Tag… You’re It!

It’s no secret that your internet behavior is readily known by some and readily tracked by others. Before you throw your computer in the pool, move out of state and legally change your name, let me explain.

A lot of companies have gone to great lengths to develop tracking software that allow marketers the ability to see just what you are doing on websites, emails and PPC campaigns. Essentially embedded in all of these wonderful methods of marketing to you are tracking tags that communicate to the sender exactly what you are doing with their message. This information is extraordinarily valuable to marketers as it gives us the metrics that determine just what you’re interested in. This allows marketers to target you with specific follow up messages that greatly enhance your likelihood to buy.

For those of you who are not familiar on just how this works let’s use an example from my time at ASU.

Each month the athletic department sends out an email with various content promoting a few different sports and specific upcoming sporting events. You being the good Sun Devil that you are, read the email in its entirety and click through to the information on the upcoming softball home series against the school located in the desert just north of Mexico. This content contains a tracking tag that tells them of your actions. ASU can then do a number of things to encourage you to attend the game by retargeting your browser with a digital ad, sending you a personalized email or depending on the depth of their database, call you directly with a special ticket offer.

This takes the guess work out of their marketing efforts and you as the consumer aren’t entirely bothered by it because it’s relevant to your interests. As a marketer this is a very good thing and as a business owner this is part of the marketing migration to specific ads for specific customers.

This ‘cutting edge’ technology is available to your company as well. At ReThinc, we can track the actions of your messages’ recipients and devise a follow up strategy that will enhance the response. Tracking tags are a tremendous tool for your digital outreach and if you’re not utilizing them you are compromising your ability to establish relevance to your audience.