Intent and Lookalike Marketing – The Future of Digital Advertizing

In a tech-savvy, data-driven, and constantly evolving world, it is not easy for marketers to grab and retain the attention of their potential targets. It takes just a fraction of a moment for their attention to divert to another product, service, or an extremely viral tweet! In a world, where the audience is always caught in a flurry of countless possibilities, marketers need to expand their reach to the targets that show the greatest possibility of conversion. This is why intent marketing and lookalike marketing are the two key tools that no marketer should do without.

Put very simply, Intent marketing is to identify the need (broadly understood as purpose) of the potential customer followed by targeting them. The marketers tend to use big data strategies to identify audiences expressing interest in specific products/brands. The whole concept of this genre of marketing is very dynamic and helps marketers to improvise their advertising and campaigning approaches to reach potential customers showcasing higher chances of conversion.

Whereas lookalike marketing allows you to identify potential targets that exhibit characters similar to your existing targets, thus expanding your reach to newer people. It uses machine learning to identify more people who have similar preferences as your current target base, thus expecting them to take action when they come across your content.

In a world like today, marketers can not afford to lose potential customers due to a lack of data-driven marketing strategies, nor can they waste their advertising efforts on customers who could not have been less interested in the product/service being offered.

While these two types of marketing have slightly varied approaches, they are both equally important. Lookalike marketing allows the marketers to maintain a bigger pool of targets, thus offering a greater chance of conversion, whereas intent marketing is focused directly on targets that are most likely to convert.

The good thing is that big data analytics can help in doing it right. If it’s positioned appropriately, it can fetch brilliant results. In fact, these days people are so accustomed to receiving and responding to targeted content, that if marketers do not focus on lookalike marketing and invest in intent marketing, the customers might just move away to other websites that meet their expectations.

The trends of today’s time and expectations of the customers include receiving well-timed content served in a relevant and easy to digest (actionable) form. The truth is that it’s no more just the keyword search that helps marketers deliver great SEO campaigns, it is the wish of the customers (almost like guessing their needs right and serving them on a platter).

In fact, both marketing models allow you to address the needs of local demographics. So, if your target audience lives in specific locations, or belongs to a specific gender, etc., you are up for big bucks if you get the strategy right.

Most of all, it enhances the experience of the user/customer. If your customer feels like you know them and understand their needs already, there are higher chances that they would like to buy from you or avail services from you. Even more, with sustained efforts, it helps you gain and retain their loyalty.

As much as it is important to try new and different methods of marketing and acquiring new customers, it is equally important to spend your budget wisely. In truth, the data is out there and it is a well-known fact that the firms that can nail down the needs of their customers have an edge over their competition, and eventually, everyone will have to resort to using the data to better serve their customers. And your best option is to use this solution before your competitors and in a smarter way.