What Is Reminder Advertising and Why Do We Need It?

To create an effective programmatic ads campaign, a professional marketer must align the company’s business objectives and overall mission with clients’ pains and hopes. Also, they need to take into consideration the stages of the customer journey to build a seamless experience.

There are numerous advertising methods and techniques that are used to achieve this, and in this post, we are going to discuss one of the core strategies used by most marketers - remind advertising techniques. We will first examine how one can use this tool to promote their product or service. As well, we will also review a reminder advertisement example — in fact, a couple of them. 

Why do we need reminder ads?

To somehow classify the activities involved in general advertising strategies, researchers divide them by the objectives they serve. These usually fall into three broader categories, each playing a core role in a typical full-funnel marketing strategy:

• Informative advertising is used for building brand awareness and getting user attention, mainly performed at the top of the funnel;
• Persuasive advertising is used to influence the consideration stage (the middle of the funnel) and applied to persuade customers to act;
• It is used to drive the conversion and stimulate the purchase. Also, it is used in order to foster loyalty and retain customers, which is typical for the bottom of the funnel.

Once your prospective clients have done their research and are choosing between the options, it is a perfect time for such ads as they drive your leads to the actual purchase. In fact, numbers show that nurturing your leads can increase sales opportunities by 20%. 

What is Reminder Advertising

Let us start with defining reminder advertising meaning. Reminder advertising is one of the most powerful and effective marketing techniques used by brands to retain their target audience. It can also be utilized to keep established products on top-selling rates or the maturity stage of the product life cycle.

This marketing method is often focused on the consideration stage or in the middle of the sales funnel. While users are choosing between the options, it is important to stay in their sight and keep in touch, persuading them to choose the right one.

This approach also lies at the core of retargeting, which is a type of targeted advertising focused on advertising to existing customers and keeping the name of an established brand. It is also a specifically useful technique to battle against forgotten shopping carts - oftentimes, a gentle memo about your product or service can be the last nudge that your client needs in order to proceed to purchase.

Psychological triggers in reminder ads

Reminder advertising is primarily used to trigger specific emotions among users who have already familiarized themselves with a range of products or services and are now looking for the specific seller who can provide the best deal in this niche.

At such a moment, users are exploring their alternatives. They are aware of their situation and the companies that can assist them. They are trying to determine which solution is the best option for them.

During this time, it is crucial to remain at the center of your audience's attention and communicate with them through the range of emotions that evoke the urge to buy from your company. 

Fear or anger

Even anger or fear can trigger the right leverage to push a potential customer to take action and buy from you. Paradoxically, the fear of loss or illness motivates purchases, which is often exploited by insurance and pharmaceutical companies. One such example is Insmed’s campaign in the picture below.

Marketers also often play on the fear of missing out (FOMO) to imbue their message with a sense of urgency. Key phrases here include: limited offer, don't miss out, and the sale ends today. Joy is utilized by everyone, and for a good reason – it's one of the most powerful emotions. Key words include pleasure, delight, sunny, cheerful, satisfied, and lively.

Nostalgia and happiness

The feeling of nostalgia is no exception here. Brands like Coca-Cola often exploit this emotion in their ad campaigns by tying their product with Christmas time, which also induces the feeling of coziness and happiness.

"Share a Coke" is another campaign that brought back nostalgic memories by printing popular names on their bottles. 

Aspirational elements may ignite strong motivation urge. Below, you can see one of those reminder ad examples.

Urge for achievement

Fitness brands often use aspirational imagery of toned bodies and active lifestyles to motivate people to exercise, just like Adidas did in the “Impossible is nothing” campaign. Many of us are concerned about our health and maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Show that your product refreshes, energizes, invigorates, and prolongs life. Key words here may include energy boost, care, vitality, natural, organic, health, fitness, life, and energy.

3 unique reminder advertising tactics

Now that we’ve got the reminder advertising definition and know where to apply it, it is time to discover what kinds of tactics and digital ad formats are the most effective with this type of advertising. Here are some of the best-performing tactics that you can use to launch such ads on your demand-side platform:

Tactic 1. Fixing abandoned carts

Not every customer who adds your products to the shopping cart eventually buys them. In fact, it often takes an additional step to actually close the sale, and the perfect way to do this is via retargeting push ads or an abandoned cart email.

Banner ads used as a part of retargeting campaigns can become a perfect memo about your brand to your existing leads and customers. If a prospect visited your website but didn’t complete the purchase, a simple banner ad with a discount encountered on another page can become a good reason to complete the purchase.

Rich media ad formats are a good choice for slightly more detailed campaigns where your message should be vivid and memorable. They generate more engagement and conversions, leaving lots of valuable space to showcase your brand’s uniqueness and creativity. These ads would work equally well for email newsletters and content within the websites.

Tactic 2. Driving more users to your offline store

A very useful example of reminder advertising may be used as a part of location-based marketing campaigns, to improve physical store visits. Push advertising is an extremely powerful format for reminding your clients about you since these ads address the users right on the spot (near your shop).

Delivering a short and precise message allows your brand to achieve quick results - on-the-spot purchases. 
Need successful examples? These could be location-dependent push ads used as a part of geomarketing campaigns. Such ads are delivered to the screens of the users that stay within certain defined areas that you define (these can be your shop, music gig, competitor’s location, and so on).

Tactic 3. Remarketing to potential audiences

If the user didn’t convert the first time they’ve encountered your website, that doesn’t mean you should forget your offers. Sometimes, it takes two or even more encounters until your audience decides to take action.

Experiment with different products, formats, and channels, as some might perform better than others. Mobile retargeting is a specifically useful strategy for retail and eCommerce since the majority of online sales are performed on mobile. Mobile ads can be delivered in a variety of formats, from video ads to pop-up texts and in-app messages. These techniques can be used separately or in combination to lead your potential customers from the middle to the bottom of the sales funnel.

For instance, some customized messages or offers can be shown to your existing customers to catch their attention once again. The other ads, meanwhile, can nurture new leads among other potentially interested audiences.

Best reminder advertising examples

So, how do established brands keep their clients interested for years and even decades? Do they use some secret techniques or require sharing sensitive information for hyper-precise targeting? The real key to success lies in decades of dedication and thoughtful brand image building. Here are some of the best examples of reminder promotion from these brands to illustrate it:

Coca-Cola: appealing to feelings

Coca-Cola is a company that sells one established product and doesn’t need an introduction. In this ad, they aren’t introducing new packaging or taste. Instead, they are just gently reminding that this product exists and provide a new outlook on it with a catchy slogan, “Taste the feeling.”

McDonalds: showing the right way

McDonald’s is another well-known brand that is mostly focused on this type of advertising. The following campaign also doesn’t introduce anything new, and, in fact, it is barely mentions anything at all because their brand awareness is already huge. However, the brands’ recognizable design and almost symbolic arches do their job, so that the customer instantly knows where they are directed to.

Volkswagen: making the mood

Images of many little animals evoke warm emotions in us, capturing attention and being easily remembered. This especially applies to the most adorable domestic pets like kittens and puppies. They are associated with babies, drawing attention and creating a positive mood.

Ecovia: appealing through anger

How about this social advertisement against aggressive behavior on the roads? This creative below is a great example of reminder marketing which is also drawing attention to social problems. In this case, the brand stands against violence on the roads and appeals to the consumer through the emotion of anger.

Chanel: working through the sense of beauty

Even rational-thinking individuals are willing to spend more money when they see an attractive model or an actress on a website or poster. This is also related to subconscious reactions, which largely determine our purchasing behavior, and Chanel appeals to consumers through this, showcasing how impeccable their product is.

To sum up

What is the primary goal of reminder advertising? Today, we’ve discovered that it is a powerful tool for promoting an existing brand, maintaining a long product life cycle, and retaining your loyal customers.

It can be used in a variety of formats, both desktop and mobile and is specifically useful for eCommerce. For instance, well-known global brands often deliver some of the best reminder ads examples as a part of their main marketing strategy focused on retaining their audiences instead of acquiring new clients. Such ads can also serve as a perfect tool for pushing prospective clients down the sales funnel, instantly turning your leads into customers.

Deliver the most effective brand reminder ads with SmartyAds DSP.