• Acquisition costs are rising and conversion rates are decreasing
• The power switch from Push to Pull Marketing
• The change from mass marketing to personalized marketing

There are so many factors to consider when behaviorally targeting users - so which ones should you consider? The factors and metrics are completely site specific, however below are a few factors that you should consider when developing profiles for your various visitor segments:

• Referring Sites
• Referring Keywords
• Internal Search Queries
• Pages Viewed (type/category of content)
• Preferred method of communication: Email vs. Phone vs. Webinar
• Purchase Patterns based on seasonality
• Demographics: Age, Sex, Education, House Hold Income, Marital Status
• Recency
• Frequency
• Products added to cart
• Time Zone
• Time of Day on website
• Offline Influencers: TV/Radio/Magazines

Here is an excellent example of how you can leverage on-site behavioral targeting for your website, let me paint a little picture for you: Your organization operates a travel website where you can research/book cruises, hotels, and trips to various tropical locations.  Besides textual content, users can watch videos, subscribe to your newsletter and get the daily weather report via podcasts. 

Now Imagine being able to offer customized web experiences to all of your users.  For instance, you know that 'Jonathan Bowers' spends a lot of time on cruises to Hawaii, he often does his research in late November, he uses your site search tool for finding out more information about pricing, his preferred method of communication is by email and from his online profile you know he is married, has 2 kids, makes 200K/year and lives in Portland Oregon.  As soon as Jonathan signs into his profile in November you show him family cruise deals to Hawaii and business class flights from Portland.  You offer Jonathan a personalized experience and now is more likely to book a vacation using your website.

The scenario above is an optimal situation however personalized experiences can still be offered based on the content visitors view, content which they neglect, products they add to their shopping carts, and seasonality.  Web Analytics plays a big role in behavioral targeting because it allows you to cookie your visitors so you can track their trends/patterns on your website.

Resources for Behavioral/On Site Targeting:

- Omniture TouchClarity
- WebTrends Marketing Lab 2
- BlueLithium - Anil Batra: Behavioral Targeting 101
- Kefta
- Clickz: Target Behavior on the Site Level
- Avinash Kaushik: The Promise & Challenge of Behavior Targeting (& Two Prerequisites)
- Offermatica