The Remarketing Triple Play: Remind, Reassure, Promote

Remarketing uses website visitors’ on-site behaviors to trigger specific campaigns such as emails and retargeted advertisements. When done right, it elevates marketing from irrelevant noise into personal service, extending and differentiating the retailer and stimulating purchases. In fact, it's been shown that two times to three times more site abandoners will buy when remarketed to, making remarketing a powerful tool in a marketer's arsenal.

When someone abandons, a marketer's initial thought may be to remarket to him or her with something that includes a "buy now" call to action to try and win the shopper back and drive a conversion, but that's actually not always the best approach. The objective instead should be to keep the emotional connection with the shopper alive with the top goal of driving him or her back to your website. Consumers that abandon their shopping cart are 2.6 times more likely to buy if you can get them back to the website after they abandon. Therefore, the goal of your remarketing campaign should be to keep the brand message in front of the consumer while they're considering a purchase so that your brand and product are top of mind when they're ready.

So, how can you drive timely return visits and conversions? The most successful campaigns use a combination of email and advertising to target all site visitors. In a future article I'll look at best practices for retargeted advertising, but let's start with three best practices for remarketing success using email:

1. Remind (immediately): While it may be enticing to ask a shopper to place an order in marketing outreach, a gentle, more subtle nudge is often actually more effective. Consumers who abandon aren't ready to buy, so focusing on customer service, while reinforcing the brand message, is a more successful approach. For example, high-end brands may consider offering a personal shopper, as the availability and use of a personal shopper can get a stunning 80 percent email open rate. Giving the impression that "we are here to help" rather than "we are here to sell to you" can extend a brand's values and have a much stronger impact on sales. And this needs to be done immediately after someone abandons, as buyer emotion decays rapidly, causing a lead to quickly go cold.

2. Reassure: Share relevant product reviews, images and even alternatives, all with links back to your website for information. Demonstrating to the shopper that others have had a positive experience with a product, and/or that there are similar items that could be a better fit for their needs, will help to validate that you're providing something of interest — and that the product they're interested in (or a similar one) is worth buying.

3. Promote: Last, and with great care, consider testing a promotional offer, whether that's something like free or two-day shipping or, at times, a discount. Some remarketing technologies can detect if the promotion should include an offer for a price-sensitive shopper. For example, they can score shoppers based on their past behaviors to determine if they received an offer on their last visit, as you don't want shoppers to expect an offer every time they abandon. If you offer a promotion, keep in mind that it may decrease order value, but at least it will convert the browser into a buyer. It's not uncommon to see remarketing promotions lose money compared with nonpromotional email. Determine if your goal is brand profitability or customer acquisition, as that will impact what you may want to do and test with your promotions.

Focusing on customer service, being top of mind and relevant, and walking in step with consumers are key to effective remarketing. Remarketing systems that are in line with consumers’ path to purchase, syncing email and advertising together, provide significant lift while also ensuring that your campaign is always in concert with what customers are doing. Testing the steps above before rolling them out broadly for one-to-one real-time communications will boost effectiveness and the results you want — an average of 18 percent of abandoned cart recovery.

Charles Nicholls is chief strategy officer of SeeWhy, a provider of online shopping cart recovery solutions. He's also the chair of the SeeWhy Conversion Academy.