Targeting the 'Propensity To Buy'
- by Laurie Sullivan @lauriesullivan, August 4, 2009
Netmining measures and analyzes browsing behavior, recent and frequent visits, past purchase history, search queries, demographics and a calculated score that the company refers to as "propensity to buy." This data is used to craft individual visitor profiles without personally identifiable information (PII), so marketers can reach consumers beyond target segments and tailor ads to each user's unique interests and point in the purchase funnel.
The Netmining Web site optimization suite originally launched in Europe, but after being acquired by Innovation Interactive last year, it's now available in the United States, along with the behavioral ad network, Netmining Evolution.
Margiloff says the platform doesn't integrate offline point-of-sale retail data, because the company has been focusing on allowing customers to use the data they collect, which he describes as "the most clean use of data." But the buzz at OMMA Behavioral in San Francisco last week echoed the beginnings of offline point-of-sale (POS) retail data from loyalty cards being integrated with online data collected through ad tags and cookies.
The behavioral marketing platform from Netmining aims to help marketers convert more of their Web site visitors into leads and sales. It solves problems for online marketers -- such as: as little as .5% of Web site visitors convert into leads and sales, compared with more than 30% for brick-and-mortar retailers. The company claims that marketers can use the technology to improve one-to-one messaging across online advertising, Web sites, email and offline sales channels.
About 30 companies have been testing Netmining's conversion tools in the United States, including Borders, Red Roof Inn, and Insurance. com. The tools also support European companies, such as Fiat, and Danone, as well as Sun Microsystems. On the Fiat Web site in Italy, Innovation Interactive monitors the frequency and the products that visitors view. It stores that data, and later uses it to retarget specific display advertisements, which produces a much higher conversion rate, according to Margiloff.
That's especially true for carmakers like Audi when they are serving up a specific ad, rather than generic -- because the technology can determine when the consumer spends 40 minutes staring at a Q7 ad, compared with 10 minutes at an A8. Margiloff says that in Europe, companies have experienced from "a 20% lift to a 300% lift," depending on the client.
Integration with Netmining required one line of Web site code and minimal technical resources, according to the company. Not much ongoing maintenance is required, since Netmining's self-learning algorithms continually improve in time, and marketing communications are customized automatically.
