Say you're online shopping for a new coffee maker when you have to run out and pick up your kids from soccer practice. You shut down your browser and hop in your car. Later that night you surf the Internet while taking in your favorite late-night comic and what do you see? Ads for coffee makers.
This is thanks to a process called retargeting, which uses cookies to record what you do online. And while it was traditionally available only to big companies, a Lancaster marketing and printing firm called Allegra is providing it for smaller businesses too. Allegra's marketing director, Debbie Stremmel, says the company started offering retargeting advertising about four months ago to augment its traditional business printing materials like direct mail and business cards.
“This is less invasive than direct mail,” Stremmel explains. “In direct mail, we know your address. We know your income level. We know your name.” With retargeting, however, an advertiser only knows an Internet user's IP address and the general area where the computer is located.
A retargeting campaign from Allegra comes at a similar price to other online advertising campaigns with a distinct advantage: “The person that you're delivering the message to has already indicated an interest in your product or service,” Stremmel says.
Allegra will put on a workshop on retargeting in Lancaster at 9 a.m. on Nov. 3. For more information, contact Stremmel at (717) 397-3440 or debbie@allegrapa.com.
Source: Debbie Stremmel, Allegra
Writer: Rebecca VanderMeulen
