Targeting site visitors to increase conversion

Forrester identified ’ Web interaction optimisation’ as the priority technology for Marketers in 2007, and in February online business optimisation provider Omniture acquired the UK’s major on-site behavioural targeting firm, Touch Clarity. Omniture’s VP Marketing EMEA, Neil Morgan, explains why targeting the content served on a site to increase its performance has become a key strategic issue for online marketers.

Online marketing has always been a highly accountable channel, with reams of analytics data to demonstrate its return on investment. But optimising that data relies on manual interpretation and action at a time when the skills to do this are more scarce, and expensive than ever.

When these gaps appear technology usually steps in, and the next big thing for web marketers is on-site behavioural targeting. In fact, many market leaders have deployed on-site behavioural targeting already including banks that want to increase application rates, such as Lloyds TSB and HSBC, news sites aiming to keep readers returning, or leisure retailers like lastminute.com hoping to promote the perfect holiday to each visitor.

What is On-site behavioural targeting?
Behavioural targeting combine individual website visitor’s observed click-stream behaviour with modelling techniques to decide what content is likely to be most effective for them. Hundreds of variables are analysed for predictive value, ranging from all historical behaviour to the time of day of the current visit, the referring site, search engine keywords, and the frequency and recency of previous visits. This content is then served in a premium position on the site in order to achieve a commercial objective; such as increasing revenue, conversion, or engagement.

On-site behavioural targeting works in real-time to watch and respond to the customer whilst they are on your site and can help create a 360 degree view which can be fed back into other online and offline activities to enable consistent, high-performance marketing.

How On-site behavioural targeting is used
Many companies understand how much they are willing to pay to attract a customer, but few appreciate the leaky buckets that their websites represent for new and repeat visitors. On-site behavioural targeting ensures that spend is maximised. It can deliver incremental traffic to key landing pages at a rate that is five times less expensive than paid search with twice the conversion rate.

The customer is in control
The also works both ways, visitors will benefit from a more personal experience on your site delivering improved engagement, longer site visit times and repeat visits. This is especially true of customers familiar with personalisation such as that offered by Amazon. ‘Personalisation 1.0’ - based on resource-intensive rules development and coding - has raised the expectations of customers. Now they are less patient and sprint, rather than surf, the web, so content needs to be on target to catch their interest. Your ability to understand their needs and to present the best messaging and content in front of each one at the right time impacts everything you sell, and everything that you fail to sell.

Consumer behaviour is complicated and with search engines, comparison sites and user-generated reviews to consider, it’s likely they’ll leave and return later. Would‐be buyers typically return two to five times before they purchase and may arrive via Google or an advert. On-Site Behavioral Targeting recognises every visitor as they return, remembers everything about their previous visits, and can use that to deliver even more relevant and targeted content increasing their likelihood to purchase. It’s almost as if the consumer is just picking up where they were on their last visit. Your site will appear to serve their needs like a great sales person delivering a consistently good experience that shortens the sales cycle and increases conversion rates and average order values.

Continuously learning and optimising your results
The way internet technology works inherently means that every interaction is now part of a recordable conversation. Knowledge about your customers is the most important competitive advantage you have. On‐site behavioural targeting helps you leverage the knowledge about a customer both on the site and across other channels of the organisation.

Since more customer interactions are happening online - with every click delivering valuable insight - it is essential that businesses start to harness this insight and use it as a bridge between the on‐site experience and other customer channels. By integrating profiles of site visitor behaviour with CRM systems that track other channels, truly consistent multi-channel customer views become practical.

Your online and offline marketing efforts can be optimized to deliver dramatically increased sales through your site and with between 20 and 240% improvement in site performance, results which speak for themselves.