Remarketing: What, why and how

– Do you see your unpurchased shopping cart items in your emails or on display ads?

– Do you get promotional SMSes/emails from that store you once purchased at?

– Do you see that one particular image/video ad repetitively?

I’m sure. Some of these experiences would be quite familiar to you.

This definitely isn’t a coincidence.

It’s ‘repeated’ marketing. Technically, it’s called as Remarketing.

Intrigued? Read ahead to understand it to the core:

What is remarketing?

Remarketing is a newer yet older (and a smart) way to convert your prospects into customers. These prospects could be your:

• one time callers,
• occasional website visitors,
• those who signed up but didn’t convert into customers, or
• those who abandoned your website just before making the final purchase.

These are the people who have had the first interaction with your business but aren’t your customers yet. They are the warm leads for your business, therefore, their chances of conversion are much higher than the cold leads. They just have to be ‘nurtured’ a little for their final conversion.

Remarketing is what it takes.

It’s simply reaching back to the potential leads repetitively through different platforms (emails, SMS, WhatsApp API, display ads etc). It’s about repeated marketing to a particular set of audiences to increase their chances of conversion (like in most cases). However, the benefits remarketing has are much more than this.

Benefits of remarketing?

1. Do you know? 98% of all web traffic does not convert. These are the ones who once showed interest in your product but due to one or the other reason didn’t become your customer. They have to be driven back to your website and be conveyed that they could be missing on something beneficial.

2. Only 30% of people visiting online stores put something in their cart, only 3% actually check out. This is so believable because it’s natural that people always look for better options. Most people get second-thoughts right before making the final purchase. However, they can be converted easily; just a little more push (in fact, pull) is required, particularly in optimizing the payment checkout process. Remarketing is one of that pull.

3. Repetition increases brand recognition. Making your potential audience view your product/business name repeatedly will increase your brand awareness. Your business name would become familiar to them. They would recall your name whenever they decide on buying that product.

4. Let’s now talk about your existing customers. Should you remove them from your remarketing campaigns? No. Here is when cross-selling and upselling starts. Remarket them about your other products and services (they haven’t purchased). Make them repeat their purchases with your business only and not your competitors.

[Think of this. Swiggy, Dominos, Myntra didn’t stop targeting you with your ads, even if you’ve already made a purchase with them.]

5. Remarketing is a smarter marketing investment (at less cost). Targeting campaigns to cold leads involves high cost that too with lower chances of conversion. Whereas, with warm (potential) leads you can be sure of quality as well as lower cost. It increases the chances of conversion and improves your marketing ROI.

Being a marketer, I know customer conversion is not a one-time job. Remarketing has actually got us many customers which we could have lost earlier.

And being someone’s customer too, I can say that if I see their product so frequently it will grab my attention and probably my money too.

How can remarketing be done?

Simple logic: There’s no need to reinvent the wheel. Meet your target audience where they’re already active.

If you’ve their phone number…

Most businesses have their callers’ database (the ones who have previously called on their business number). The database is an effective key to connect with your callers, who due to one or the other reason didn’t become your customers. But, many of the businesses fail to optimise their callers’ (leads) database.

Here is when SMS remarketing comes into the picture. Reconnect with your callers via SMSes. Encourage them to visit your website again or call you to know more about your product. This could be by telling them more benefits about the product, giving them a special discount or probably anything else.

With a 98% open rate, SMSes have high potential to convey your brand’s message to your prospects.

If you’ve their email ID…

Most of your website visitors might have once signed up on your website for the product trial. Some site visitors got attracted to your website’s lead magnet and submitted their emails in the hopes of getting some valuable freebies from you. You’ve now an email database of people who are interested in your product but are not your customers yet.

Reach back to them through their email inbox. Send them your newly published posts, special discount offers, recently launched products and more to keep them engaged. It would increase your website visits by your potential leads, and their chances of conversion too.

If you’ve their permission…

Another instance of remarketing is website push notifications. It is a great addition to traditional marketing campaigns. A quick and easy way to drive your prospects back to your website. It is delivered only to the subscribers who have opted for it (to allow push notifications) when they visited your website.

The audience of such push notifications are always the people who are familiar with your website. They have allowed for your website’s notification which implies they are interested in your product. Therefore, reconnecting with them (with engaging content) will boost both their interest and conversion.

If you’ve their cookies…

Retargeted display ads are another effectively optimised way to win potential leads. They make your brand’s message travel faster to your target audience. The ads simply follow your leads (online) wherever they surf.

It’s made possible with the so-called remarketing pixels you’ll place on your website. The pixel places the cookies in your visitor’s browser and gathers the information in your account (social media, google analytics or adwords). This is how the ads are targeted to the specific set of audience aka the ones who have visited your website even once. Generally, the conversion rate of retargeting ads is higher than other kinds of display ads.

You know what’s the best part here? It doesn’t depend on the fetched data (phone number or mail id) from the visitors, unlike in other cases.

Planning to start remarketing for your business as well? Wait before you read these key points first.

Some best practices for Remarketing

The idea of Remarketing may sound very beneficial and easy-to-use, but there’s always the ideal way to do it. Otherwise, spamming your audience and annoying them would affect your brand reputation and could probably eliminate their chances of dealing with your business.

Here are some things to keep in mind before you launch your remarketing campaign:

1. Make sure you differentiate your campaigns by segmenting your audience basis the existing and potential customers. Flashing/pitching your business product in front of the ones who have already purchased it would only annoy them.

2. Don’t break the chain. Pitch them around those pages they have visited. Let the campaign subject be a little familiar to what they already know about your business.

3. It is always best to remarket to your audience at the ideal time after they visited your website. The fresher the prospects are, the more likely it is that they will make a purchase. However, it should neither be too late (1 year after a visit) nor too early (1 hour after a visit).

4. You wouldn’t want to bore your leads with same ads/emails/SMS repetitively. Make the most of your remarketing campaigns and frequently change your pitch to different products/benefits.

5. It would be best if the lists of the audience are segmented basis their common landing page/product they were interested in. This helps in personalised and consistent remarketing to the particular set of audience.

How about reclaiming your would-be-conversions? How about winning back your potential customers? How about getting started with Remarketing, today?