#38 - Let's Talk Retargeting

They say it takes seven touchpoints for a prospect to act on your CTA.

It’s no secret - we lead busy lives after all.

And with everything screaming for your attention, our brain has learnt to tune out most of the noise.

That’s why as marketers, we’re always testing out new hooks, product benefits, and claims - anything to make us stand out from our peers.

And that’s why retargeting remains one of the highest value activities you can do, even in email.

Let’s dive in.

What Is Retargeting In Email?

Let’s first define retargeting.

Retargeting involves sending a similar email, often within a fixed time period (same day/1 - 2 days after), to people on the list who have not opened the first email, or clicked but not made a purchase (depending on flow or campaigns).

This can be as simple as swapping out a subject line/preview text, or requiring a little more leg work of swapping over from HTML to plain text.

The reason is that if your email doesn’t catch the prospect’s eye/lands at a time when they’re busy, it’s highly likely it’s going to be pushed down by the hundreds of other emails, never to be read again.

Alternatively, if the prospect has engaged/clicked on the email, it serves as a great re-reminder, in case they got distracted.

Here’s what your targeting could look like:

When We Retarget

We use these in our core flows like our Welcome or Cart Abandon.

Think of these as little nudges, useful for reappearing in an inbox or getting prospects over the fence, BUT NOT to lukewarm prospects (ie. users who just opened).

You can place these before the jump in discount or after the first email, before the rest of your automated emails kick in (or even after the last - we’ve seen success in all).

One interesting reason we place it at the start is because you’ll notice above that a good chunk of prospects don’t open the first email, and this is typically a good way to keep them on track before the rest of the emails come in.

And in terms of wrapping things up, a text-based email is perfect for not overwhelming prospects (after the slew of HTML emails), and is also ‘perceived better’ by ESPs, helping us squeeze the max possible revenue out from the flow.

In terms of campaigns, it’s a little different.

We do these on big sales events when our focus is maximizing revenue.

This means we retarget profiles who show interest (open/click), and even in some cases (depending on brand to brand) to non openers/clickers during big events like BFCM.

And that’s a wrap!

If you’re already retargeting, love to hear where you’re deploying them, and what results you’re seeing.

If not, hopefully this is a good nudge to get to retargeting, and make even more of that cha-ching.

Have a great weekend ahead :)