Email Advertisements Based on Website Search

My wife has been searching for a good digital SLR camera for a while now. One of the main sites we use to shop is Amazon so she has been using that site to look at the different options.

About a week or so after starting her search, I started getting emails from Amazon about Camera products. I was really impressed after I got this email.

Check out this example email below:

This is such a great idea. Amazon is one site that focuses on conversions and sales unlike almost any other site. Just about anything they do, you can assume is a good idea… this is one of them.

When you have a website that has a search function, you can collect that data and use it to better market to your users.

This is especially good for those who have any type of ecommerce site. I’m trying to think of how I can apply this in other ways for non-ecommerce sites. I think the concept is really amazing and so if can be applied to other websites, I think it could be really profitable.

Any ideas on applying this to other websites?