As a business owner, you know how important marketing can be for your business. However, it can be hard to master. If you’ve been hitting a wall with your marketing strategy and feeling like you’ve been throwing darts in the dark, behavioral marketing could be just what you need.
Reaching your customers at the right time with the right message is no easy feat. Segmenting your audience based on age, location, and gender is the first step. The second step is segmenting them based on how they interact with your brand. This is called behavioral marketing.
Defining Behavioral Marketing
Behavioral marketing is a type of market targeting that is based on users’ previous online interactions and allows businesses to create more personalized messaging. It provides a more holistic look at your audience and their needs. Thus, allowing you to serve more effective and tailored ads to your customers. And consumers want personalized ads! According to a study, more than 70% of customers expect personalized ads and are frustrated when they aren’t.
Behavior patterns such as which pages a user interacts with, what they put in their shopping cart, and their search history provide a lot of insight into a customer. Instead of creating campaigns that may or may not resonate with your audience, behavioral data can show what is relevant to them. By showing content users are already looking for, you’ll have higher conversion rates.
How Does it Work?
To incorporate behavioral marketing, you’ll need to follow three steps: collect user data, segment your audience based on that data, and then apply the data to your marketing efforts.
Behavioral marketing starts with the collection of user data. This data can come from multiple different sources, including website analytics, social media platforms, email marketing, and customer relationship management (CRM) systems. You’ll want to look at the data that is relevant to your business. This may include users’ search history, click-throughs, downloads, scroll depth, or log-ins.
With the data you collect, you’ll then want to create different segments for your target audience. You can segment based on purchasing behavior, customer journey stage, or engagement level among others. This segmentation allows you to create highly targeted marketing campaigns for specific groups of users. For example, you can segment users who frequently visit your website but haven’t made a purchase or those who have abandoned their shopping carts.
You’ll then want to apply the behavior data and market segmentation to your marketing campaigns and tailor your messaging accordingly.
Types and Examples of Behavioral Marketing
Retargeting
Retargeting, or remarketing, is when companies show ads of previous products or pages that a customer has viewed. This allows companies to stay top of mind and reminds customers of the products they are interested in. The retargeted ad should be designed to encourage users to complete the desired action, such as purchasing the product.
Retargeting can be displayed through Facebook, Google, as well as social media platforms. If you’ve ever scrolled through Instagram and clicked on a company’s profile, you’ll likely receive additional retargeted ads from that company within your Instagram feed in the future. Another type of retargeting ad is if you were looking at sneakers on the Nike website, and then saw an ad later for those same Nike shoes on Facebook.
Email Marketing
Email marketing looks at actions a consumer takes on your website and sends them tailored emails. Segmenting email subscribers based on their behaviors is a powerful way to send customized messaging. Personalized messaging direct to their inbox will help to build those customer relationships. A common email marketing campaign is an email reminding a customer of items left in their online shopping cart.
This could also be a powerful way to grow or retain email subscribers. Offer a discount code for any new signs up, or for customers who have been subscribed for a certain amount of time. Another way to use behavioral marketing with emails is if a user were to click on a link for a new product launch, sending them additional information on the product.
Product Suggestions
Product suggestions are, as the name suggests, when a company recommends additional items. Recommendations are great for increasing sales, as it creates opportunities for cross-selling or up-selling. It can seem like you’re reading the customer’s mind and shows them you understand their needs before they even need to express them.
One of the best examples of this is Amazon. At the bottom of almost every product page are their “frequently bought together” and “products related to this item.” For example, if I’m looking at iPads, Amazon may suggest a case, the Apple Pencil, and other accessories. This creates a seamless user experience as they don’t have to search individually for each item. Product suggestions could be in real time like with Amazon, or could be after a customer makes a purchase. This will keep customers engaged and coming back for more.
Loyalty-Based Segmentation
Loyalty-based segmentation is a strategy that classifies customers based on their loyalty level. These customers are identified through their interaction frequency, purchase history, and engagement with a brand or product. This segmentation helps businesses to formulate personalized marketing strategies targeting groups with varying levels of loyalty. Typically, customers are divided into categories. A few examples of categories would be loyal customers, new customers, and wavering customers.
Loyal customers are often rewarded with loyalty programs, discounts, and exclusive. This is because these customers usually interact with the brand more often so it is a good practice to engage with them. Hopefully for the business, they’re able to retain those customers because of those perks.
For new customers, the aim is often to build trust and loyalty. This is done through introductory offers and excellent customer service. The wavering customers might be targeted with re-engagement campaigns to reignite their interest in the brand.
By focusing on loyalty-based segmentation, businesses can maximize the effectiveness of their marketing efforts. Through careful monitoring and adjustment of strategies, this approach can significantly contribute to sustained business growth.
Purchase Behavior
Purchase behavior marketing focuses on understanding and leveraging the buying habits of consumers. From there, businesses can tailor marketing strategies accordingly. This approach considers factors like the frequency of purchases, the types of products bought, and the average spending per purchase. Insights into customers’ buying behaviors enable businesses to create targeted promotions and advertising campaigns.
It makes logical sense to interact with potential customers who have purchased items that your business currently sells. For instance, if a group of customers frequently purchases organic products, targeted marketing campaigns can highlight new organic products. They can also offer discounts on similar items. Also, understanding purchase behavior helps in optimizing product placements both in physical stores and on e-commerce platforms. The goal is to guide customers towards making a buying decision.
Understanding purchase behaviors can aid in inventory management and product development by predicting demand for various products. Consequently, marketing efforts rooted in purchase behavior analysis are generally more aligned with consumers’ preferences..
Conclusion
Today’s consumers are not looking for generic advertisements. They want personalized experiences that cater to their unique needs and desires. Marketing is no longer about reaching the most amount of people. It’s about providing relevant and customized content to your target audience. Behavioral marketing allows you to fully understand your customers and engage with them in a more effective way. By incorporating behavioral marketing, you’ll be able to reach customers more effectively and build a stronger relationship with them.
Also read:
Understanding the Types of Target Markets
What is Undifferentiated Marketing? Advantages and Disadvantages of This Strategy
Target Market: Definition, Examples and Its Importance
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