The One Type of Marketing That Improves All Your Other Marketing

Most business owners I talk with today, regardless of industry, speak to how their market is more competitive than ever, and that marketing, in general, is becoming increasingly difficult. And it’s true - Google and Facebook ad costs are going up every year, SEO continues to grow more complex, and in general, the tactics which drove relatively easy, profitable growth even a few years ago are becoming increasingly expensive and competitive.

But regardless of which existing marketing strategies you’re employing, there is one specific marketing tactic that can improve all your other marketing channels. 

How is that possible? Because this tactic specifically focuses on getting people who have already shown an interest in your product or service to come back and purchase from you. It’s appropriately called remarketing - marketing again to those people who’ve already shown an interest in you - and you can use it to target any potential customer or prospect who has previously visited your website, regardless of which marketing channel drove them there in the first place. And it’s effective because 95% of website visitors aren’t ready to buy the first time they visit your site. 

Remarketing allows you to stay in front of these potential customers over an extended period of time, dramatically increasing your chances of turning them into a paying customer. And while this tactic often results in some of the cheapest cost per lead or cost per sale numbers in all marketing, most businesses and agencies give it only the most basic of attention, assuming they’re not ignoring it altogether. 

So let’s dive in. 

REMARKETING - WHAT IT IS

Remarketing, also commonly referred to as retargeting, comes in many shapes and forms. But at the most basic level, it’s a type of online marketing that allows you to put your marketing message in front of people who have already displayed some level of interest in your product or service by visiting your website. However, they haven’t actually converted yet, meaning they haven’t taken the action which you want them to take (usually either making an online purchase, filling out a lead form, or calling into your business). 

Most people are familiar with the concept of remarketing from eCommerce sites, even if they don’t know exactly what it’s called or how it works. For example, say you were researching a new Bluetooth speaker on Amazon, but you didn’t actually end up making the purchase. Then you went onto a major news site, your favorite blog, or even Facebook, and you saw an ad from Amazon for that exact speaker. That’s remarketing at work! 

Remarketing has been around since the early part of this decade and has gained substantial traction in the eCommerce world for its ability to drive sales. However, very few local businesses are taking full advantage of all that remarketing has to offer - assuming they’re even aware of it in the first place. 

REMARKETING - WHY IT’S IMPORTANT

As most local business owners know, it can be both expensive and time intensive to drive traffic to your website. Whether it’s through digital initiatives (e.g., SEO, Google Ads, Facebook, etc.) or more traditional media like TV, radio and print, marketing requires a ton of planning and a healthy budget for ad spend, to say nothing of the time and effort to measure and optimize your campaigns on an ongoing basis.

But here’s the kicker - even when you get those people to visit your website, only 3-10% of those visitors are actually ready to “convert” into a lead or a customer the first time around. That means 9 out of 10 prospects - at least - are leaving your website without ever taking the action you want from them. And without a remarketing strategy in place, that’s very likely the end of their interaction with your business. 

REMARKETING - WHY IT WORKS

Businesses and agencies who run online ads, whether it be through Google, Facebook, or any number of other platforms, consistently acknowledge that remarketing campaigns are almost always their best performing campaigns. Why? Because remarketing is simply reminding people who were already interested in your product or service in the first place to come back and reconsider buying from you. 

There are several reasons why businesses need to re-engage past website visitors, and therefore why remarketing can be so effective (even when using only the most basic tactics):

Haven’t Made a Buying Decision: Perhaps the most obvious reason, just because a consumer started doing research doesn’t mean they’re actually ready to buy. Maybe not now, maybe not ever. But they’re at least curious, and the fact that they even made it to your website in the first place says that they have a want or a need which you might be able to help them fulfill

Comparison Shopping: It’s no secret - consumers want the best deal and they want it from a business they feel they can trust. And they’re likely going to look at multiple competitors to see which one can give them exactly that. And for every additional competitor they research, the chances of them ever remembering to make it back to your site grow increasingly small, no matter how good you are.

Distraction: Around 70% of website visits now come from mobile phones. And while mobile devices allow consumers to research your business at any time from anywhere, they also come with a host full of unique distractions. At any point while looking at your website on a phone a consumer could get a call, text, or email, any one of which could cause them to immediately divert their attention away from you. Or something could happen in the real world which draws their attention away from their phone completely, such as a friend showing up for a scheduled coffee date, or (dare I say) a traffic light turning green.

Time: For the most part, humans don’t like to part with their hard earned money. In business sales, it’s well established that a prospect needs to be “touched” 5-7 times before they’re ready to make a buying decision, even when they aren’t comparing it against competing options. However, this same concept can apply to consumer sales as well, especially for purchases that are more expensive and/or have longer lasting impacts. Sometimes humans just need time before they’re ready to make a purchase. Time to get familiar with the person or business with whom they’re going to be spending their money, but also time to get comfortable with the idea of spending that money in general.

Unmade buying decisions, comparison shopping, distraction, and the natural tendency of humans to delay making a purchase are just a few of the reasons why people choose not to convert the first time they visit your website. But regardless of the reason, remarketing will maximize your chances of being top of mind to potential customers when they’re ultimately ready to buy. 

REMARKETING - HOW IT MAKES ALL YOUR MARKETING BETTER

Remember what we said towards the beginning of this article - more than 9 out of 10 visitors will leave your website without ever taking the action you want them to take. But clearly these people are at least somewhat interested in what you have to offer because they came looking to your website in the first place. Whether it was originally from an online ad, your social profiles, content you published and shared, or any other digital channel which is responsible for your web traffic, having a remarketing program in place for your business will help you capture these website visitors so that you can continue to market to them down the road. 

However, remarketing’s impact also extends beyond the digital world. Research has shown that more than 80% of consumers conduct online research before buying. So even if a potential customer heard about you from a magazine, or the radio, or even from a coworker, the odds are that if they’re seriously interested in what you offer then they’re going to check out your website at some point. 

So if you’re spending your marketing dollars to drive people to your website in the first place, regardless of the marketing channel, then a remarketing strategy is going to help you get the most out of those dollars by ensuring that you’re able to stay in front of these potential prospects long after they visited your website for the first time. 

INTERESTED IN LEARNING MORE? 

Feel free to check back on my LinkedIn profile over the next couple of weeks, as I intend to publish a series of articles on remarketing, including some basics on how to implement it for yourself as well as some more advanced strategies for how to do it better than 99% of all your competitors. 

Or, if you’re interested in learning how we can help your business implement our proprietary remarketing program (which we call “omnitargeting”), you can learn more at https://www.etzlerconsulting.com/omnitargeting