Marketers tend to put a ton of energy and resources into getting visitors to their website. Once you’ve accomplished your goal of getting a potential client to your website, it’s critical to get them to convert or, if they aren’t ready to convert, to stay in front of them until they are ready. A lot of articles talk about how to maximize conversions with great B2B website design, but not a lot of articles talk about how easy and inexpensive it is to stay in front of website visitors. That’s where website retargeting comes into the picture.
A Quick Word on Website Retargeting
If you aren’t already familiar with website retargeting, it’s a strategy for staying in front of website visitors after they leave your website without converting (or completing the desired action). You’ve definitely seen it, especially if you’ve visited well-established websites like Amazon. Think about it, after you’ve left a brand’s website, you suddenly start seeing ads for that brand on different, unrelated websites (including sites like MSN, CNN, Forbes, Entrepreneur, etc.). That’s retargeting. It involves a cookie being put on your browser when you visit the initial website.
Ideally, every B2B marketing and website strategy includes an element of general retargeting. This is often a general branding message that includes your firm’s value proposition or service offering. However, we recommend that brands maximize their B2B website retargeting by also running content-specific campaigns, in addition to the general branded campaigns.
Why Use Content to Retarget Visitors?
Why should brands use content pieces to retarget their B2B website visitors? We’ve broken it down to five main reasons why content helps firms get the most out of their website retargeting.
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Become a True Resource
Often, your B2B website design is the first interaction that a potential client has with your brand, especially if they are performing an online search. At this point, they are likely just out kicking tires. So, what separates you from all the competitors? Creating a retargeting campaign that highlights a premium piece of content that helps the prospect in their job establishes your brand as a true resource. You aren’t selling them at this point, you are merely providing them with a resource to help them.
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Build a Relationship
No one gets married on the first date. (Well, most people don’t.) Particularly in the B2B space, the key to converting a prospect into a new client is a strong relationship. Offering a piece of content to retarget a potential prospect, who is likely still learning about your company, builds trust. It shows that you understand what they are looking for and what they need.
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Get More Mileage Out of Content Efforts
A lot of resources typically go into creating great content pieces. Retargeting campaigns are a great way to promote those pieces and get them in front of your ideal audience. The bonus here is that the audience has already shown initial interest in your brand or services. By incorporating content into your retargeting strategy, you can see the hard numbers on how many prospects are converting into new website leads.
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Nurture and Incentivize the Prospect
Your sales process may take anywhere from 30 days to 6 months or more. Typical email and phone call nurturing campaigns may not be the best strategy or best use of your internal resources. Content marketing is a great way to continue nurturing a prospect and incentivize them to return to your B2B website. It’s passive nurturing that ensures the prospect comes back to the website and your brand will be top of mind when they are ready to make contact. It also requires fewer resources than an entire sales team.
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Give Back to Current Clients
Let’s not forget your current clients. It takes less effort to keep an existing client than it takes to win a new one. However, many companies forget this task and stop nurturing the relationships once the deal is made or the sales process is over. Retargeting using content is a great way to continue building value with existing clients and to upsell clients as well. By leveraging a variety of content that meets various client and prospect needs, you are reinforcing the idea that your brand is still the best fit for their needs. You are saying you understand what they need and are anticipating that need.
If you do nothing else after a new B2B website design launch, you should definitely start a general retargeting campaign. We recommend maximizing your retargeting efforts by launching a content-specific campaign as well.
