Remember the good ol’ days, when printing up thousands of postcards and having your friendly mail service would do the trick? You could expect customers flowing into your business based on one simple message.
Then the marketing world got much more complicated.
All of a sudden we as consumers have choices. We can dig deep and find the perfect company to do business with. Not only someone that has what we’re looking for, but also a business that understands us to our very core. They GET us. They understand us. Of course, we don’t mind paying for it; they have our best interests at heart.
When marketing works well, you bring on customers that rave about who you are, become instant fans that follow you indefinitely. That’s when you know your marketing works well.
But how do you get there?
What is behavioral marketing?
As opposed to direct marketing where advertisers send the same message to everyone (the postcard campaign from above), behavioral marketing takes information and tailors the message to the user. It’s a form of online marketing that asks questions first, learns the characteristics and demographics of its target audience, and uses that information in the most effective way possible.
Behavioral marketing uses web analytics, computer applications and cookies, browsing and search history, IP addresses, fill in the blank forms, and more to create user profiles of individual consumers. Then with that information, it generates ads that are relevant and targeted to specific users. It can apply content or advertisements that appeal based on their interests.
For example, if you’re on Facebook every day and you consistently post, share, and search for all things travel, the online sensors assume travel is an area of interest for you. Using various tools, it can provide you with more content and advertisements that appeal to your travel sensibility.
Thanks to the tools available in today’s world, it further refines as time goes on. The more you visit certain pages, browse certain sites, linger on certain products, the more information grows on your behavior. This allows advertisements to further refine and narrow, providing you with the right information at the right time.
Ingenious, right?
Need a few examples to kick your brain into gear on what is possible?
Retargeting
Retargeting takes into account your search results, what pages and products you’ve viewed in the recent past. It then shows them to you again even if you’re not on the original websites.
Try searching for a new refrigerator, for example. As you visit sites and look at your options, you might just kick a retargeting campaign into gear. All of a sudden, as you visit other websites, you’ll start to see your search results follow you around. Both Google and Facebook offer retargeting options in their advertising platforms. And once turned on, you can see results anywhere that participates in the program.
The goal is simple: motivate you to reconsider your searches. The more you see it, the better the chance you’ll click and finish the sale.
Dig Deeper
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Email Marketing
It’s not just online ads that can help motivate a consumer to finish purchasing from you. A personalized email can also do the trick. Instead of using pages that users visited as the trigger points, you can use behavioral marketing via email instead.
By creating landing pages with distinct content, you can give your viewers options of varying degree. Maybe they aren’t quite ready to complete the sale. Maybe they need time to think it over, especially if it’s a larger purchase. By signing up for email reminders based on the landing page they’re on, you can send them email reminders in different ways. How about a coupon for a percentage off if they complete a sale in the next few days? Or a gentle reminder of items forgotten in a shopping basket. The opportunities are endless if you start thinking like your customers.
Demographic Targeting
This is one of the most common forms of behavioral marketing. In fact, you’ve probably used it for years in many different types of campaigns, both online and off. This includes things like race, gender, age, geographic locations, education levels, interests, and other traits to paint a picture of the end user and their browsing habits.
Most people online don’t think about what they reveal just by the way they search online. You build profiles on social sites and reveal detailed characteristics. You search for things of interest to you every day. You even mix in causes and beliefs along the way.
Ever typed in “ecofriendly” or “green” a time or two? Yep, you’re labeled in a certain way in the online world.
If the word diet is a part of your search patterns, it’s no wonder you receive ads for things like skinny Pepsi. Or receive a special offer to try out a local gym.
Suggested Selling
Want to ramp up your behavioral marketing even more? Try suggested selling.
You’ve seen it on sites like Amazon where they try and upsell you based on your product searches. Ever looked at your results and had your eye drift to the “frequently bought together” box located just below? It showcases the product you clicked on and makes suggestions for items often purchased at the same time. It’s intended to remind you of other things you may need to finish what you had in mind. It’s designed to get you to spend just a little bit more before you hit the final button and disappear from the site.
Cross-selling is one of the greatest techniques of marketing because it works so well. If someone is already there purchasing from you, you’ve got their attention. Upping the sale is the easy part because they already trust you.
What’s Next?
Ready to try a little behavioral marketing in your company’s marketing campaigns? There are many tools at your disposal.
The next step is to make a plan. Then try out some campaign ideas to see how your customers respond. You may be surprised at how much money you’ve been leaving on the table.
