Your blog is leaking prospects faster than a water main break. And it doesn’t matter how effective your list building strategies are, your blog is HIGHLY inefficient.
But, there’s something you can do about it.
Also, it is insanely easy to do.
Oh, and getting 6X or 7X ROI by doing this is absolute child’s play.
It is called retargeting.
Perhaps you’ve heard of it, but if you’re not doing it yet or aren’t “pixeling” your blog traffic, then this post is VERY important for you. You’ll see why in a minute…
Bounce Rate? Bah!
Many blog owners stress out about their bounce rates. It is that percentage of people who will come to your blog and then immediately back out and leave – usually never to return again.
It sucks, but it is a fact of life. When you go into Google Analytics and see bounce rates of 70% – 80% – even 90%, its easy to cringe. And surely, there are things you can do to reduce your bounce rate.
Retargeting, however, allows you to “short circuit” the whole problem.
In essence, you’re adding EVERY SINGLE PERSON who visits your site to a retargeting list. You don’t have to know who they are. They don’t even have to opt-in. Just by the mere fact that they came to your site, they’re on your retargeting list.
It is basically your second list.
See, I’ve said numerous times that the primary function of your blog is to build your list. I was referring, no surprisingly, to the email list. Your retargeting list, though, is like your second list.
Email allows you to reach out and bring people back to your site whenever you want. Thing is, retargeting allows you to do that, too.
So, how does this work?
Retargeting – Explained
If you’ve ever visited some website and then see their banner ads seemingly following you around the web, then you’ve been retargeted. Go To Amazon.com some time and check out a product. Then, watch how you see Amazon ads for that product on separate websites for some time.
That’s retargeting (or “remarketing”, as some call it).
Basically, what happens is that a person visits your website and a little browser cookie will be set to their computer. It is anonymous cookie and there’s no identifying information associated with it. But, the cookie is specific to whatever network you’re using for retargeting: Facebook, Google, etc.
Then, when that same person visits another website which is hosting banner advertising from a partner network, your ad can show up there. Or, while that person is browsing Facebook, your ad can show up in their newsfeed.
From their perspective, you’re everywhere.
This allows you to bring people BACK to your site for a second time. Although this time, you bring them directly into a lead magnet squeeze page or direct to an offer.
The New Gold Rush?
Building up traffic organically is getting harder than ever. It can be done, but it requires far more “sweat equity” than it used to and it is a time consuming endeavor.
But, you can also BUY traffic. Traffic is very much a commodity today and I believe that the way to build up lies in a mix of paid traffic and organic. You “prime the pump” with paid traffic and this will help amplify your organic traffic reach.
Thing is, even buying traffic has gotten more expensive and it is probably going to get worse. As traffic has democratized and more and more people are going to the traffic store, the demand has driven up prices. Interest-based targeting is certainly doable, but harder (and more expensive) in some markets than others.
The “shortcut” to this is retargeting. Then you’re only advertising to people who have been to your site before. This is much cheaper and more effective by a long shot.
But, there’s still only so much inventory out there available for retargeting. As more and more people get in on this, it is going to potentially get to a point where it is cost prohibitive to do paid traffic for many people with smaller budgets – unless they have a retargeting audience in place.
This is why you MUST be building your retargeting audience now – even if you don’t intend to advertise to them yet.
It is creating an asset which you can turn on when you’re ready.
Why A Blog Is PERFECT For Building A Retargeting Audience
Many blogs – even lower trafficked blogs – still get much more traffic than many non-blog sites. That’s because it is content which powers the Internet. That’s what people want. And blogs are often how they get it.
So, your blog is a powerful medium to build your retargeting audience.
Just by a random person on the Internet visiting your blog once from a Google search, you can get them into your retargeting audience and potentially reach out to them at a later time.
Blog marketing without retargeting is like marketing in first or second gear.
Blog marketing combined with retargeting is like giving your blog an overdrive gear.
Possibilities Of A Retargeting Audience
Here are some of the things you can do with your retargeting audience…
Reach out to random visitors and direct them right into a squeeze page, thereby recovering a bounced lead and turning it into a real email lead.
A person who visited a top blog post about topic X – and you can now serve them a targeted ad for a product related directly to that topic.
Have a webinar coming up? Turn on a campaign which directs retargeted people direct into the webinar registration.
Person opts in for a lead magnet and you give them a 3-day promo for a front-end product. During those 3 days, you can be reminding them of the offer via retargeting. So, they see your emails AND ads on their favorite sites – all telling them about your offer.
Person visits blog post about topic X and you retarget them to a related post on the same topic using a paid placement.
Person visits one of your sales pages but doesn’t buy. You can bring them back in with a trial offer or something similar.
Repeated visits creates familiarity. And familiarity creates trust. And trust drives sales.
I should also mention that ROI on retargeting is usually very high. You’re spending very little money because the campaign is so highly targeted, yet you can easily multiply that small spend by a factor of 6X or higher with even a sloppily assembled campaign.
This is just one of those things which is so insanely obvious for any blog owner, that I can’t believe we didn’t ALL think of it sooner. 
How To Get Started With Retargeting
Even if you don’t plan to spend a single dime on this right now, you should still take the time to install the required code on your blog and begin building up your retargeting audience. Then, at least it will be there for you when you’re ready.
There are a lot of different options for retargeting. Such as:
Facebook
Twitter (yes, you can even retarget people with a tweet)
Google Remarketing (which would also include Youtube)
Perfect Audience
AdRoll
Retargeter
Chango
SiteScout
And, yes, there’s more. Good news is, you don’t need to use all of them.
In my opinion, Facebook is a necessity. Facebook has about 1.5 billion registered users, and 65% of them visit the site every single day. So, chances are, your target market is there and there often. You can retarget on Facebook using Perfect Audience, however I think it is best to use Facebook directly.
Setting up Google tags on your site will allow you to retarget on the Google Display network. But, that’s not the main reason I’d be interested in it. For me, it would be Youtube retargeting. Think about the power of being able to put a VIDEO in front of a person when they visit Youtube just because they visited your site. I haven’t personally done any Youtube retargeting yet, but I intend do.
The other networks allow you to retarget using traditional banner advertising. You can appear on any site across the Internet which hosts banner ads. At this time, I’m using Perfect Audience to do this.
In my case, Blog Marketing Academy is currently building retargeting audiences with:
Facebook
Google
Perfect Audience
Each network simply gives you a little blurb of code. This blurb of code would be placed into the header area of your blog. Just do it once and you’re set. From then on, anybody who visits your blog will get a retargeting pixel.
Here’s how to set this up with Facebook:
[VIDEO]
Put Your Blog Marketing Into Overdrive
When you write and publish blog posts, you want those things to have an ROI. Especially if you’re a traditional business owner with a blog, it can be hard to justify having a blog if you’re not sure about the ROI.
Retargeting is a huge advantage to having a blog.
Your blog will be sitting there building your retargeting audience every single day – and this increases the size of the pool of people you can then reach out to using retargeting advertising. And this is insanely affordable paid traffic. Just stupid cheap.
This is how you make money with banner ads, BTW.
Hosting banner ads to try to monetize your blog… not smart. Very low leverage and it usually makes only pennies. The way you make money with banners isn’t to host the ads… it is to PROVIDE the ads. You be the one showing up on other people’s sites… and you bring that traffic back into things which will grow your business.
The post The Second List: How (And Why) To Set Up Your Blog For Retargeting appeared first on Blog Marketing Academy.