When it comes to being a successful business, conversion is important. You can spend all your marketing dollars on brand awareness, but your ROI will suffer without conversion. Converting individuals from mere browsers to purchasers is a real art. There is a fine line between creating marketing messaging that is unmotivating and messaging that is forceful and sales-y.
One way brands can better navigate the e-commerce-driven world is to lean into high-intent audiences. These are groups of people who are earmarked as close to making a purchase. Perhaps they’ve visited your website day after day, or maybe they have placed items in your site’s shopping cart. This also includes people who have opened your email newsletters and engaged with your social media channels. These customers are ready to buy, but may just need a little nudge from the brand.
But how do you know who is ready to hit “purchase?” Below are tips for building high-intent audience segments.
1. Analyze the Data
Building your audience segments begins with data. You can attempt to make assumptions about your customers, but what you’ve collected over time holds the real facts. Start by compiling all your first-party data, or the data you own outright. This could include demographic information, newsletter sign-ups, behavior interests from surveys, or website behavior and activity.
Once you have compiled this, start sorting through it to identify key commonalities. It is often helpful to start broad and then narrow your focus. Look at gender or geographical location before narrowing it to specific behavior profiles. Recognize that every individual will likely fall into at least two or more of your desired segments. This overlap is perfectly fine as it allows you to reach the same individual in multiple ways.
When you have these segments, you can begin experimenting with your marketing approach. Social media targeting is one of the most commonplace ways to test out different segmentation. However, you might decide to lean into a newer innovative marketing strategy called commerce media. This involves looking at commerce data, such as transactions and purchases, to connect buyers with related products. If this interests you, experiment with using shoppable ads or live commerce experiences via live streams.
2. Find What Matters to Your Audience
Blanket messaging is not going to win a new consumer. Consumers who feel heard and understood are more likely to make a purchase. Therefore, you should target your messaging to their individual needs and wishes. This means finding what matters most and putting that front and center of your brand ads or social media campaign.
For example, if your segment is new moms, perhaps efficiency and the ability to save time are top of mind. To communicate this clearly, show how your product will cut down the amount of work they need to do. If one of your segments targets college students, then price may be the most important buying decision. Consider using an infographic on social media to show how your product stacks up against competitors for price and value.
When you find what matters most to your audience, you can tailor your brand messaging, content, and marketing efforts appropriately. Soon you’ll begin anticipating their needs and offering them products or services they didn’t even know they wanted or needed. Understanding and catering content to your target consumer will establish authority in the market and generate brand loyalty and retention. Consumers will look to you as the leading, innovative brand in the space.
3. Connect With Consumers During Key Moments
Seasonality plays a huge role in when consumers choose to shop. The holidays are typically a time when individuals are ready to take out their credit cards and make a purchase. In 2024, the average consumer is expected to spend $902 during the holiday season. However, there are other moments and lifestyle milestones that your brand can lean into and leverage.
Back-to-school is often a large spending period. Families may be spending more on children’s clothing as well as technology, food, and home goods. Overall, this season is a chance to return to routines, so beauty and adult apparel brands could benefit from this. Other shopping days like “Amazon Prime Day” drive brands to offer specialized promotions to encourage spending. Consumers spent $14.2 billion during the 48-hour Amazon Prime Day event from July 16 to 17, 2024 — excluding Amazon!
Besides big shopping periods, you may want to lean into key lifestyle milestones. For example, your collected data might be able to tell when a consumer is looking to buy a house. If you’re a rug company, capitalize on this moment by sending email newsletters with inspirational design messaging. Successfully capturing users’ attention during key moments — whether seasonal shopping events or personal milestones — may increase their receptivity to your brand.
Conclusion
High-intent audiences are already down the funnel. They know about your brand and recognize the value of your product or service. Since they are more likely to convert in the upcoming days or weeks, focusing on them may increase your ROI. Using the tips mentioned above, you can build target audience segments and increase your profit margins.
