Did you know that the average documented shopping cart abandonment rate is almost 70%? This means that only 30% of people who visit a website actually convert and make a purchase. Or financially speaking, your bottom line is highly affected by this customer behavior.
But, things don’t have to be this bad because unlike brick-and-mortar business owners who can’t do anything to identify and reach people who leave their store without making a purchase, you’re in a very good position to capture your prodigal customers’ attention and make them change their mind.
Retargeting is one of the best and most effective tactics for improving your conversion rates, and here’s how to make the most of it.
What is retargeting?
Retargeting or remarketing is a strategy based on the cookie tracking technology which tags customers who leave your website without converting, follows them around the web, and serves them ads containing messages about your company on other websites.
This tactic heavily relies on psychology, and the idea is to repeatedly show your message to people who have shown a certain interest in your products or services but for some reason failed to complete a purchase. It’s not a mystery that only 2% of website visitors convert during their first visit, which is why they need to be wooed and nurtured continuously in order to come back and complete their purchase.
According to some estimates, your potential customers need to see your marketing message somewhere between 5-7 times before they’re ready to buy. That’s the main idea behind retargeting and repetitive brand exposure is capable of turning prospects into paying customers.
Analyze your non-converting audience
The first step towards creating an effective retargeting strategy is analyzing your non-converting audience. You need to establish at which point they bounced in order to be able to create marketing messages for different stages of their interest, depending on the length of your buying cycle. For example, prospects who never made it to the shopping cart need to be educated more and you need to highlight the benefits of your products or services.
Those who put some items in the shopping cart and left before the check-out can be encouraged to come back with the help of discount codes for the products they were interested in and ads that will redirect them to the check-out when they click to claim their discount. Basically, there are two different types of retargeting campaigns:
- Pixel-based retargeting campaigns which are directed at anonymous visitors who left without providing personal information.
- List-based retargeting campaigns which are directed at your existing contacts. These campaigns allow you to create and launch highly personalized retargeting messages which are being displayed to your contacts while they’re on their social media channels.
One of the issues lies in the fact that it can be difficult to measure the ROI of multiple ad displays as it can be hard to tell which particular step of the process contributed to a conversion. For this reason, it’s best to hire a reliable retargeting agency as it can help you leverage the power of retargeting and bring you palpable and visible results.
How to avoid some of the common traps along the way
As we have said, one of the frequently used tricks to bring potential buyers back is giving them a discount on the products they left in the shopping cart. This is an effective method, but if you use it all the time, your customers will realize that they can get a discount whenever they leave something in the shopping cart and they will start doing it on purpose. Needless to say, this can have a very negative impact on your bottom line.
Another common mistake is being too pushy with your ads and displaying them to your prospects on every website they visit. Instead of catching their eye and sparking their interest, this tactic is more likely to be counterproductive and alienate your potential customers. To avoid this scenario, research your target market and industry, and establish how many reminders prospects usually need before converting. Testing is a must until you find the right balance.
Finally, make sure that each of your retargeting campaigns has a dedicated landing page as this is of vital importance for increasing your conversion rates. Companies which direct retargeted visitors to their home page will only confuse them and waste an opportunity to score on their return. Statistics say that companies with more than 40 landing pages get 12 times more leads than those with less than 5. Just like in any other marketing campaign, you need to have a clearly defined CTA which will tell your customers what action you want them to take.
By taking advantage retargeting strategies you won’t leave a lot of money on the table.
I concur with everything written in this article! In the realm of business to business, the more you know, the better. Know the best strategies to augment, the right investments to make and what the future holds. They don’t naturally fall through be that as it may, it’s up to your business group to guarantee business leads make it all the way down! A strong B2B sales funnel can continually produce customers while keeping the best loaded with valuable new business leads.
Yes, a strong process is what keeps it going! Thanks for your input.