You already know that reaching the right audience is the key to success in eCommerce marketing. It can help you funnel your budget to the customers who are most likely to engage with your brand, which means bigger returns all around. If you’ve already built a solid base of customers, you can use that data to target brand-new ones through what we call a “look-alike audience.” Look-alike audiences are created based on your current customer profile and are designed to help you reach new consumers who are similar to your most valuable current ones.
As you may know, we unveiled the Springbot Exchange to help our customers find and target the high-potential consumers. On the Springbot Exchange, businesses can share anonymized information about their best customers so that other businesses can use that data to reach the right audiences. The software looks at user data from a specific group of customers to find similar buyers who are the most likely to become active, loyal customers of your company. Pretty cool, right?
Here’s a quick example illustrating how the exchange works. Say another participating business shared a set of consumer data on the platform, with insight into geographic areas that tend to purchase a higher amount of jewelry online, for example. The exchange will give you “look-alike” profiles — age, income, etc. — of people who fit the bill of the typical online buyer so that you can focus on those audiences that are most likely to buy from your store. That means you can expand your marketing efforts beyond your current CRM.
What Is Look-alike Modeling?
We’ve identified that in order to increase your eCommerce marketing success, you need to target more quality customers. This all relies on a marketing strategy called look-alike modeling, an audience targeting approach that helps marketers build larger audiences from smaller ones. Those who make up your current consumer base probably have many similar features — maybe they share the same age bracket, income range or area code — and that’s valuable information that you shouldn’t overlook. Look-alike modeling connects you with even more customers with the same set of characteristics.
One thing to note is that, while there are many great ways to get the most out of this strategy, companies who have more wiggle room regarding demographics are usually the ones able to build larger look-alike groups. But new tools, like Springbot Exchange, are pushing to open the look-alike parameters so that even small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) can get a big piece of the pie. Indeed, there is plenty of room to share, since look-alike modeling can bring you as much as three times the success of typical audience targeting.
Using Look-alike Audiences to Increase Email Subscribers
You can probably guess how look-alike audiences can be used for things like web ads, but how about email marketing? Growing your email subscriber list is one of the most significant challenges that modern marketers face. Unlike targeted AdWords or Facebook ads, consumers need to opt into subscribing, which leaves some companies limited only to their existing customer base. The key is to pair your look-alike modeling strategy with a drip email campaign to target prospective customers.
On the Springbot Exchange, once you’ve developed a substantial look-alike audience, the platform will conduct a drip email campaign (a set of automated, scheduled emails sent out automatically) to engage your new users. If people from the campaign respond, they’ll then be automatically added to your permanent email list. In other words, you can use it to zero-in on potential new customers and then add them to your subscriber list — once you can confirm their interest.
Look-alike Audiences: A Viable Solution for All Businesses
While we know that look-alike audiences work to grow an existing customer base, it has historically been difficult for SMBs to use this tool due to prohibitive costs and complexities. With our new platform, even moderately sized businesses can take advantage and grow their audience into something bigger.
Interested in learning more? Our eCommerce marketing experts can show you how Springbot Exchange levels the playing field for small and medium-sized eCommerce businesses.
