With today’s data capabilities, we’re used to seeing remarketing ads for our favorite consumer brands. If you browse any major online retail store you will soon find the same products following you around the web in what is called retargeting ads. Or you might see broader remarketing strategies trying to woo you to buy, like highly relevant emails when you abandon an online shopping cart or view a promotion.
However, smart remarketing campaigns are not limited to B2C brands. In fact, B2B marketers will find that they have the potential to help sales teams close more deals with remarketing campaigns. B2B marketing teams will want to use remarketing campaigns as an addition to the lead generation campaigns they already have.
"The click-through rate (CTR) of a retargeted ad is 10 times higher than the CTR of a typical display ad." - Digital Information World
Here are a handful of remarketing examples for your B2B company. These ideas will help you continue to progress with warm or even cold leads in your funnel — and these people are often less costly to convert into customers since they’ve already expressed interest before.
The B2B purchase journey is often long and includes several winding steps of comparison, self-education, and conversation with potential partners. If you are able to stay top of mind during several of those stages, you have a higher chance of winning the sale.
When someone visits your website and leaves without converting, B2B marketers still have hope of attracting them back from around the web, especially as they are trying to self-educate and explore more vendors and solutions.
"Website visitors who are retargeted with display ads are more likely to convert by 70%." - Digital.com
Display and search ads run through the Google Ads network can retarget website visitors easily. Simply install the Google remarketing tag on particular pages or the global tag across your entire website. The platform will automatically create lists for you with individuals who have visited. From these lists, you can run targeted campaigns that show up when someone searches for relevant terms or visits a relevant website on the display network.
Strategically, the ads will have a greater remarketing impact if you tailor them to what the audience has already expressed interest in. For example, write the ad variations around the particular product or service your audience has already browsed. Test new value propositions to see if a slightly different message resonates.
B2B companies are increasingly using video in their content marketing. Video content can be educational or promotional. Through webinars, product walkthroughs, and informative series, B2B marketers can continually nurture leads down the funnel. Since videos are a big investment and also can be more immediately compelling than just the written word, it’s wise to “remarket” these videos and get them in front of already interested leads.
Video remarketing through Google Ads lets you target your video content to people who have already engaged with related videos, channels, and video ads on YouTube.
"Advertisers who use remarketing on YouTube have improved their return on investment (ROI) by showing video ads to people interested in their product or service." according to Google.
By integrating your YouTube channel with Ads, you can share video ads with people who have already engaged with relevant content. This tactic gives you a strategic advantage to recapture the attention of your prospects. And like other remarketing tactics, the more relevant you can be with your content, the better.
Closed-loop marketing is the idea that marketing and sales have open reporting and collaboration. When it comes to lead management, both teams will benefit by sharing intelligence about leads in the funnel. When the sale doesn’t close, marketing teams can step in to nurture sales leads with remarketing campaigns.
A re-nurture drip campaign funnels leads who have gone cold during the sales process. It keeps leads engaged with content, education, and company updates until they are more ready to continue the sale.
A successful re-nurture drip campaign takes into account how the leads converted in the first place and also attempts to smooth past any objections to purchasing. For example, cold leads concerned about cost should receive informational content, like case studies, showcasing the value they'll receive for that price tag.
Most importantly, a drip campaign should have alerts in place once a lead does re-engage. This alert tells the relevant sales rep to step in at the right time and can end the nurturing campaign for this lead as well.
The path to purchase for B2B leads is hardly ever a completely linear one. Not many leads follow the intended “breadcrumb trail” perfectly or all in one session. So digital marketers must pay attention when a sales lead leaves the website and revisits again later. When a lead expresses interest at a later time, the sales team can reach out with a tailored and personalized outreach.
Set up notifications for your sales team when prospects revisit your website. If possible, include information about which pages the prospect was visiting. This will help the sales rep decide the best way to reach out.
A strong 1-to-1 outreach is very personalized. By referencing a lead’s pain points and goals that they have already hinted at, you can capture the person’s attention at this critical time. Whether the lead was visiting a pricing page, a product page, or simply a blog post, this data will help tailor that outreach to be highly relevant. The sales rep can also offer more content or short video recordings to be helpful.
We already know that leads may visit your B2B website several times during their purchase journey. If you’ve already captured that lead’s information, you can tailor your website for them for future visits.
When someone first visits your website, for example, you may be more interested in positioning your company with thought leadership. But as a visitor becomes a lead, you can present different content on your homepage and key product/service pages. For example, you can rewrite your copy to be more sales-driven than educational for return users.
With the HubSpot COS, remarketing with your website copy is easy. Simply set rules for your remarketing lists, and use the Smart Content tool to update website content that is more relevant to them.
You can even go a step farther and personalize. If you have a list of leads who have provided some data — such as a specific pain point, or their industry vertical — you can tailor website content to them with Smart Content.
By providing new and even more relevant value points, you encourage the lead to continue engaging with your brand.
B2B companies can earn many benefits of remarketing. With all these remarketing examples, relevancy is the most important thing. Strike a relevant note with your prospects, and you will see them convert further down the sales funnel.
Sources
Digital.com, “How to Run Successful Email Retargeting Campaigns,” April 2017
Google Ads, “About Remarketing to YouTube Viewers”
Digital Information World, 17 Incredible Retargeting Ads Stats,” September 2014