Getting Results with Behavioral Targeting for your Website.
When an archer hunts, he uses different calls and whistles for every animal, he might aim his weapon differently, uses a different type of arrow and strikes his prey with diverse and unique techniques to target his prey, while investing every effort to not frighten them away. Hoping I haven't upset any vegans or animal right activists, (my apologies if I have, I'm actually a borderline veggie-vegan myself), but my analogy is essentially structured as a metaphor for public facing websites and online marketing.
Let's try another one quickly. Would you talk to every child the same way in a classroom full of children with diverse needs and interests? Most teachers today use visuals, kinesthetic tools, and various types of resources to address the different learning styles of students to ensure that each of them gets what they need out of their learning experience and personal development.
So why on earth would you assume your customers are any different when they come to your website to acquire insight on the products or services you provide? Big no-no! Each website visitor is entirely unique, but with one common interest: themselves and their problems. As an online marketer it is absolutely crucial to understand this fundamental concept in order to convert leads to customers, thus optimizing your website to make sure site users' experience is absolutely fabulous in every way.
Every website visitor is hunting for that one solution that will solve their undying, perpetual bane of existence - a problem. Customers are full of problems. Your mission, both with your product and as an online brand and presence, is to solve their issue - accurately, efficiently and painlessly. Got it? Anyone viewing your website is looking for the same thing: what they need!
No, that doesn't mean your objectives matter to them. A skilled marketer can identify every customer's needs, and ensure that they are addressed.
Ah ha! So now you ask how? Well, dear readers, like I said, there's a solution to every problem. So let me solve yours. Acquiring metrics on your site visitors' activity and navigation, and then using a practice like Behavioral Targeting can allow you to reach out to every website visitor, customizing their online experience based on the visitor data you can collect with an analytics tool.
Websites, companies, startups and new marketing geniuses are born every single day. Likely every minute. Scary thought huh? Thought you were better than the rest? Well you might be and so might your product, but how on earth will you know how to get ahead of the rest and scope out your hot leads if you don't get a grip on the stats of their rendezvous on your website?
Create a plan and method of execution.
Here's a step-by-step process that will help you ease the pain of all your cranky website visitors, and instead convert them into the cheeriest customers you could ever come across.
Step 1: Start using Web analytics reports that give you the hardcore details and insight you need to find out any and every bit of info you can get on your site visitors. This is your gold mine. Trust me. Learn more about who your customer is, what products and pages he's looking at on your website, where he clicked, which banners and links interested him, which country he's from, his IP address, which sites and subsites he's viewed and was referred from - frankly, collect it all!
For those who aren't familiar with these types of reports, they're generally categorized under visitor reports, page view reports, navigation reports, search reports and traffic source reports, all of which collectively can include everything from geographic location, the number of visits per site or subsite, referrers, customer search actions, your top pages, and the list continues. These statistics help you look through a magic telescope, so to speak, that zones you in on not just what your customer is looking for, but also who they are.
Next step: how do I present my product to them?
Well, you say, isn't that what I've been doing? Maybe. Your website could seem just about as brilliant to you as any public facing site selling a product. But, are you making your customer's life easier and increasing the chances of your profit? Do you have an increase in returning customers as a result of personalizing your website User Interface based on visitor activity metrics, (along with the other metrics mentioned above)? With a user friendly browser experience that is designed specifically based on all of the data you've collected about website visitors and their online activity, you can truly target potential customers, and convert visitors into happy clients.
All of those little details - their IP address, the products they've been looking at, the number of times they've viewed specific pages, they are all your key to successful conversion. If you haven't acquired any of this data via Web analytics regarding your website visitors and then optimized your site to their - (and ultimately your) - advantage, then, dear marketer, you probably have an answer for why you're sales are down too.
There are other reports that are offered based on website goals and funnels, like those that measure social engagement, track your campaigns, evaluate your website search for online visitors, and then present the data you need to optimize your workflows, increase traffic and conversion rates.
How you say? How could I possibly create a different user interface for every website visitor, each of them searching for a million different products available on my website? Wave your magic Behavioral Targeting wand, and voila!
Behavioral Targeting, a marvelous practice (and in some cases, tool) for online marketers and business owners of all types, can be the magician's rabbit in the hat that awes your customers and makes you a wiz of a sales magician. Your website can be customized based on all of those lovely visitor metrics and statistics you collected with analytics.
Awesome? I'd say.
As soon as your lead jumps back on your website for the second or third time, (along with a whole bunch of friends who might live next door, live in the same region, and are all browsing your website at the same time over a cup of coffee, potentially for the same or similar products), you now have an optimized website that can target each and every one of your visitors to get the results you want and help your site visitors shop efficiently and easily. Guess what you're doing with greater precision and insight? You've made their shopping experience focused on what they need and who they are.
You ultimately boost user engagement by capturing their interest, saving you and them invaluable time.
And we all know what time is: money.
Here's one of the best parts of this entire online optimization and marketing plan: word of mouth referrals are often some of the best and most effective. How often have friends told you that they found the perfect gift, product or purchase online on a specific website? And how many times have you found more credibility in what your friends recommend then a campaign online that advertises for the same product? Case closed. You now have a super-efficient website that can reach out to even the most frustrated shoppers, and everyone can walk away a happy camper while the neighborhood is talking about your website.
So the final P, truly is purchase.
Keep tracking of your users' activity, and the results you will acquire will continue to prove worthwhile. The more you utilize Web analytics tools for your website, and apply the data and statistics gathered with Web analytics with the use of a tool/practice like Behavioral Targeting, the more you've increased your chances for successfully marketing your product online. Fingers crossed, your ROI takes a nice leap and reaches greater heights, getting higher and higher with constant use of these powerful analytics and optimization tools.
So there you have it, Four Ps: Problem, Potential, Product, and Purchase.
Tell us know how you've used tools like Web analytics and Behavioral Targeting to boost your conversion rates and increase website traffic and ROI.
We'd love to hear about it.