Did you know that only 8% of your website visitors are ready to buy when they visit your site for the first time?
Your customers don’t suddenly decide to make a purchase. They take a journey before they become customers.
Knowing the customer journey helps you create a better experience, increase revenue, and build a following of loyal customers. It’s the process people go through to become first-time and repeat buyers.
That process is everything that leads up to the sale. One misstep and your organization loses out on revenue.
What are the steps of the customer journey? Keep reading to find out and how to make it a part of your content strategy.
Awareness
At this stage, your customers start off unaware of your brand. They’re not ready to buy and they’re not interested in your product or service.
They become aware of your brand through a search engine, social media post, or video. They might have seen a promotional product with your company’s name or a testimonial.
Since they’re aware of your company, they’ll investigate further to see if they want to do business with you. They’ll read product reviews, look for testimonials, and look at product specs. A good example of this stage is in the construction industry when a prospect learns how to bid construction jobs and submits them. This is because they’ve shown interest.
This step of the journey is considered the top of the sales funnel.
Interest
Marketers also call this the evaluation or cultivation stage of the customer journey. Customers are interested in your product or service.
Since they’re aware of your company, they’ll investigate further to see if they want to do business with you. They’ll read product reviews, look for testimonials, and look at product specs.
They’ll also compare your product to other products and services. You need to be sure that you know what sets your business apart from the others.
Desire
Some refer to this stage as the acquisition stage of the journey. A potential buyer did the research and they made a decision.
They moved from looking at options to wanting a specific product. If you nailed the other steps of the customer experience, the customer will want your product over the competition.
Action
What does it take for a customer to take action? They have to have the desire. This is an emotional thing for customers. They want to take action in the hopes that your product or service makes their lives better.
Many business owners see this step as the most important because it directly impacts the bottom line. Yet, without those previous steps, very few people would be inspired to take action.
Retention
You earned the right to serve a customer. Now, you have to keep them a customer. Most people start and end with the action step of the customer journey.
If you want to increase your ROI, you need to make sure every interaction after the sale is positive and memorable.
That positive feeling leads customers to recommend your business, write reviews, and return for more purchases.
Align the Customer Experience With the Customer Journey
Your main focus is to ensure that the customer has a world-class experience every at each step of the customer journey. The best way to do that is to align the customer experience with the customer journey.
Start off by knowing who your customer is. Create a buyer persona, which is a mock-up of an ideal customer.
Similar to creating a fictional character, you give them a name and a face. Talk about their day, what their lives are like, where they work, shop, and play.
You also want to talk about what they’re looking for in your product. Go deep into what problem they want to solve and the pain they want to feel better about.
The Customer Journey Map
The buyer persona is important because it helps you create a customer journey map. This is where you outline every interaction between you and your customers, and who is responsible for that interaction.
For example, you know that your customer is a heavy social media user. They’re likely to discover your product or service there, which makes your social media manager responsible.
At the next stage, a customer might try to search for products online. A content manager or someone in a similar role can be responsible for this interaction.
They have to research and learn the likely search terms your customers will use to perform research online. The content manager has to develop content so it can be found in search engines.
What kind of experience does your website provide? Digital experience optimization (DXO) gives you valuable insights so you can answer that question.
A poor website experience leads to fewer conversions. Many people won’t return to your site after a poor experience. DXO tells you where you’re losing potential customers on your website.
You’ll be able to fix those issues and complete the customer journey.
Don’t forget to map out steps that happen after the sale. You need to make sure your packing department does a thorough job in packing the product.
Your shipping partners have to deliver on time. Your customer service team has to be ready to help customers with questions and issues.
Make the Customer Journey Unforgettable
The customer journey is comprised of a number of steps that customers take to make a purchase. Your main focus is to make sure that every single interaction a customer has with your business is outstanding.
Every single member of your team has to be on board to ensure the best experience. Your marketing, sales, shipping, and customer service teams need to be focused on serving customers and potential customers.
When they do that well, you’ll see your revenue grow because customers are more than willing to pay for better service.
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