It goes without saying that your prospecting system, which is the process that guides a prospect, taking them from stranger to client, is one of the most important, and effective assets in your marketing arsenal.
If you want to take your marketing conversions to a new and exciting level, your systems will need to include some form of retargeting which in practical terms involves the monitoring of your website visitor’s behavior and using that info to bring them back to your website.
What Is Retargeting?
Have you ever visited a website and then later started seeing ads for that website following you around all over the web? That’s retargeting!
Retargeting happens when you visit a website like Amazon for example.
They place a cookie on your computer, and no matter where you go on the internet, they will identify you.
Meaning that they can show you ads related to the web pages you visited when you clicked on Amazon’s website.
The Obvious Benefits of Using Retargeting for Prospecting
Chances are, your website is built to drive brand awareness and increase conversions.
You’ll be happy to know retargeting can assist both, for the simple reason you have the space to create direct, unique, personalized landing pages.
Take a look at these retargeting statistics below.
- 3 out of 4 customers notice retargeted ads
- Retargeted ads on Facebook are 76% more likely to get clicks than regular display ads
- If you leverage retargeting along with other channels, you can experience greater conversions
We all have websites these days. And we all hope that people will actually visit them and somehow become interested in us enough to use us as their REALTOR®.
Getting people to initially visit our websites is a challenge that we try to overcome by placing our URL on our cards, our social sites, our email signatures and any where else that we can legally do so!
Even if we are successful in getting someone to come, they often get what they were looking for (or not!) and then they leave never to return!
Thanks to the power of retargeting, you can now continue communicating with customers long after they have left your website.
There are several different types of retargeting, but I want to concentrate on the one that I think brings the most value to you and that is the Facebook Audience type.
A Facebook Audience is a group of people on Facebook who have visited your website and as a result had a “cookie” placed in their browser. When they later visit Facebook using that browser, Facebook Identifies the cookie and then delivers ads that you have set up specifically to show to people who have that cookie!
(You can also create a Facebook Audience by uploading a list of email addresses but that’s a topic for another time.)
Target a Specific Audience and Deliver Tailored Value
Retargeting also opens your marketing up to a number of other campaigns.
It’s not as simple as “Well, if they hit a page about my listing I’m just going to follow them around with that listing.”
But rather it works like this:
If a website visitor visits one of your listings on your web site you can follow them around on the internet and perhaps offer a free property valuation in the form of a display ad.
Then, once they opt in through the that valuation, they receive another Facebook pixel which in turn will show them ads for yet another step in your process.
Facebook knows these people have opted in for your offer (probably a warm lead), so the next step might be to catch them with a CMA or free consultation.
Push Leads through the Funnel Faster
The idea behind any retargeting plan is to move people down through the various stages until they are ready to transact.
Research has shown that 92% of customers don’t purchase on their first visit to a website, which is exactly why you need to follow them around and make sure they enter back into the funnel at the right stage.
In order to do that, you’ll need to retarget them with fresh content.
If someone comes to your homepage and they don’t convert when you do a retargeting campaign, do you think you should send them back to your homepage?
No! They obviously didn’t resonate with the content there, so try to nudge them back onto your website with something new.
Remember: Retargeting Is About Developing Relationships
Just like dating, the key to retargeting is building relationships and trust.
Someone comes to your website, they don’t buy, you retarget to them, and they keep seeing your ads everywhere.
Soon, they begin to feel and think like they know you, and are now more likely to give you a chance, which they will not give to a total stranger.
The process retargeting follows is this:
- Earn your site visitors and potential customers’ trust by making them comfortable with you.
- Gently push to get them back to your site by educating them further through blog posts, webinars, training materials and email follow-up sequences.
- Ask them to list their home with you. Your audience is much more likely to convert if they’ve already invested in trusting you.
As with all aspects of digital marketing, retargeting requires a consistent application. It may take a few months to see any return on investment, and you may even have to test and tweak your messaging.
Remember, the more you know your audience, the better you can retarget them as they work through your marketing funnel.
The next thing you know, you’ll have customers saying, “It’s almost as if they read my mind and know exactly what I want.”
