calculators. They make life easier and you can depend on them to solve problems.

This calculator from VWO is not your typical lead magnet. It does not ask for your email address or anything, you can’t really download it, and it’s available for everyone.

However, once you’ve used it, you’re most likely to go back to their site and use it again. You might even share it with your friends if you found it helpful. This, in turn, allows them to maintain their brand recognition and eventually grow organically through word of mouth.

Webinars

A lot of people watch webinars, many times paying money to attend. Why not combine the power of a webinar, but instead of asking for money, just ask for an email address.

It does not have to be a live webinar; a recorded tutorial can work wonders. But, once a potential client gives you their email address, that’s lead that you can add to your email contact list.

On the plus side, you also establish yourself as an authority in your field by offering valuable resources like this.

The Traditional eBook, Checklist, and Blog Post

There are many beautiful examples of lead magnets that involve reading material (also known as content upgrades), and they are all dependent on the audience that you are trying to target.

For instance, Autogrow gives out this free copy of a checklist and since their site specializes in growing leads, you couldn’t expect to see a better example of lead magnet content:

Wait a second now; before you can even access this free resource, you have to enter both your email address and the field that you specialize in.

Here’s the beauty of this approach, not only do they grab your email address, but they also make sure that they can send you targeted marketing campaigns by asking what kind of industry you are involved in with the help of list segmentation.

The Quiz

Quizzes are another great way to find out about your customers – as long as you’re also tracking their responses on the side. However, the main benefit of a quiz is that it is a fun lead magnet that draws people to your site and business.

Remember those old quizzes that we used to do in the older days of social media? We used to love doing those because they were funny, shareable, and occasionally even thought-provoking.

If you design a quiz that’s engaging enough, your website visitor will definitely want to know their results. That’s when you ask for their contact information so you can send the results by email.

Think of it this way, you won’t be spending so much time on a certain activity and accept that you won’t get anything in return. Thus, they are likely to give you their email addresses.

The Beauty of Retargeting Campaigns

I want you to remember this: Many of your website visitors are likely just window-shopping. It’s said that you can only convert a mere two percent of your first-time visitors into actual customers. But that’s okay!

So what do you do about the majority of those who leave your website?

You serve them with remarketing or retargeting ad campaigns.

It’s like this: when a person visits your website, you can set a little piece of code that keeps track of the people who visit your site. It does this by placing small pieces of data in their browsers called “cookies.” These cookies allow your retargeting vendor to identify and serve them ads after they leave your website.

You can set the retargeting ad to show an advertisement to would-be customers a few hours later while they’re surfing the web on different sites that may not even be related to your business. As long as your ad provider has a deal with that website, they can serve your ads to your audience.

Ecommerce statistics reveal that 54% of buyers will buy retargeted products if they’re offered at a discount. So, think about coupling your retargeting with a competitive pricing strategy and it’ll rain conversions for your online store.

The most important thing is that retargeting is not about getting users to make a purchase immediately. It can also be utilized in order to raise awareness for your overall brand strategy and build trust over time.

Utilizing Social Media Retargeting

One of the most effective retargeting methods out there is social media retargeting.  Some people also refer to this as list-based targeting.

To do this, you have to find out what channels your potential clients use regularly and try to get your ads on that channel.

For instance, say you have a list of email addresses, and you find out that a majority of your users use Facebook often. You can place your email list into Facebook Ads and Facebook will directly target these users with your advertising or retargeted ads.

This allows you to still get your brand in front of them on a platform that they are comfortable with. It allows for great brand retention and the “pre-suading” or trust building that occurs before you can convince them to buy your product or service.

Another great thing about social media retargeting is that you can use it to subtly keep your brand in front of potential customers. It works wonders when you are not pushing for a “hard” sell just yet.

Also, with regard to Facebook, take advantage of the Facebook Pixel, which is their proprietary cookie code that allows you to track conversions on your website that were generated from your ads.

Automation and Emails

If you don’t have an email-based customer relationship platform, then I’ll advise that you get one at the soonest possible time.

Automation ensures that you do not have to do a lot of heavy lifting when it comes to replying to emails or creating tailor-made email content for different segments of your audience. You can utilize basic workflows, or more advanced tactics like lead scoring, to send the right marketing message to the right person at the exact right time.

At the end of the day, boosting your sales and revenue is a continuous process of testing, getting feedback and retesting. Think of it as an experiment. You take the things that work and scrap the things that don’t.

By applying these tried and true digital marketing techniques, you can build off of your success and craft your own personalized strategy to boost your campaigns.

The post How to Boost Sales Using Lead Magnets and Remarketing appeared first on Sendinblue.

What is email retargeting?

Email retargeting (or remarketing) is a strategy commonly used by eCommerce and SaaS websites to target email contacts or returning customers who don’t convert via offsite advertising, onsite CTAs, and email marketing to reduce bounce rates, increase conversions, and drive revenue.

Would you like to boost your on-site conversions by 2100% and grow your email list? No, we’re not kidding. It’s actually possible with email retargeting. And we have proof.

Most companies that operate entirely or substantially through their website depend on their UX and onsite messaging to encourage visitors to follow through with a purchase once they get to the site.

But what happens when they don’t make a purchase?

Many businesses will chalk this up as a lost cause and move on — but remarketing allows you to do more with these potential customers.

How does email retargeting work?

When a visitor comes to your website, browses through your products, and leaves without taking any action, this visitor is usually counted as a bounce. But, with the help of an email retargeting strategy, you can get a second chance at converting this visitor into a lead or a sale.

To achieve this functionality, remarketing uses browser cookies to track leads. Popular lead generation tools allow you to leave a cookie on the visitor’s computer to learn about the specific pages they visited, which products they bought, and more. Using this data, you can reach out to these visitors through other forms of marketing and advertising and convert them into sales and subscribers.

Not convinced that email retargeting can help you boost conversions? Just take a look at DealDoktor. They’re a deals site from Germany using the same remarketing strategy above to increase conversions by 2100% using carefully planned offsite and onsite retargeting.

Now that you understand email retargeting a bit more, it’s time to create your own strategy!

In this post, we’ll show you how you can use the same methods to grow your own email list. If you follow these email retargeting best practices, you’ll be sure to see great results.

5 email retargeting best practices for high conversions

1. Follow-up abandoned shopping carts

Shopping cart abandonment is one of the biggest reasons that cause online retailers and eCommerce businesses to lose sales. According to Statista, 3 out of 4 customers abandon their shopping carts mid-way through the checkout process.

There are many reasons that cause shoppers to abandon their shopping cart, like finding out they have to pay excessive shipping fees. With a retargeting strategy, you have a chance at reaching these customers to remind them of their abandoned shopping cart. You can even include a discount on shipping fees to offer them a reason to continue shopping on your website.

Source: Breed

There are several ways you can reach these visitors, but the best and the most popular approach is to use marketing automation to set up an abandoned cart email workflow that automatically contacts customers who don’t follow through with their purchase.

2. Show custom popups based on user behavior

Onsite retargeting is also a great strategy you can use to make attractive offers to your returning visitors. For example, many of your website visitors who leave without taking any action will often return to your website to read a new blog post or check out other products. You can create customized popups to target these visitors and effectively convert them into subscribers or sales.

OlyPlant used this approach to target their returning visitors and managed to grow their email list by 122% while retaining 5% of abandoning visitors. It was all done using a simple exit-intent popup message. They achieved this by using onsite retargeting to collect data related to their customers and created a different offer to target the abandoning visitors when they return to the website.

3. Upsell to existing customers

One of the main advantages of using onsite retargeting is that it gives you a chance to target specific audiences, like your existing customers to upsell your different products.

If a customer who’s already bought one of your products visit your website again, you have a great opportunity to upsell your other products to this customer. Using onsite retargeting, you can craft a special popup message to show to your returning customers to upsell other products or services on your website.

4. Engage inactive visitors

Many of your website visitors will often explore your website, read some blog posts, subscribe to your email list, and leave the website after viewing the pricing page. What if there’s a way you can re-engage with these visitors who give up halfway into your sales funnel?

Many business websites use email retargeting strategies to engage with these inactive visitors. For example, CoSchedule uses this strategy to send a simple email to retarget the recent visitors who abandoned the website after viewing the pricing page.

Notice how simple this email really is and how CoSchedule has included a link to a free trial to give these inactive visitors a chance to test the platform for free.

5. Target customers with offsite ad campaigns

Your website is not the only place you can target customers and convert them into sales, you can use other platforms to reach new audiences to bring in new visitors and potential customers to your website.

Have you ever noticed how you start seeing ads for products and services on other websites and social networks after you visit the website of the same product? Well, email retargeting plays a major role in this process.

You can use the data you collect with your email retargeting campaigns to run highly targeted ad campaigns on Google and Facebook. For example, by using email retargeting you can create email list segments based on user demographics, such as location, age, profession, etc.

Source: Brand Awareness

Then, you can use these list segments to create custom audiences in Facebook Ads to retarget your customers. You can also use Facebook Pixel to gather more data related to visitor behavior and create more effective ad campaigns.

Wrapping up

Whether you’re looking to target your visitors and customers via email or looking to collect data to run more targeted ad campaigns on Facebook and Google, onsite retargeting is an effective strategy you can use to make the most of your website traffic and gain more insights into your customers.

There are no disadvantages to using email retargeting, it’ll only bring you more benefits. So, go ahead and give these strategies a try.

The post 5 Email Retargeting Best Practices (And how to Implement them) appeared first on Sendinblue.