You have just done a search on the web. You have sailed on a travel site, selling toys for children, fashion etc … What is not surprising to see on all other sites now viewed small inserts presenting the products seen or other similar.
Sometimes you will even receive emails telling you that your shopping cart is still online and you can still validate it …
How is it possible?
These are methods driven by the principles of behavioral marketing. Behavioral marketing is an innovative practice that has been progressing for a few years now. What are the basic principles? What are the benefits? What are the limits?
What is behavioral marketing?
Behavioral marketing is the analysis of the behavior of Internet users on a website. By targeting and customizing visitor messages, this practice is designed to improve the customer experience and conversion rates of a website. In summary, behavioral marketing involves sending the right message, the right time and the right person.
Born in the United States in the 2000s, this innovation begins to be used a few years later in France. The growth of this marketing takes place in a favorable context. Indeed, the Internet user (the consumer) is increasingly in need of personalization and aspires to more offers adapted to his expectations.
In short, behavioral marketing is another possibility in the mass media that literally plunges the consumer under tons of promotional messages (emailing, etc.). This approach attracts companies that want to match their interests with those of consumers: to boost the conversion rates of the site on one side and to facilitate the search and navigation of the visitors of the other.
The principle of behavioral marketing
The principle is to personalize as much as possible the communication and / or advertising offered to the client or the prospect. How this mechanism works?
Cookies for Behavioral Data
The tools on the track to collect the information needed by advertisers are the cookies. Thanks to these text files, we are able to collect a certain amount of information allowing real-time personalization of a website: new visitors / visitors, traffic source, geolocation, time spent, device , Browser etc. In short, these cookies are the expression of the behavior of Internet users on the web. They were initially used to prevent users from entering their login and password each time to access their account on certain sites. Now they capture a lot of information about you as soon as you enter a site. They are stored on your computer and establish your user profile. You will now be able to receive advertisements targeted on the web pages visited but also on your smartphones via notifications for example …
Tools for converting Internet users
Concretely, to analyze the behaviors on your site, it is necessary to use at least two types of tools: a tool of analysis of audience (or example Google Analytics) and heat maps.
The Limits of Behavioral Marketing
Technical limitations
A computer can be used by several people. Difficult in this case to effectively target the tastes of the user!
In addition, you have the option of disabling cookies on your web browsers. Look in the preferences of the latter.
You can also install a pub blocker (or “Adblocker”) that will render any targeting attempts unnecessary. The best known is Adblock Plus.
At the level of legislation, things are done to respect the privacy of users. In accordance with the law on computers and freedoms, Internet users must now be informed and consent to the activation of cookies when arriving at a site. For more information, click here.
Outside the technical limits, there is the annoyance that the surfers can face to these advertisements. Failing to feel recognized, they feel spied and chased on their computers, their smartphones … Mistrust is growing in this area.
Moreover, an excess of personalization can indeed produce the opposite effect of the one desired. At first, we find this interesting but we often end up boycotting the brands practicing these methods.
Everything is a matter of quantity and quality of these advertisements.
