Using Online Behavioral Data to Your Advantage

One of the greatest joys of being in the marketing technology space is watching its evolution over the years. Targeting based on online behavior was just a dream not that long ago. Now, it’s pervasive and expected. Serving customers information and content at just the right time has become the ante. Today, consumers expect a personalized experience based on their likes, dislikes, habits, and purchases. Rightfully so, they are selective with their email subscriptions, follows, and online registrations because they only want messages that matter to them. As marketers, it’s critical that we crack that code – what’s important and when is it wanted.

As we accrue additional technologies and capabilities in the marketing space, we can’t lose sight of the bigger picture. We need to harness our customer’s data and behavioral activity not just for promotional marketing, but also for transactional. We all live in a busy world. Life is hectic. It’s not uncommon for consumers to research items, favorite products, build their online carts, and then forget all about it. Distractions abound, and people’s attention is diverted endlessly. At this very moment, there are likely hundreds of consumers that have interacted with your brand, had every intention of purchasing or requesting information, and then failed to convert. Sometimes, a reminder is exactly what they need. This is where Oracle Infinity shines.

Infinity and Behavioral Data

Infinity gives you an easy way to track, analyze, and use this behavioral data across your email marketing, SMS, and other online channels. This makes it easy for you to personalize retargeting initiatives, trigger messages based on actions such as form or cart abandonment, and offer in-the-moment recommendations across multiple channels. Once you’ve defined the online behaviors you want to track, Infinity can funnel those individuals into various programs within tools such as Oracle Eloqua and Oracle Responsys.

Online behavioral tracking can be overwhelming. The amount of information across your digital channels is endless. It can be hard to pinpoint the best starting points. Here are a few simple events you can track for remarketing efforts that not only increase conversions but also enhance your customer’s experience with your brand.

Behavior Triggers

Form Abandonment

Forms are a critical component of any online marketing strategy. Forms serve a variety purposes – registration, subscriptions, gates, requests for information, and the list goes on. According to WPForms, 68% of forms started are never completed. That’s right. 2 out of every 3 forms with data entered will never be submitted. This is a huge loss for marketers. Behind every abandoned form is a consumer with interest. Interest that may have been distracted based on competing information. By using a tool like Infinity, you can capture data on abandoned forms and funnel known individuals into your marketing automation tools. From there, you can send highly targeted messages depending on the individual, the form they abandoned, and their digital behavior.

When creating form abandonment campaigns, consider the reasons why someone didn’t submit. Was the form too long? Were the required fields too personal? Did the individual decide that the content wasn’t worth sharing their data? Did they reconsider their need for help? Once you answer these questions, you can re-engage that individual. You can offer them similar content to re-engage them. You can consider progressive profiling on your form to enhance form submission rates. You can utilize lead nurturing tactics across channels to send a form reminder or provide different content to garner the same form information.

Abandon Browse

Abandon browse is like window shopping. Potential customers are perusing your site and viewing multiple pages and/or products. They may be gathering information on your company, product, or service. In some cases, they are further down their journey and are comparing features, pricing, and reviews across your brand and others. No matter what the reason, you can capture these views and funnel individuals to proper re-marketing efforts. According to Salecycle, “Browse abandonment emails have an 80.9% higher open rate and 50.5% higher click-through rate than traditional emails, while 26% of all browsers that open these emails will click through and return to the site.” 

Based on the pages visited, you can likely tell the nature of a session. If customers are simply browsing products, a top-of-funnel campaign targeting their interests could be beneficial. If they are looking at pricing pages or high-value content, it may be better to provide them bottom-of-funnel content. Whichever path you choose, utilize their behavioral data to customize their content based on their actual interests. Whether email, SMS, push, etc., always look to personalize their experience.

Abandon Purchase

Unlike abandon browse where consumers are “just looking,” abandon purchase implies a much greater intent. If someone takes the time to add a product to their cart, they are highly interested. They may not complete their purchase for a number of reasons, including cost, timing, indecisiveness, alternatives, shipping charges, security, or just plain distraction. According to Baymard Institute, the average cart abandonment rate for desktop is 70% while it’s 86% for mobile and 81% for tablets. Those are incredibly high numbers. The marketers that capitalize on abandon purchase data have a much greater chance of seeing ROI from these individuals.

As marketers, it’s our job to utilize a consumer’s behavioral data to target relevant messages that help aid their decisions. If customers have concerns about price, for example, consider a discount for certain products or send an alert when they go on sale. If shipping costs are the issue, perhaps a free shipping promotion will sway them. Coupons, reminders, in-store offers, etc. can be extremely successful when targeted properly. These individuals may also be prime for other types of communication that help finalize sales and purchases. As always, you can use their products of interest to offer personalized recommendations and information in future campaigns.

Purchasing

Of course, marketing doesn’t stop after purchase. Once someone has clicked “buy now,” there is a world of marketing possibilities. They have a clear interest in your brand and products. They’ve invested in your company, and they’re ripe for customer loyalty measures. At this stage, you’re armed with all kinds of behavioral data from online shopping and, perhaps, in-store purchases. Using the marketing tools at your disposal, you can send marketing messages that target your customer’s habits, interests, preferences, and needs. Perhaps they like certain types of products. Maybe they purchase perishables around the same time each month. Consider everything you know about these individuals beyond their purchase. Look for ways to connect with your customer based on what, how, and where they like to shop. Using tools like Infinity IQ, not only can you target marketing messages across channels, but you can also personalize online interactions to serve up content that resonates each time your buyer visits your website.

Where to Start?

Like any other marketing initiative, start with your strategy. Which targeting effort aligns with your greatest business need? If lead generation is top-of-mind, start by reviewing your forms and their abandonment rates.  Consider ways you can tweak these forms to garner greater submissions. You can also target form abandoners with different offers and content. Folks that browse your website and don’t make a purchase are also prime for lead nurturing events that benefit from top-of-funnel content. Meanwhile, if your greatest area of concern is bottom-of-funnel, pay closer attention to abandon cart events and post-purchase targeting to enhance repeat buyers.

These are just a few of the ways you can use online behavioral data to enhance personalization to your customers and prospects. The data captured can be used cross-channel, including in-store, email, SMS, and push. The key is using this information to provide unique experiences that customers will remember. It’s never just about closing a sale. It’s about building a connection that will last a lifetime.

If you need help with Oracle Infinity or your behavioral data, give Relationship One a call. We are always here to help.