I literally just finished typing up the April Marketing Action Guide for our Main Street Inner Circle members.  It’s all about how to create what’s called a “lead magnet.”  The concept is simple, but it’s not always easy to put into practice so I documented a step by step process any business can use to create and integrate a lead magnet on their website.

If you’re not familiar with the concept, a lead magnet is a tool to collect contact information from your website visitors so you can follow up, primarily via email, to close more sales.  This article is NOT about lead magnets or following up via email.  In fact, I’m going to explain how you can follow up WITHOUT ever collecting email addresses from your prospects.

But first, I need to lay the foundation so you see why both strategies are so important to your online marketing success.

 

The 3 Types of Website Visitors

Every visitor to your website falls into one of these three categories:

  1. Browser: this visitor is curious about your product or service, but is only browsing with no intent to buy right now.
  2. Shopper: this visitor is in the process of shopping for your product or service, but is not yet convinced you are the right solution.
  3. Buyer: this visitor is ready to buy right now and will take action as long as you give clear instructions.  These are slam dunks and your job is simple — don’t screw up the sale by confusing your prospect.

 

This all sounds fine and dandy, but there’s one tiny problem.  Only about 1 – 4% of your website visitors fall into the Buyer bucket.  So close to 96 – 99% of your website visitors are Browsers or Shoppers who are not ready to buy.  That doesn’t mean they will never buy… it just means they are not ready right at the very moment they happened to find your website.

So this all leads us to the logical conclusion that you must have mechanisms in place to collect the Browser’s and Shopper’s contact information.  Again, this is done with a lead magnet and then you can follow up via email.

But what if you don’t have a lead magnet or any other way to collect contact information? Or what about all those prospects who either don’t see your lead magnet, don’t feel compelled enough to give you their email address, or simply get distracted before completing the webform?  Well, I’ve got some good news for you…

 

How to Follow Up Without Collecting Email Addresses

Obviously if you don’t collect your prospect’s email address, then you can not follow up via email.  I’m good at online marketing, but I’m not that good. :)

The way you follow up when you do not have email addresses, is by using retargeting.

Retargeting is a form of advertising that allows you to display banner ads to prospects who have already visited your website.  Now before you cast this aside as just another advertising strategy, remember what we’re talking about here.  This is not the same as traditional online advertising, which you may or may not already use in your business.

This article is about using retargeting to FOLLOW UP.  In other words, this is about conversion, not traffic.  Traditional online advertising is all about driving relevant traffic to your website.  Retargeting advertising is all about CONVERTING the traffic you already have to your website.  There’s a big difference.

So if you already have traffic to your website, then you need to consider layering on retargeting to increase your website conversion rates.  Think about why your prospects are not ready to buy and address all of those objections in your retargeting banner ads.  Use the ads to build trust, educate, stay top of mind, and present offers just like you would in an email follow-up campaign.

If you already have a successful email follow-up campaign in your business, then simply replicate the same sequence as a retargeting banner ad campaign.  That’s a very powerful tactic to boost sales conversions with very little investment of time and money.

 

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