The debate on new customer acquisition vs. retargeting often includes a substantial focus on customer lifetime value. The reality is straightforward: why spend money in acquiring new customers when you could spend far lesser time, money, and efforts on those who’re already a part of the sales funnel? Provided the customer’s lifetime value justifies that, of course!
Instead of acquiring new customers, retargeting is a far more effective way to sell to good customers who have already visited your website/store, installed your app, registered for your newsletter, or made a past purchase. But in today’s era of omnichannel marketing, there are several factors brands, and agencies need to keep in mind while planning their omnichannel retargeting strategies. Read on to learn more!
The challenges in targeting and retargeting
The modern, tech-savvy customer no longer relies on a single channel or device to engage with a brand or make a purchase. They use many tools and tactics to shop at brick-and-mortar stores, websites, apps, aggregators, and other online platforms. This sudden and widespread shift to omnichannel has made brands and agencies realize that omnichannel is the best path to enhancing business value. But offering compelling omnichannel experiences mustn’t be limited to the awareness or discovery phase.
Omnichannel targeting or retargeting is a great way to keep track of your audience and monitor their behavior across devices, challenges, and touchpoints. Devising innovative omnichannel re-engagement strategies can help you convert more customers as they traverse that journey. For instance, if a customer has expressed interest in a product or has added items to the cart, but hasn’t made a purchase in over a month, retargeting this user with tailored promotional campaigns across different channels is a great way to persuade him/her to return to your app and fulfil the purchase.
According to recent research on Shopify stores, organizations can impact 50% of their sales through retargeting – by sending emails, SMSs, or push notifications – after a customer’s first visit to the site. But omnichannel retargeting is easier said than done. Several challenges and roadblocks can come in the way:
- Organizations that set up default retargeting messages using one channel, say email, often don’t experience the kind of conversions they expect; most of these emails either end up in their SPAM folder, are never opened by customers, or are just ignored – and the opportunity is lost.
- Not knowing which channel to prioritize resources or campaigns on is another challenge that leads to sub-par retargeting results. Where to focus energy or divert their budget is a balancing act they frequently end up failing at.
- Investing in the wrong ad-tech platform can be a common reason for failed retargeting efforts and lead to poor performance of campaigns – while draining agencies of their time and resources.
- Without a centralized platform, there is no way for brands or agencies to know when or on which channel must send a retargeting message. For instance, despite an abandoned cart email causing a customer to purchase, brands might send an additional SMS to close the sale – which might dissuade them from further engagements.
- In a bid to meet sales targets, some organizations send way too many promotional messages to customers, which can harm their minds. Not limiting ad frequency or not thinking about every retargeting tactic can cause customers to shun away from the brand rather than get attracted to it.
Addressing the challenges
As a successful strategy used by thousands of brands and agencies every day, omnichannel retargeting can help target near-organic users and deliver messages, ads, and push notifications centered on the next stage of the sales funnel.
Although not every interest guarantees a conversion, you can ensure your audience has your brand on top of their minds with the right approach and mindset. Here’s how you can address the many challenges that come with omnichannel retargeting:
- Engage on all channels: One of the most critical elements of omnichannel retargeting is engaging with customers. Instead of just sending pop-up notifications, curate tailored cart abandonment emails, invest in the proper display ads, use social media to interact with customers, etc., to help them complete their purchase.
- Send timely reminders: If you want to wake your inactive users up, it’s essential to send timely reminders in ads or push notifications to boost engagement and retention. Reminders on recommendations that are based on past purchases, searches, or browsing behaviors can not only help drive conversions; they can also improve the probability of repeat purchases.
- Be wary of their exit intent: Another widespread best practice to enable omnichannel retargeting is to be mindful of your customers’ exit-intent constantly. Deliver product recommendations, special offers, or opt-in options when you feel their behavior indicates that they’re about to leave the site or close the app.
- Improve your upselling game: You can also improve the likelihood of conversions by providing users with the perfect upselling options. From upgrading membership to offering higher discounts for the latest versions – informing users about the benefits they can enjoy by purchasing add-ons is a great way to improve revenue and satisfaction.
- Avoid the heavy lifting: Since omnichannel retargeting considers customers who are already familiar with your brand and interested in what you have to sell, avoid wasting time and effort in essential awareness and brand building. Instead, drive efforts in moving them to the next stage of the funnel by delivering targeted content that is most relevant to their preferences and behaviors.
- Invest in AI and analytics: If you want to track and retarget your customers efficiently, you need enriched customer intelligence. Investing in advanced AI and analytics tools can help you focus on prospects that matter while allowing you to send the right messages to the suitable candidates at the right time.
- Embrace an all-inclusive ad platform: As consumer journeys become increasingly complex, embracing an ad platform that offers end-to-end capabilities across omnichannel campaigns, execution, creative management, targeting, and reporting is a great way to win consumers. Not only can the platform provide real-time insight into every customer, but it can also help optimize performance across the entire path to purchase.
Using more than one channel in a coordinated and integrated way for retargeting is one of the best tactics brands, and agencies can use to get quality, organic traffic to their store or website and grow their sales figures. The right omnichannel retargeting strategies can aid in reaching out to the right customers at the right time and via the right channel and provide them with targeted messages that result in quick conversions. Talk to us to know more about our solutions that may help your efforts.
