Marketing in death care is difficult as it is a saturated and an emotionally driven space. One way marketeers can attempt to continue their message to consumers is through retargeting.
What is retargeting?
Retargeting means that visitors who came to your site continue to see your messaging as they look around at offerings on other websites. It´s a friendly reminder which can help bring consumers back to the original offering they were interested in. Similar to a follow up call.
The technicalities of retargeting today
To start retargeting, a pixel (a piece of code) is placed on your website. This piece of code allows the tracking of visitors. The most popular retargeting tool to use is the Google Display Network as they represent over 93% of the online search engine market. Once the pixel is installed, the program will start to learn about your website and its visitors.
As soon as the Google Ads program has collected sufficient data it will be possible to start serving custom ads to the target audience. So for example, a visitor came to your website and checked out a range of urns. This person leaves the website and now starts browsing other websites that have space reserved on their site for Google Display Ads. Now the visitor will get to see your ads on that site. This will help increase brand awareness and improve the chance that this person will come back to the site for a purchase.
Death care marketing challenges that retargeting targets
Brand loyalty: In general consumers of death care products do not have a great connection with manufacturing brands, but there is emotional attachment to companies utilized during any prior death care experiences, such as a nursing home or funeral home in the area. For the rest of the industry creating awareness and potentially a newfound loyalty by keeping customers engaged through unique selling propositions.
Limited budgets: Unless you are a marketer working for a large insurance company, budgets are often limited and year round mass marketing campaigns are simply not possible or effective. Death care marketing professionals have to find other ways to utilize the budgets they have through strategic spending. And what better way then to communicate then to try and continue a conversation with people that have previously shown interest in your products or services.
Time constraints: From a funeral industry perspective between the moment of death and the burial is often less than two weeks. Therefore it’s important to convert leads quickly. Retargeting helps in staying ‘top of mind’ during the time that a consumer is looking to make a final decision. increasing conversion potential.
The changing face of retargeting
While retargeting is a great marketing option for death care professionals, the landscape around it is quickly changing. Google is the latest browser, following Apple, to kill the cookie technology creating chaos in the advertising world. It will not only affect retargeting but also targeting in general. Google is working with industry groups to find a solution, but expect the current targeting environment to change drastically this year.