Matthew MacQuarrie
Recently, I’ve blogged a little bit about the limitations I see with social media marketing. Those posts seemed to have resonated with a number of entrepreneurs who are—I think—a little bit frustrated with the state of online advertising, which doesn’t seem to offer quite the same bang for buck it did even five years ago.
But here’s some good news: I’ve found a marketing strategy that actually does seem to yield a high return on investment. It’s almost too good to be true, and I’ve been telling all my friends that it’s like a little crack in the system. You’d best take full advantage of it before it’s gone!
The method I’m talking about is digital retargeting. Here’s my very non-technical explanation: Have you ever gone to Amazon.com to browse products, then clicked away from Amazon to visit another site—only to see Amazon.com banner ads follow you to that next site, displaying the very products you were just looking at?
That’s an example of digital retargeting. What it means is that you visit a website even for a second and then leave it, but still see little reminders of that site and its content everywhere you go.
Like anything else, I think, this strategy requires thoughtfulness and balance. I’m not saying you’re guaranteed to make a killing off of this. But I am saying that, while the glory days of Facebook marketing seem to be winding down, the glory days of digital retargeting are still very much here. We’re living in them!
Digital retargeting provides something that all entrepreneurs and startups covet, which is—basically—exposure. It gets eyeballs on your brand, on your content, and it does it in an amazingly cost effective way.
You can spend thousands of dollars on a glossy print magazine ad, or you can spend big bucks running a commercial on TV—but how long do you think you’ll have to wait before someone who sees your commercial sees it a second time and is pushed to pick up the phone and give you a call? With digital retargeting the odds are much more advantageous, especially if you create a really great offer and write a snappy, persuasive call to action.
Getting eyeballs on your new startup is always a difficult problem—difficult and expensive. But digital retargeting, in my experience, provides an effective solution. It’s too good not to take advantage of it!
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