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As we’ve mentioned before, knowing your customers is very important. If you want to advertise online you should know who your potential client is, their habits, age, gender and even some personality traits. Only that way will you be able to craft the right message and place it in the right communication channels.
Today, though, we’ll be tackling another very important aspect of a marketing strategy: your customer journey.
Let’s start by assuming that if you are advertising online or have a social media presence it is because you want to sell something, whether a product or service, and you want to convert more customers into sales. To do so, you have already established who your audience is and where they spend their time, so now it’s time to work out what steps they will have to take in order to actually buy something, so as to make that process as simple as possible.
Think about all the steps.
To understand how you can make your process simpler and easier for your customers, you have to start by thinking about where you want them to start their journey. For example, should you start by creating an ad for one of your products, with a clear CTA for customers to buy it? Or maybe you should think about your website landing page and make sure your CTA button is clear enough for your clients — right from when they open the page.
Once you have done that, continue tracking their journey by going through the rest of the steps. Do they receive an email where they have to accept something? Is that email clear enough on what action they need to take? How many steps are there on your website before they reach the checkout? Do you provide a safe payment method?
These are all questions you should consider when thinking about your strategy because they will play an important role when you are establishing what you should do.
Create a map of your customer journey
We are visual beings, so it’s always a good idea to map out your customer journey so as to have a clear vision of how many steps there are and how they can play out. To do so, you will have to think about all the paths your customer can take until they reach the final step (usually, a sale).
Start by sketching a map of every stage of all the customer touchpoints. These can be social media posts, flyers that you hand out on the street, your website, customer service and follow-up communications.
Once you know all your touchpoints, you should start by analysing all the different things that may affect them such as which actions your customers are required to do, why they are doing them and what some of the obstacles are that they may encounter on each of the steps. After writing all these down, think about which questions your clients might have at each of the steps, such as ‘Can I get a refund on my purchase?’, ‘Is my payment safe?’, ‘Is my data protected?’ and make sure you create an answer for all of those across the process.
For example, for the answer ‘Can I get a refund on my purchase’, make sure to include a FAQ on your website about your Refund Policy and add a link to that on the checkout screen. For ‘Is my payment safe?’ include a full list of your payment partners and detail on how you process payments so that clients feel safe spending their money on your product. Lastly, for the question ‘Is my data protected?’ you should be transparent about your privacy policy and assure your clients that you are being responsible and GDPR compliant (if you are in the European Union).
Keep your client company
Many people think that because a client has just bought something on their platform, their work is done. Actually, it is very important to monitor the journey the client takes once they have completed a purchase, which may include sending them emails about where they package is, requesting feedback and providing a refund if they are not satisfied with the process.
This is very important because it can make a big impact on your brand. How? Let’s assume someone has bought something on your website, you did not keep track of their journey after the purchase, and the package got lost in the mail — or the product was not as they expected. Even when it is not all your brand’s fault, the client will assume that your service was lacking and might go on social media and make negative comments about the transaction, which will ultimately contribute to a negative image of your brand.
To sum it all up, here’s what to keep in mind when establishing your customer journey:
- Think about all the steps in detail
- Don’t forget about offline touchpoints
- Your customer journey continues even after you complete a sale
- Put yourself in your customer’s shoes.
Do you need help with your customer journey? Let me know how I can help!
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