How many contacts does it take to make a sale?

The answer can vary and depend on a number of factors—including the product or service, the price, and the quality of the prospect.

I believe follow-up is key and this is why:

2% of sales are made on the first contact. 3% of sales are made on the second contact. 5% of sales are made on the third contact. 10% of sales are made on the fourth contact. And a whopping 80% of sales are made on the fifth to twelfth contact.

Yet, despite this statistics say that 48% of business owners never follow-up with a prospect. 25% make a second contact and stop. 12% only make three contacts and stop. Only 10% make more than three contacts.

With increasing competition, a simple way to put yourself ahead of the competition is to follow-up more than three times.

The question is, how do you follow up with the 98% who abandon your website before you’ve captured their name and email?

You do this with retargeting (also referred to as remarketing.)

What is retargeting?
Retargeting is a form of advertising that helps keep your brand in front of customers, clients, patients, or prospects after they leave your website. Retargeting keeps track of the people who visit your website and displays your retargeting ads to them as they visit other sites online, thus keeping you top-of-mind.

How does retargeting work?
We place code in your website that tracks potential customers’ browsing history when they visit your site and leave before purchasing or taking the desired action. We use that data to create an ultra-customized audience. This information allows us to display retargeting ads to this ultra-customized audience at appropriate times. In fact, customers can be retargeted just about anywhere they might go online.

To some people this may seem intrusive, but the truth is that when it is done right retargeting ads are not intrusive. They help a user find their way back to your website to take the action they initially set out to take.

The fact is that people are busy and easily distracted. They may have wanted to fill out your form, purchase your product or contact your business, when they were interrupted.
Reminding them is not a bad thing. Remember only 2% of sales are made on the first contact and 80% are made between the fifth to twelfth contact. That means if you aren’t following up with these people, you are leaving A LOT of money on the table.

What are the advantages of retargeting?
1) It brings buyers back to your website. Retargeting increases sales by keeping your brand in front of prospects, ensuring you are there at the precise moment they are ready to buy. Once your potential customer, client, or patient shows interest in your product or service by clicking on an ad, they are entered into your retargeting campaign. Every time these prospects see your retargeting ads, you gain more recognition and remind them of your brand. There is a high click-through rate and increased conversion rate that is typical with this repeated exposure to your targeted audience.

2) Boost sales from a larger group of buyers. If you take orders online, retargeting can extend your sales efforts outside of your business’ physical location and build a larger network of interested buyers.

3) It’s quick and simple to set up. Setting up a retargeting campaign doesn’t take weeks or even days to create. It’s quick and simple to set up which means you can start re-capturing the 98% of people who abandon your site almost immediately.

4) It fits any budget. In the past, spending ad dollars to create name-brand identity was something reserved for big businesses. Small businesses simply didn’t have the budget to create the kind of impact needed to gain recognition from customers. With retargeting, you effectively can afford to advertise everywhere your hottest prospective customers are looking without breaking the bank. Plus we can customize your campaign to fit your budget.

5) It spends your ad dollars efficiently. Creating name-brand identity and recognition for yourself and your small business is wise… when you can do it where it counts, with a carefully selected target audience. Retargeting allows you to do just that—getting in front of only the prospects that have already shown interest in what you offer and are predisposed to buy from you. Plus unlike traditional branding, you can track your retargeting campaign.

Tips to make retargeting the most effective.
• Retargeting is most effective when you segment your visitors. For example, people who look at general dental services vs. braces. Tailor your retargeting ads to each group so they see ads that specifically relate to their needs, wants and desires.
• Remove the people who purchased from your retargeting campaign so they don’t see additional ads.
• The highest performing retargeting ads have a clear call-to-action and promote an offer.
• Different products warrant different retargeting timeframes. People shopping for luxury products or services should be retargeted later whereas people shopping for something such as airline tickets should be retargeted immediately.
• Use these two effective search strategies: 1) Bid on keywords you wouldn’t normally bid on just for the people who have previously visited your website or who have converted in the past. 2)

Optimize bids for your existing keywords for visitors on your remarketing lists. For example, you can increase your bid by 25% for those who previously viewed your website in the last 30 days. Or, you could show a different ad to site visitors who have placed items in a shopping cart but have not purchased them.

Retargeting will keep you in front of that 98% of traffic that you are currently losing. Which means, you’ll be able to build brand recognition in the same way big brands such as Pepsi and Nike do by repeatedly putting your brand in front of customers. When you do this, you’ll bring back the customers, clients, or patients who showed interest, but were distracted or interrupted. Giving prospects multiple chances to buy can’t help but provide a huge boost to your online sales.