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Quick question. How much time do you spend online? Well, if you’re anything like the average American, you’re likely spending somewhere in the range of 24 hours a week online in some fashion. And that number is from early 2018. Our dependance and love for all things internet is only going to increase from here.
One more question. Are you doing anything to target prospective customers online? The fact of the matter is what worked in the past won’t work anymore. The ole’ spray and pray method of getting your message in front of as many people as possible and hoping some of them are interested just won’t get the job done. To reach your ideal prospect you have to be as targeted as possible with your marketing. Find the right people at the right time and stop wasting time and effort on those who you have little to no chance of converting.
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Maximize Offline Data by Using it Online
No matter what industry you find yourself in you have a tremendous amount of valuable data that you’ve accumulated. The question is, are you using it? Every past dealing you’ve had, every event you’ve attended, every sale you’ve made has provided you data. You can leverage that data to find and target the prospective customers you’re after.
What Offline Data?
Use the information you have to find new customers. Sounds pretty great right? But I can hear some of you already…what data? Offline data refers to any data or information you’ve managed to collect that originated from an offline source.
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Common Offline Data Sources
- Your CRM
- Warranty Information You Possess
- Magazine of Newsletter Subscriber Lists
- Trade Show Lists
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If you’ve ever been to a trade show and come back with business cards or a stack of forms or questionnaires, you’ve got offline data. Anytime a customer or prospective customer has filled out something or signed up for magazine, newsletter, or other publication you offer, you have collected offline data. Anytime you enter customer or warranty information into your company CRM you’re building up offline data.
The point is pretty much every company out there, yours included, has access to valuable data they could be using to grow their business. The best way to take advantage of this offline data? By taking it online.
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Reaching Prospects Online
Once you’ve decided to take advantage of your data and target prospects online you have a variety of options available to you. All major social media platforms offer several options to help you reach your ideal prospect on their platform.
- Target with Custom Audiences:Upload your pre-existing customer or prospect list to create a custom audience on Facebook. This information is cross-referenced with Facebook users and ads are served.
- Target with Lookalike Audiences:Lookalike audiences are built by finding other Facebook users who are similar to already existing customers.
These are just two of the options Facebook offers. They have developed so many different targeting methods I could write an entire article just based on the different types of Facebook Custom Audiences. Hey, come to think of it I have. For a more in-depth look at the options available on Facebook check out, Are You Making the Most of Facebook Custom Audiences?
- Target with Lists:Target specific Twitter users by uploading their Twitter handles or emails.
- Target Web Visitors:Using a Twitter website tag you can track who visits your website and target them on social media.
- Target App Activity:Target those who perform an action on your app.
Then there is of course the 900 lb gorilla in the room, Google. They pretty much dominate the search engine market these days. As of October 2018 they have a dominant 90% worldwide desktop market share and a 95% market share on mobile search engines. Bottom line, if someone is searching for something online there’s a pretty good chance they’re using Google to do it.
You can use this to your advantage with Google’s Customer Match. Using the data you have you can target prospects on YouTube, Gmail, Shopping, and of course Search.
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Embrace 3rd Party Data
Sometimes the data you have on your own just isn’t enough. So try taking your information and building on it with data points available from 3rd party providers, such as EDA or RigDig Business Intelligence.
Cross-referencing and matching the data you already have with the information in the databases can help you find valuable prospects and fill in gaps in your data. This data can also be leveraged to help create even more complete custom audience lists on the platforms we’ve already discussed.
With so many offerings from so many different platforms it can be difficult to wrap your head around it all. If you find yourself overwhelmed and aren’t sure what to do let us know. Randall-Reilly’s digital marketing team can help you find and target your ideal prospects through data-driven multi-channel campaigns.
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