The Hypothesis

Deciding which customer segments to target based on historic attributes alone lacks crucial context.

Think about it. A customer returning to your site does not automatically classify them as having high level of intent, does it? They might be still researching, comparing, seeing if the price has gone down or copying and pasting the title to find it cheaper elsewhere.

Whether a site visitor is a returning user, from paid media sources, social channels or email is not a definitive indicator of high opportunity. Neither is just knowing the actions they have taken, the pages they’ve visited or the categories they’ve browsed.

These retrospective attributes reveal past behaviour accurately, but lack context. Intent data, such as our expected metrics, are able to predict future actions. Like who is ready to buy, likely to exit or unlikely to return to site.

Incorporating this level of intent data into your ecommerce insights is how you identify your areas of highest opportunity.

The Tech You’ll Need

We don’t mean to be too pushy but…you’ll need the Made With Intent platform, or an alternative way to get real-time intent data categorised into segments and opportunities

A bonus would be integrating this with analytics, to cross-reference traffic numbers and behaviours post-opportunity identification.

Setting this up

Here’s how you can use the Made With Intent platform to understand your customers’ intent and find high opportunity segments.

The Target Segments

Clearly, it makes sense to target the segments who have a level of purchase intent on your site. It’s worth saying however, that these might not necessarily be the biggest opportunities. 

If you have a proven ability to nurture customers and a highly considered purchase, it might be easier and quicker to go after those with lower intent. You’ll certainly have a higher volume of these customers.

That said, prioritising opportunities for segments who have shown a level of purchase intent is a safe, catch-all response. Examples of these segments from our segmentation framework include:

Struggling or Hesitant Buyers

Both of these segments consist of site visitors with high intent, who are in the checkout process but are showing signs of struggle.

Segments don’t get more ‘high opportunity’ than likely purchasers faltering in the checkout. They're struggling and not checking out. Why? Are they checking discounts? Rather than push them through a checkout when you know this journey isn't typical, how can you respond to the fact they don't seem ready to buy? 

Understanding and addressing this hesitancy is key to converting stalled checkouts into successful transactions. Consider things like live assistance and building trust through user-generated content about the brand.

Basket Abandoners & Last Chancers

Both of these segments signal customers with high intent, but a low likelihood of returning who are predicted to exit soon. 

As this is your last chance to persuade these users on their current buying journey, this is your quintessential low-risk, high-reward opportunity. Think about appropriate messaging that can be used to reduce their likelihood of exiting. Consider final discounts and attempt to build a relationship through live chat engagement. You may even want to capture their email so you can maintain engagement with abandoned cart emails. This is the perfect segment for you to highlight immediate value.

The Impact

“It's a complete shift in how we think. After applying it to Essence Vault, we've started to focus on those who were about to abandon yet had a high intent to purchase and managed to reduce that by over 50%. Ollie Hudson, Founder, Soar With Us

“Made With Intent gives us a paradigm shift. It helps us prioritise who to target.” Jackie Barnett, Head of CRM, M&M Direct

“We're able to prioritise how we engage our customers at the most appropriate time. Not only have we seen experiences improve conversion rates upwards of 10%, we're also seeing improved engagement metrics in our remarketing activities too.” Jo, Head of UX and Product, Signet Group

“Being able to see the intent of our users is game changing. We've seen a conversion rate increase of 20% plus on some of our experiences that are based on intent instead of being based on one-size fits all messaging.” Jan Bartczak, CCO, Value Lights

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Strategically identifying and prioritising opportunities based on customer intent doesn't only improve customer journeys. By leveraging intent data, you can ensure your initiatives are targeted at the segments who can drive the most incremental revenue, in the short and long term.