| Thankfully, on the web, we don't have to have this problem. Through adaptive targeting, you can capture a wide array of information for each passing visitor, and then, through multivariable testing, experiment in real-time to determine which experience will be best suited for them. As with the airport display, with adaptive targeting you can consider geography (the origin of the visitor), seasonality or other time factors (e.g. dayparting), or the demographics of the visitor. But you can also consider the context (e.g. what keyword led them to the site), the behavior (how much time they linger on the page), or a pre-existing profile (are they a member of the frequent buyer club?). By collecting this information while conducting a multivariable experiment, you're able to fine-tune your decision making, and come up with the optimal creative solution for each identified persona. Then as each visitor arrives at your site, they can have an experience ideally optimized for them. It's as if Clara had super powers to read the minds of those passing by, and could quickly rearrange her store display for every individual traveler.
America's Test Kitchen saw the value of this method
America's Test Kitchen (ATK) publishes bestselling cookbooks, and has the most-watched cooking show on public television, called America's Test Kitchen. CooksIllustrated.com is ATK's paid online resource for home cooks featuring Cook's Illustrated magazine's content to include "recipes that work", as well as ratings for kitchen equipment and supermarket ingredients. Through the adaptive targeting process, it was identified that conversion behavior varied significantly based on the demographics of the origin of the visitor. People from postal codes with a high percentage of adults over 65 (in U.S. a good analogy would be West Palm Beach) converted better than visitors from postal codes with a low percentage of adults over 65 (in U.S. think downtown New York). But not only did they behave differently, they also reacted differently to various creative stimuli. For example, the older group responded much better to larger submit buttons and simpler headlines. Armed with this information, America's Test Kitchen could customize the web experiences for these different audience groups on-the-fly, and further maximize conversion.
Neo-Image, a leading seller of candles, also benefited from adaptive targeting. In their case, they found that the geography of the visitor had a significant influence on conversion behavior. People from the U.S. Midwestern states were much more likely to click on links to "unscented candles" then people from the Southwest. By knowing this, Neo-Image could choose not to display unscented candle promotions to the southwest visitors, and instead highlight other products that did appeal to this audience segment.
If the pressure of the current market turbulence is making you nauseous, just be thankful that as a web marketer you at least can avoid the additional strains of poor Clara. With adaptive targeting, you don't have to deal with the excess baggage of a one-size-fits-all approach. Instead, by combining the power of multivariable testing with a holistic targeting solution, you'll see your conversion rates take flight, as you deliver a first-class web experience tailored for your customers.
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