If you make it a point to stay abreast of the latest news in the world of ecommerce business marketing, then there’s no doubt you’ve heard this buzz phrase: behavioral targeting. More and more Internet entrepreneurs are turning to this new concept to fine-tune their marketing efforts, but is it right for you? Here are some things to consider when it comes to understanding behavioral targeting:
What is behavioral targeting? As the name suggests, behavioral targeting is a method of targeting potential customers based on their behaviors – namely, their behaviors when it comes to surfing the web. This has serious implications for ecommerce businesses, in that they may use this information to identify which consumers are most likely to use their products and develop marketing campaigns specifically for those consumers.
How does behavioral targeting work? There are myriad technologies that may be employed to compile the information that is used for behavioral targeting, but they all generally work by capturing and analyzing data associated with visitors to landing pages and websites. When a person clicks on a link, searches the web for a key term, interacts with a website element, or spends any length of time on a web page, all of the data collected from that activity speaks for the type of experience that particular customer is looking to get through the web.
What behaviors may be targeted? Specifically, ecommerce entrepreneurs may use behavioral targeting to identify potential customers based on qualities like purchase history, interests (types of links clicked and site elements interacted with), amount of time on a particular type of web page, search history, page visit history, and terms searched for. If you think about it, this type of data could be invaluable when it comes to streamlining your marketing efforts and spending your marketing dollars only on campaigns that are most likely to be effective.
How you can use behavioral targeting. Once you have all of that great data, what do you do with it? There are a number of marketing methods that you can use to target potential customers, based on their Internet activity. You may choose to personalize your website, email correspondence, and/or special offers to your customer, or you may “remarket” to you customer. Remarketing is the process of “following” a potential customer on the web and making yourself visible in opportune positions. Search the web for tutorials that will outline how to use each of these methods to make behavioral targeting work for you.
Behavioral targeting can be a powerful tool when it comes to marketing your ecommerce business. Explore the benefits of behavioral targeting to create a marketing strategy that can take your ecommerce business to the next level.
About the Author: Ernie Tooman is an ecommerce shopping guru. He loves helping new business owners develop online marketing plans and understand the facets of ecommerce.
Ecommerce Marketing: Understanding Behavioral Targeting
