What is contextual marketing? Definition and explanation

In 2023, marketing content is undeniably a very powerful influence on businesses of all sizes. In fact, content marketing generates 3x more leads than traditional marketing and costs 62% less.

However, it should be noted that despite the fact that most marketers are aware of the importance of content marketing, there is still one aspect that is very often overlooked - contextual marketing. Regardless of whether you are familiar with the term itself, you have probably already tried it or at least were going to.

Let's take a look at the entire concept and dive into the strategies you can successfully implement into your overall marketing.

What Is Contextual Marketing?

It is very possible that you have heard about the concept of contextual marketing but have had doubts about it. What is it based on? Contextual marketing involves combining data with context to deliver the most appropriate message at the right time.

For example, let's say someone searches Google for red prom dresses. Next, she goes to Facebook and sees an ad for these types of dresses, which she clicks on to take a look at the latest styles.

The next day, the person is walking and their cell phone shows them the latest offers on red party dresses in a nearby store. The possibility of this ad getting Marta to buy one of them is very high, thanks to the fact that the ad is in the right context and at the right time.

In fact, contextual marketing takes advantage of the data and information it has on its potential consumer to then adapt its communication strategy to the environment it travels and to the scenarios that said consumer usually occupies.

If we know the interests of our target, we know what places they frequent, when and what they look for in those places, and what kinds of things catch their attention, we have a very interesting competitive advantage. By showing the most interesting ads and products to the consumer, contextual marketing achieves:

Contextual ads can be placed on many different media: social networks, search ads, video ads, web pages, apps, and even outdoor advertising . The idea is that all media are integrated and that each user interaction allows us to know even more about them and offer them advertisements about products in which they have expressed some type of interest.

And this new methodology has more and more followers, both on the part of companies and consumers. According to data provided by Forrester, up to 74% of users feel comfortable if the company uses data about them to offer them products that interest them.

In short, contextual marketing is a new way of looking at advertising based on the wealth of information we have at our disposal in order to better understand our potential clients and guarantee an optimal customer experience .

To use this tool successfully, it is essential that marketing teams collaborate with IT experts to apply the scientific method to marketing and exploit the full potential of data. The result will be much more effective advertising and truly satisfied consumers.

Why Is All This Important?

When you own the specific context in which your relationship with a prospect is built, you can offer more personalized and relevant content tailored to their needs. Personalized and relevant marketing is the foundation for creating content that people will love! Moreover, usually this approach does not cause irritation and the desire to press the “unsubscribe” button. On the contrary, it is a win-win strategy!

When you act based on people's needs, the logical conclusion is that such a strategy will work better for you too. You won't push marketing content that isn't relevant to the customer's interests or stage in the sales cycle. Imagine the situation. Let's say it's December. You know that our B2B lead discussed in the section above has the following characteristics:

You can offer him content that is perfectly tailored to his needs. For example, a specially shot video where a financial industry specialist demonstrates your product at the end of the year. A relevant video like this is more likely to convert a lead into a buyer.

Why not use your contacts' insights to provide them with useful content and convert them into customers at the same time?

Applications Of Contextual Marketing

All these ideas sound great, but how does this theory work in practice? How would you put this into practice as a marketer? Here are some examples of implementing the principle of “context” in marketing using integrated software.

Dynamic calls to action (CTAs)

Let's say you have several offers that you want to use to convert traffic into leads, then those leads into qualified leads, and then into customers.

To improve your conversion rate, you don't need guests to land on a case site page right away (usually an action that takes place a little later in the buyer's journey) or find a call to action that takes them to a blog post (assumed for those who I've been through the buyer's journey before).

Not every visitor to case pages will be ready to communicate with the seller. Agree, you don’t want to frighten off the client with an overly persistent call to action.

Dynamic CTAs were a good solution. They are customized depending on who is visiting the page. The client will receive a call to action that automatically matches their position in the sales cycle or any other set of criteria that you set yourself! Consider industry, business type, location, past performance, behavior and any other important factors.

Dynamic email content and workflows

Forms aren't the only thing that requires smart customization. This trick is also necessary for effectively using an email database. Especially if you want to prevent already converted users from deleting your newsletter from their mailboxes. This requires segmentation by target lists.

In addition to email segmentation, you should have smart email lists that know when to target a contact or specific database information about that contact in email marketing.

So, to send contextually relevant emails, you will need to use workflows, a tool that will put each person into the appropriate list.

Smart Shapes

Surely you want to be an expert in contextual marketing and achieve higher conversion rates.

The best assistant for a specialist in this matter is smart forms. At their core, they are really smart and perfect for landing pages.

Such forms are so smart that they recognize whether the user has filled out the fields. For example, if they are integrated into the website, visitors will not see the First Name and Last Name input lines every time they fill out a form - they only need to fill them out once and never have to return to it again.

This will help generate more new leads every time they fill out a form, instead of just repeating the same thing. The solution will help you collect maximum contextual data about visitors, leads and clients, and will also become a useful tool for increasing conversion rates.