Behavioral targeting is being embraced over traditional methods by many marketers with generally very good results. While this is good and has many marketers ecstatic about the results, the vast majority of those who are practicing it are only doing so "one-dimensionally."
What do I mean by that? The vast majority of marketers -- and firms promoting behavioral targeting services -- only focus on display advertising, changing banners based on passive or active behavior.
This is a good start, but there are risks with limiting your approach. Specifically, a marketer risks sending an inconsistent message to their target audience by appearing personalized and relevant in display and then appearing depersonalized and generic in the two other main online touch points: in email and on your website. Additionally, a marketer risks missing out on the opportunity to leverage behavioral targeting from all three of these touch points to further optimize their results.
Three-dimensional behavioral marketing
At the highest level, consumer activity online breaks down into four main activities:
- Research (e.g., search)
- Communication (e.g., email)
- Entertainment/Leisure (e.g., surfing, display)
- Transacting (e.g., shopping/banking, website)
In terms of search, it's difficult at best to provide personalized, behaviorally-targeted messaging on search engine results pages. However, search activity itself, such as generic vs. specific keyword interaction, can be used as great inputs for driving messaging in the other three channels. These three channels should all be considered in your efforts, hence the term "three-dimensional behavioral targeting."
The concept of "3DBT" is the next step for behavioral marketing because it avoids disconnects with consumers by providing a consistent experience for them regardless of which of the three main activities they are involved in at any given point in time.
While it's a positive development that marketers are using BT in the display channel, the goal should be to use input information from all four activities to form as complete a picture as possible of the consumer, and then be as consistent as possible with the output messaging back to consumers across the three output channels.
- Considering that communication (e.g. email) is consistently the most popular activity online, it's a glaring miss to not involve this channel in behavioral targeting efforts. It allows for much richer communication than display, a high level of personalization and a built-in feedback mechanism from the consumer.
- Since final consumer transactions take place on your website, it's also a mistake if you're not providing continuity with the consumer when they reach your site. Many companies have learned the hard way that sending consumers who are responding to a specific offer to a generic landing page or homepage creates a serious disconnect and lost opportunity.
How to get started in 3DBT
To begin, audit what information you are already able to leverage with your existing email, display and website configurations. Next, look into getting more out of the tags on your site and in your email and display campaigns. See what functionality your current technologies have that you haven't been using and how you can connect the three channels for more intelligent messaging. Identify the key areas of inputs you can leverage from each channel and start to build a messaging plan.
Also, look to follow the steps outlined in "6 Tips to Launch your BT Campaign". Incorporate any exposure/response/conversion information you gain into your customer email database whenever possible and appropriate in order to provide the most relevant outbound email communications. For prospects, encourage them to opt-in for ongoing communications with compelling offers, special deals, et cetera, so that you can then provide relevant email to them.
Conclusion
Progress is clearly being made in the marketing industry's acknowledgment and acceptance of behavioral targeting. But to fully realize the promise of the technique and avoid costly disconnects with customers and prospects, marketers must begin to embrace 3DBT. As the adoption of this more comprehensive approach increases, it will become even more multi-dimensional as the same consistent yet personalized messaging will be used in direct mail, telemarketing, iTV, et cetera.
There is much work to be done to fully embrace this approach, but the best first step is to begin coordinating the three online channels.
Sean Quick is senior director of product management for Mediaplex, a leading provider of interactive marketing technologies. Read full bio.
