Why is this important?  Because it’s so expensive to find a new potential customer that it is of value to invest in retargeting that customer who now knows about you.  Of course, the company offers a solution to this problem which is to somehow tag that person and no matter where they go online, they will show your ad to them.  Pretty nifty for a marketer.

As a strategist, I like to see what companies are doing in one area of business and think through how I might apply it to another area of business.  It’s good mind exercise.  I have a friend who is considering taking over a hair salon and running it, so while they could use this for their online marketing, how could this work in a real-life scenario?

Say that she successfully takes control of this business, and decides to throw an “open house” to invite as many people as she can to visit.  Some are current customers, some are their friends, and some are other people that she meets or who see her ad/press release.  She could have a sign-in book which requests name, phone and email.  After the event, she then has to sort through to categorize them as either current or potential clients.  Now, how to retarget?

Some ideas:

• See if they are on LinkedIn, Facebook or Myspace and connect to them, thanking them for attending and offer an incentive to schedule an appointment.  A larger incentive within the next 30 days, a smaller one for the next 60 days, another smaller still for next 90 days.
• If, after 30 days, they do not take her up on the offer remind them again of the smaller incentive for the next 30 days.  Same for 60 days.
• If, after 90 days, she still has not received a response, follow up again with another offer, say  a free haircut if they refer 2 friends who make appointments or a free haircut and color if they refer 5 friends who make appointments.
• Send them an email asking if she can add them to an email update list that shares specials, or possibly an e-newsletter, no more than once a month.
• For those she connects with on social media, she could send them a note saying that she’d like to offer THEIR friends a “2nd degree discount,” meaning that if they forward her offer to all their friends, the friends will will receive a discount on a service within 30, 60 and 90 days plus get a free [trial sized bottle of a hair product or whatever].  They just have to connect with her via one of the social sites (give the profile address) and provide the name of the person referring, which can be verified through their friend listing on their profile, unless they have hidden this view.
• Those new first degree friends can then be provided the same opportunities as the previous.

Of course, it is important for her to track metrics for her business that would be applicable:

• Number of customers who have made second appointments.
• Number of customers who did not make second appointments.
• Number of return conversions (those who did not initially make appointments, but later returned and did).
• Number of customers who have been customers longer than one year.
• Number of customers who have referred someone else.
• Number of customers who purchased hair products but did not make appointments.
• And so on

Does anyone have any other thoughts on how she could “follow” a potential customer around to retarget?

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Like a PB&J is not possible without peanut butter, behavioral marketing is not possible without an investment into understanding a company’s customers through segmentation.Segmentation is the foundation of behavioral marketing, but unless you are in the business of market research you may not understand how segments are derived and why the manner in which you derive them is important.

Of course, you can classify using a simple segmentation based on demographics (age, ethnicity, female/male) or by usage (heavy, light), but these rarely yield needed information.  In a true segmentation, people are typically grouped by how alike they are in terms of their behaviors and attitudes towards life or a particular topic.   This type of segmentation analysis is conducted by carefully constructing a questionnaire so that some questions are behavioral in nature and others attitudinal.

Results are then viewed by an experienced researcher, who identifies patterns in the data through the use of “cluster analysis.”  There are  multiple sub-types of cluster analysis (“algorithms”) that can be used to view the data from differing  vantage points, allowing the researcher to see the “stories” in the data.  From there, certain attitudinal questions are identified that yield the strongest differences, which are then used as the basis of behavioral analysis.

The resulting data cuts are then analyzed and clever segment names are created to represent different types of customers who share similar values or lifestyles.  For example, “Facebook Fanatics” or “iPhone Moms.”

Now the trick is…how to translate that customer knowledge into a marketing strategy that captures people’s attention at their interest points – their behaviors and attitudes.

A way that this data can be used is to evaluate which segments are worth pursuing through the creation of indices.  By looking at each group size, their spend levels, and how much the group likes the company/brand, it can be determined, for example, that segments 2, 3 and 5 are best to target.  They are the largest that spend the most and like the company/brand best.  Furthermore, we can look at their wants/needs and what they have in common with each other for marketing messaging.

As an aside, the company that I work with, C.A. Walker Research Solutions, regularly conducts segmentations for its clients, if you need assistance in this area.

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