Brand awareness continues to be top-of-a-mind for direct-to-consumer (D2C) brands and digital marketing agencies alike. According to Marin Software, it was the top priority for digital marketers in 2019. Creating that initial awareness is important, but it's what D2C brands and agencies do with it that makes all the difference. On average, it takes 56 touchpoints for a window shopper to become a customer, which means that brand awareness is only the first step of the customer journey. That's why it's crucial for marketers — across industries and verticals — to learn how to turn visitors into customers.
Persuading audiences to visit a website is only part of the battle. According to a post from Smart Insights, more than 50% of e-commerce website traffic drops off before reaching product pages and only 3% of all traffic leads to a purchase. So, what steps do marketers need to take to turn visitors into customers?
Well, it starts with driving more engagement with target audiences through the marketing channels they frequent and with various ad types. Let's go over some of the basic ways D2C brands and agencies can help create more engaging customer journeys and turn visitors into customers.
According to eMarketer, email marketing produces an average ROI of 122%, which is 4x more than other marketing channels. Given the low bar of entry, both from ease-of-use and financial investment perspective, email is an effective marketing channel to leverage and utilize. While these results showcase the power of email marketing, we are all very aware that it takes more than a basic email to achieve such positive outcomes.
There are many email tools available today that allow for brands to send everything from a mass email to all subscribers to sequences of emails to specific audience segments to email reminders to cart abandoners.
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As mentioned earlier, it takes 56 touchpoints to persuade a shopper to turn into a paying customer once they’ve visited a website. This means that consistent engagement (retargeting) throughout the customer journey leads to a better chance of a conversion taking place.
Retargeting is a form of marketing where website visitors are served ads of brands they have shown interest in (i.e., by visiting their website). Leveraging pixels and cookies, retargeting is a highly effective method for moving consumers down the customer journey. In order to launch retargeting campaigns, a marketer needs to place a snippet of code in the footer of their website. This JavaScript code helps keep track of website visitors and makes it possible to serve ads to them on all the places they go online — keeping brands top-of-mind and maintaining maximum visibility.
Not only are brands able to maximize their engagement, but they're also able to focus on the right people with the help of AI. This smart technology identifies and segments website visitors (e.g., bounced users, users that viewed multiple products, and users that put items in their cart) and delivers relevant digital experiences.
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Imagine being able to showcase the exact product a website visitor was looking at while on your website, on any device they're using, encouraging them to complete a transaction. Studies show that 80% of consumers are more likely to make purchases when a brand gives them a personalized experience. This is where dynamic ads reign supreme!
By simply using an existing product feed, you can equip your ads to display a single product or multiple products in a variety of styles to engage with users online. You can also pair your dynamic ads with a video for extra effect. Try A/B testing different styles to see what works best for your brand.
Video ads themselves are also extremely useful for increasing engagement and tend to have better click-through rates (CTRs). More than 50% of marketers have cited video ads as the ad type that drives the best ROI.
Tip for success: Facebook recommends brands keep video ads between 5-15 seconds because they have a higher conversion rate.
Native ads are definitely worth a notable mention. Not only are your ads relevant, but they blend in with their environment, creating a very comfortable experience for the user. Native ads are viewed 53% more often than banner ads (and you can make them dynamic too!).
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There are a lot of ways to drive website traffic, but learning how to turn visitors into customers can be tricky. Setting yourself up with the proper marketing mix and the right ads will boost brand visibility and help keep visitors engaged throughout the entire customer journey.
Last updated on July 15th, 2024.