“You only get one chance to make a first impression.” This popular quote, attributed to Will Rogers, reminds us to always put our best foot forward. 

For marketers, this may lead you to believe that you only have one chance to close a sale. 

This is wrong. 

If you provide an excellent customer experience with your marketing efforts, chances are you made a good first impression. That said, not every potential customer will make a purchase upon first contact, even if the experience is a great one. 

This does not mean you’ve lost the lead. 

How? 

If a potential customer likes your brand and what you have to offer, there is a chance you can retarget that customer. 

Retargeting is a powerful marketing tactic that you can use when a potential customer falls out of your marketing funnel. 

There are several reasons why a potential customer may not make a purchase upon first contact that present an opportunity for retargeting:

• They need to do more research 
• They need to speak with a spouse or partner
• They need to wait until they have more money
• Life is busy and they simply forgot

Retargeting can also be used for customers who have already made a purchase:

• A customer who made a recent purchase and you have other offerings that may complement that purchase 
• A customer made a purchase in the past, but has not visited you or your website in some time and you would like to re-engage them

Here are some ways that you can retarget potential or existing customers:

• Email drip campaigns
• Text messages
• Direct mailers
• Social media ads

Whatever the scenario and however you choose to do it, retargeting is a powerful tool that helps with brand awareness and customer engagement. 

Let’s examine some best practices. 

Put a Cap on Frequency

While you want to stay on the top of mind of your customers, you do not want them to become annoyed with you or your brand due to overexposure. Put a cap on how frequently your ads are seen or how many emails you send out. 

Remember, retargeting should be used as a gentle reminder to your potential and past customers as to what you have to offer. If they begin to see your content everywhere they look, chances are they will grow frustrated and your campaign will suffer. 

Exclude Converted Users

If someone makes a purchase, there is no reason they should see content reminding them to purchase a product or service that they just purchased. 

As customers make purchases, remove them from the retargeting campaign or place them in a different one that focuses on a complementary product or service. 

Segment Your Audience

When it comes to retargeting, one size does NOT fit all. If you offer different products and services to a variety of customers, make sure you segment your audience so that they only see material that is relevant to their needs. 

This is part of providing a great experience with your marketing efforts. 

If your customers consistently see marketing content promoting offers that do not apply to them, then they will eventually tune you out and may even block your content.

Make the experience better for your potential customers by delivering content that is relevant to their needs. This will save you time and money and lead to a higher conversion rate. 

Consider Demographics and Geographics

One of the great things about retargeting is that it can be highly customizable. We already discussed frequency and segmentation. Now it is time to consider demographics and geographics. 

If you have different products and services for customers of different age groups or genders, make sure your retargeting content reflects this. 

Similarly, if you have different locations spread across town or even across a state, make sure that the content you send is relevant to the people most likely to be served in the area of the location you are promoting. 

Again, you want to save time and money by ensuring your marketing content with respect to retargeting is focused on the intended audience. Otherwise it will be ignored. 

Use a Single Provider

This is an important one. They are different advertising platforms that you can use to purchase ads for retargeting. If you decide to go this route, make sure to use a single provider. 

If you use multiple providers to run Facebooks or Google ads, chances are they are not going to check with each other. This means that they are going to work independently, which can result in overexposure or already-converted users still being targeted. 

This is also just an inefficient use of time and money. 

Use A/B Testing

It takes time to make retargeting work for you. Chances are you will stumble and that campaigns will fail at the beginning. You can speed up the learning curve by running A/B testing to see how different ads or content produce different results. 

This will give you a much better understanding of how you can use retargeting to meet your marketing goals. 

Retargeting is a great way to keep your audience engaged and to capitalize on the awareness that your efforts are earning. The above best practices will help you make the most of this powerful marketing tactic.