Have you ever wondered why some companies manage to thrive despite stiff competition, while some others lag behind? Is it because they have huge budgets to dedicate to marketing? Is it because they’re an established brand? Or is there some other reason behind their success? In a world where things can change in the blink of an eye, those who are able to assess current events and accurately predict future trends will prosper. As the saying goes, “the world doesn’t stop for  anyone.” Change is to be welcomed, not feared. After all, humanity has always thrived on challenges. Are you ready to embrace change and take your company to another level? If you can answer this question with an emphatic YES, then you’re on the right path.

Back in the day, companies didn’t have a lot of choices when it came to marketing. They could either choose to buy ad space on newspapers and TVs, or open a store and hope customers would knock on their doors. The digital revolution changed everything: on one hand, customers had more choices. Companies, on the other hand, could take advantage of the emerging marketing technologies. It was a win-win situation for both parties involves, customers and businesses. But thing can and will change. The more companies enter the market, the more competitive it becomes. The more competitive it becomes, the more challenging it becomes to find your niche and build your way up from there. Fortunately, there are a lot of tools which can help you become a leader in your industry.

Before you launch your marketing campaigns, you have to gather insight about a lot of things. Who is your target audience? What do they need from you? Who are your competitors? Where is your industry heading? Answering these and other questions is what marketing intelligence is all about. Gaining insight into customers, trends and the competition is crucial. Knowing your customers is key, and so is knowing your competition. But how do you do that? How can you gain marketing intelligence and use it to your advantage? Enter retargeting.

You might be wondering: “how can retargeting help me gain marketing intelligence?” Here’s how. Let’s say you’re running an online marketing campaign for your e-commerce store. A visitor comes to your site, sees the product, the price and then goes to fill the shopping cart. He abandons the cart. What do you do? Do you simply let the visitor go and find the product he’s looking for elsewhere? No, you use retargeting in order to make the visitor come back to your page. Re-targeting is a cookie-based technology that allows you to track each visitor that comes to your page. But wait, there’s more! The visitor will be shown your ad as he browses through the internet- no matter the pages he might be visiting. This is the power of retargeting. Ads will be shown on Google through the AdSense technology, and on Facebook through the Facebook Ads. The two technologies are similar; only the implementation is different.

Before you do retargeting, make sure to segment your audience. Each customer is unique, that’s why you have to make sure he is shown the right ad. For example, you can make a list of those visitors who viewed sunglasses on your website. This way you can show them appropriate ads. A useful tip to make your retargeting more effective is to use branding. You can include your brand’s logo in the ad, for example. The more people see your logo, the more they remember it. This would increase brand awareness among potential customers. Also, you may want to include a Call-to-Action button to your ads. You want people to do something once they see the ad on Google or Facebook. It may an invitation to sign up for newsletters, subscribe for free one month, download a free e-book, etc.

Gathering marketing intelligence through retargeting has never been easier.  In Flexie CRM, you can do retargeting from within the system. As soon as a lead enters the CRM, we inject a tracking pixel into that lead- regardless of the source they came from. This way you can track the lead and show your ad as he browses through Google, or on Facebook.

When doing retargeting, pay attention to timing. When is the best time to release your product? Timing is everything. Why? You want to show ads to the right person, at the right time. Once you segment your audience, you can proceed to launching your marketing campaign. Through retargeting, you will gather insight that will help you make better decisions. Marketing intelligence should be an integral part of your overall marketing strategy, but so is retargeting. The two go hand in hand. If you get the retargeting part right, then you will have an easier time gathering marketing intelligence. Applied knowledge is the real power.

To stay updated with the latest features, news and how-to articles and videos, please join our group on Facebook, Flexie CRM Academy and subscribe to our YouTube channel Flexie CRM.