About 97% of website visitors don’t take the conversion actions intended by site owners.

Don’t let that 3% conversion rate discourage you. It presents not only a significant challenge, but an opportunity to maximize online engagement and revenue and beat the competition.

How? Implement a strategic approach that taps into the potential of a range of remarketing techniques.

1. Define Your Audiences

Begin by segmenting your target audiences. Categorize potential audiences into clearly defined groups, each with at least 1,000 individual users.

But what if your monthly visitor count ranges from 1,000 to 2,000? The size of your visitor pool limits the  level of segmentation; the bigger the pool, the finer the segments. If your pool is just a few thousand, a single remarketing audience set might be right.

Consider factors that align with the unique dynamics of your business as you establish each segment. Consider customizing ad content and messaging for specific audiences.

You can also classify website visitors based on their interactions with specific product categories, dedicated service pages, and geographical location pages. It's prudent, for example, to partition your audience according to users who initiated, but didn’t finalize, a conversion. (Note: Each site can have its own conversion goals.)

Next, determine the time span a given user segment will remain on your remarketing list. Your customers' typical buying cycles will guide your timeframe choice. It could be anywhere from a week to 90 days or more, depending on your industry and customer behavior patterns.

2. Grow Your Lists with Softer Conversions

Many users are unlikely to convert to expensive purchases on their first interactions at your website. "Soft” conversions – capturing an email address or prompting a sign-up for a useful newsletter, for example – can maintain engagement, build trust and grow your contact list. This patient, nurturing approach makes your potential customer available to your remarketing campaigns and more open to them and to your ultimate conversion.  

3. Use LinkedIn, Facebook & Instagram as Channels

Once you've defined your remarketing audiences, choose the best channels for re-engaging past website visits. LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram are prime options, offering full-screen ads to precisely targeted users while those users are active on the platforms – and just a click or two away from your website.

These cost-effective channels allow you to retarget your audience lists. On social channels, you can target customers for whom you already possess data. That’s an advantage over Google Ads, because social doesn’t require sending and receiving huge numbers of emails to target your audience effectively.  Yes, more is better, but it’s not always cost-effective or even possible to deal with 1,000 or more emails. 

The best social channel choice comes down to whom you are retargeting and for what purpose. If you’re going after e-commerce sales, you’ll likely be more successful retargeting on Facebook than on LinkedIn. If you’re focused on a business service, LinkedIn is likely the better choice. The exact nature of your products and services, and your customers’ use of and relationship with them, make a difference, too. This is another reason to know your audience very well.

4. Lead Nurturing Campaigns

Lead nurturing, a fundamental aspect of digital marketing strategies, can transform potential prospects into loyal customers. Lead nurturing involves utilizing your email marketing software to present your potential customers with email drip campaigns that nurture your contacts into a sale. 

A well-developed lead nurturing campaign builds brand recall and perches your business top of mind  when your customer decides to buy. A good campaign takes the customer from the awareness stage to consideration and to a final decision. If you’ve defined your audiences well, you can create a series of emails for each stage for each audience segment, so your message resonates throughout the buying journey.

5. YouTube and Social Video

When you think about remarketing techniques, think about the entire map of the user’s digital journey. You have defined audiences who have visited your website, and you want to reach those audiences in as many cost-effective places as possible. You want to stay in front of them and encourage them to come back and convert.

Video ads should be in your remarketing mix. Your video will show up before your audience as they watch videos on YouTube or on a social channel. Video ads can be extremely effective, especially for complicated products where a how-to or a breakdown of your product’s benefits are better shown than explained in text.

6. Google Display Network

The Google Display Network delivers a massive number of impressions to your target audience across a vast network of websites and mobile apps at extremely low cost. You can utilize this network to target potential customers you’ve identified, either with email lists you’ve created or with website data.

We recommend targeting people who exited from your conversion page (cart, form page, etc.) without a final conversion action. Sometimes, people need a little extra push. Remind them to complete their purchase.

7. Monitor Frequency

It’s important to continue to monitor the frequency with which your ads appear to your audiences using each remarketing technique. The size of your audience and budget allocation per audience directly affect how frequently your audience sees your ad. Large or small, your audience is finite. A bigger budget to a specific audience will not enlarge that audience, but it will engage that audience more frequently.

A frequency of 10-20 or so per channel, per ad is reasonable for a remarketing audience. If you show an ad to a specific user 50 times, that user tunes you out and you’ve spent too much on that channel.

Summary

Remarketing holds immense potential as a tactic to re-engage with the elusive 97% of website visitors who don’t convert. If you’ve read this far, you have a pretty good idea of how to recapture their attention and interest and guide them to a successful conversion.

With a deep understanding of user behavior, a commitment to delivering value, and strategic use of multiple channels, remarketing can be a powerful instrument in your digital marketing toolbox.

If you need assistance determining a remarketing strategy or implementing a strategy effectively, don’t hesitate to reach out.

When it comes to #remarketing techniques, think about the user's entire digital journey. You want to reach website visitors in as many cost-effective places as possible. https://nwsdigital.me/3PBM2Ey @northwoods #digitalmarketing