19 Jun Remarketing – Increase Your Online Conversion Numbers
Everyone wants to increase their online conversion numbers – turn website visitors into customers. What happens when someone visits your website, browses around and leaves? Or worse yet – fills your website’s shopping cart with your products, then abandons it? It’s interesting to note that while 30% of people visiting e-commerce sites put something in their shopping cart, only 3% actually complete the purchase1.
This is where Remarketing can make the difference between losing those customers forever and getting them back to make a sale.
What is Remarketing?
Remarketing is a general term for marketing to the same prospect many times. This can include both online and offline campaigns such as a series of billboards, direct mail, email and Internet advertising.
In this piece, we’re going to focus specifically on digital remarketing strategies that will help you with online conversions.
One specific type of Remarketing, known as Retargeting, allows you to show ads to potential clients based on specific criteria when browsing other sites online. There are specific tools that can display text or image ads for your products or services on other websites after a visitor leaves yours.
Let’s say that you own a fashion line. Amy has been browsing your leather purses and even selected one for her shopping cart, but did not buy. Using a retargeting campaign, she will now start to see ads for that purse on any other site where the Retargeting ads are placed. This will reinforce your brand and encourage her to come back and buy that fabulous purse.
How does it work?
Digital Remarketing is relatively straightforward. It works like this: Jen visits your remarketing-enabled website, BuyCookies.com. When she does this, BuyCookies.com will save a small file with its company info onto Jen’s computer or phone. Then when Jen visits another website that is set up to show advertisements, that website can read the small file and hence knows that Jen has viewed BuyCookies.com. The website therefore displays the ad for BuyCookies.com in its ad spot, which encourages Jen to return to your site to hopefully complete a sale or contact you.
Ironically (or perhaps intentionally), that small file that is saved on the visitor’s computer is actually called a Cookie (yum).
Going back to the fashion example, if Carl visited your site and spent most of his time browsing the boots in your line, you don’t necessarily want to send him the same ad that Amy, who was looking at purses, will see. This targeted remarketing is much more likely to result in a conversion because it speaks directly to Carl’s interests.
What kinds of groups can I target?
There are dozens, even hundreds of combinations of groups that can be targeted. The groups can be defined by geography, behavior on your website, or other factors, and each group can be served a different ad. For instance, if someone visited only your home page, he can be served a general ad to reinforce your brand and encourage them to visit again. Another person who put items into your cart and abandoned it could be served an ad telling her that if she completes her purchase, she now receives 10% off.
You can also segment potential clients by the areas of interest indicated by their shopping behavior. If, for example, Carl visited an online bookstore and searched for a specific crime novel, you could show him an ad encouraging him to take a look at other books in the same genre.
Let’s Talk About Email Remarketing
Another way to bring visitors back is to send them a direct email message. Of course, first, you will need to obtain their email address. There are a few strategies that you can discuss with your Digital Marketing agency for this, one of the most effective is a popup that promises emailed coupons or other value to your customers if they will enter their email address. Another is to ask for a brief survey when a visitor leaves, again with a value proposition that relates to your brand. Once you have the email you can get very specific with targeted Remarketing.
When someone abandons their cart or doesn’t book a service you can send a follow-up email with links to complete their order along with an immediate discount if they complete the purchase.
A recent study conducted by Moz1 demonstrated the benefits of email Remarketing using a travel site. They were able to convert an amazing 64% of abandoned bookings by sending a follow-up email offering a discount within a given window of time. A message like, “Don’t miss out on the magic of Hawaii! Save 10% if you book within the next 48 hours,” is very powerful. Scarcity coupled with savings make the call to action that much more attractive to the buyer.
In a case study by VE Interactive2 they tested three types of Remarketing emails with the following results:
- Generic branded follow-up email = 10% increase in conversion rate.
- Personalized remarketing email with a promotional code for a 5% discount time limited to 72 hours = 100% increase in conversion rate.
- Personalized remarketing email with a promotional code for a 5% discount time limited to 48 hours = 200% increase in conversion rate.
According to the studies mentioned above, Remarketing emails with the highest conversions were sent within the first hour after order abandonment, included some sort of incentive, were personalized and had a (short) time limit.
What About Social Media?
Social media has very similar Retargeting mechanisms to websites. A cookie (the digital kind) on your site remains on a visitor’s computer when they go onto social media. Just like with regular Retargeting, you can segment the audience to put certain products or lines in front of particular groups.
Work with your Digital Marketing agency to apply the same basic Remarketing principles for fantastic results in the social media sector.
Don’t let potential customers vanish – try Remarketing, a smart way to convert visitors into clients.
1 https://moz.com/ugc/the-power-of-email-remarketing
2 https://www.veinteractive.com/cases/case_study_whsmith.php
No Comments