Member Article

Poor online marketing risks business

A new Digital Connections study by Tradedoubler, an international leader in performance-based digital marketing, shows that marketers face significant challenges when trying to identify and reach both current and new customers online.

The findings reveal that 71% of connected consumers say they are loyal to just a few brands, and while many (80%) consider the internet to be a great place to discover new brands, 54% are overwhelmed by the choice available. This can make it hard for marketers to reach and engage them.

However, 49% like to receive advertising that is relevant to them and 36% are more likely to buy from a brand that sends them tailored messages. Consumers are quick to turn their backs on brands that get this wrong. Almost half of people will disregard a brand if it bombards them with ads or if they perceive the advertising to be irrelevant.

To cut through the clutter and reach and convert new customers, marketers need to understand how their customers behave online: how do they use different devices and channels to make choices? The brands that succeed will be those that can turn such information into intelligence that enables personalised and targeted advertising to reach the right customers, in the right way and at the right time.

The Digital Connections survey confirms that consumers are increasingly device and location agnostic when it comes to making purchases: just under one third routinely multi-screen using a laptop/PC (30%) or mobile (36%) while watching television, and up to half of those aged under 45 shop online on their mobiles when in a restaurant, coffee shop, pub or bar.

Meaningful engagement with such consumers needs a strategic approach that uses messaging that is appropriate to both device and context. Mobiles in particular create opportunities to use location based targeting to engage with potential purchasers and send them specific offers right at the moment they are considering a purchase.

In response to this increasingly sophisticated market, Tradedoubler has launched TD ENGAGE, a solution that helps online retailers use a powerful combination of data and artificial intelligence to understand purchase behaviour and to accurately identify and reach new customers with tailored and targeted advertising.

Dan Cohen, Regional Director, Tradedoubler, commented, “Online shopping is still growing rapidly: our study shows that two thirds of adults buy more online than they did a year ago. But understanding the complexity of online shopping behaviour is increasingly difficult for marketers; building profiles of customers to understand them and deliver relevant and timely ads on the right channel at the right time is a challenge. Instead of focusing on demographic information, marketers also need to look at the behavioural characteristics of their existing customers to better identify new audiences, target ads and optimise their budgets.”

TD ENGAGE helps brands to build an accurate picture of their typical customer, using artificial intelligence to listen to their website traffic and learn about their customers.

Tradedoubler does this by tracking 1 billion affiliate transactions every day, drawing on 17 years’ of data analysis expertise to form an understanding of customer buying behaviour and develop profiles of the entire market. Its artificially intelligent tool then combines this understanding with the retailer’s data to identify their perfect next customer. It then reaches out to these targeted new customers through its Europe-wide media connections, showing them the brand in the right format, with the right message, at the right time – driving them to the retailer’s site and turning them into new customers.

Dan Cohen concludes, “It’s clear from our research that consumers want to find new brands, and they like it when they receive advertising that is relevant to them. We have designed TD ENGAGE with this in mind. It enables marketers to identify and reach new customers in a way that is targeted and welcomed.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Tradedoubler .