You've been through this before….
Your blog has been thoroughly preparing your latest blog post, investing hours researching and composing your piece, your email opt-in form is perfectly positioned on the page to welcome your newest subscribers, and you've clicked “publish” so the world can see what you've created.
A week later, you check your website analytics to celebrate another triumphant blog post. And then you notice that, while you got plenty of eyeballs on your post, hardly anyone who read it decided to stick around to check out your offer or sign up for your email list.
Another typical day online… lost leads, lost sales, and no hope of getting the majority of those visitors back on your site ever again. Aggravating, for sure, but what can you do? If you're like most content creators online, you probably won't do anything… and that's a BIG mistake.
But there is, in fact, something that can be done about this. A way of getting people back to your website to take action on your offer… whatever it may be.
It's called “retargeting,” and, to put it mildly, it's remarkably smart.
In this short post, I'll give you a rundown of exactly what retargeting is and how it can help you majorly amplify your email opt-in and online sales rates. Once you discover the power of this process, you'll be itching to start retargeting yourself… and probably wondering why you hadn't jumped on the bandwagon earlier
Breaking Down Retargeting
Wouldn't it be amazing if everyone who ever visited your website would opt-in to your email list or spend money with you right away? Well, as we've already discussed, the world doesn't exactly work like that.
These days, people rarely fully engage with a website or make any commitments the first time they visit a site – and that can easily put you at risk of losing that prospect forever. In fact, depending on your industry, it can take between 5 and 14 points of contact before an individual will spend money with you.
So, to put it simply, what retargeting does it help keep you in front of people who visit your site, so you can stay top of mind as they further consider the problem or issue that first brought them to you.
It's a highly effective, but somewhat subtle, method of using your marketing dollars to develop and nurture a prospect.
So let's take another look at the situation I outlined earlier… but this time, with retargeting.
That way, the next time they're surfing the web, an ad for your website might show up on another blog or website they're visiting. Then, your formerly un-engaged site visitor unexpectedly is reminded that they read your article and liked it, so they click back through to your website from this ad and browse through more of your material, sharing a post, and ultimately adding themselves to your email list.
Without too much additional effort, you've actually managed to draw in someone who had an interest in exactly what you offer, but had gotten sidetracked along the way.
If you had not put retargeting in place, then you would have lost this person entirely or, at the very least, it would have taken much longer to get them to return to your site and convert them to them to the next stage in your sales process.
With this example, you're moving somebody from a stage of awareness to conversion. Of course, this is only one example of how and how and when to utilize retargeting.
Alternative Uses for Retargeting
Retargeting (or remarketing, as it's known in Google speak) is found all over the web. But, one of the easiest and most effective places to use it is on Facebook.
With well over a billion active users, Facebook is an outstanding platform to target leads of all shapes and sizes. And the Facebook Ad platform is second to none when it comes to highly focussed targeting. Simply create custom audiences defined by people who have visited specific pages on your website, and you can start running ads to them inviting back into your marketing funnel.
You can run a specific ads to people who have not bought anything… but you can also run ads to those who have, encouraging them to invest further with your higher end offerings.
Alternatively, you might run ads to people who have not been on your site for a while so that you keep them engaged and turn them into long term customers.
I might compose an entire course on the best ways to begin with Facebook retargeting ads, but for now, here is a great video by Digital Marketer to give you a rundown of how easy it is to actually develop a retargeting ad.
While email marketing is no doubt the top dog in the marketing world, it is essential to stay up to date with other tactics that can actually help your business grow. And retargeting is among the easiest and most broadly available options out there.
Mastering Retargeting
Retargeting, in its simplest form, can be very effective, but when you have a fully fleshed out strategy behind your retargeting campaigns, just imagine what could be possible. To discover the possibilities that await you with retargeting for your business, get in touch for a complimentary strategy call today.