With more people in the world spending more time in our daily lives online – both personally and professionally – it’s no wonder that digital marketing is growing too. Businesses are vying for ad space across the web, wondering where it’s best to invest their marketing dollars.
While Americans spend an average of eight and a half hours a day online, there is only so much content we can consume, and only so many ads can hold our attention. So how does an advertiser make sure their ads are the ones that succeed?
The answer is one of digital marketing’s biggest advantages.
Create a relationship with customers from their first touch point all the way to becoming a loyal customer. This process is called the Customer Journey. This journey is the path people travel as they become aware of your brand, engage with it, make a purchase, and become a loyal fan.
Let’s take a look at it here.
Stage 1: Awareness
The first thing you need is for the right people to be aware of your business. You can’t (and don’t want to) target everyone lest your ads spend tons of money just to get lost in the noise. Know who your product or service is for and where they spend their time online. Focus your advertising on platforms and media that allow you to reach this target audience with an eye-catching message. Your goal here is just to make sure they see you and begin to remember your brand.
Stage 2: Engagement
Once you have their attention, you need to get people to engage with you. Also known as the consideration stage, this step is all about nurturing the relationship with people by getting them to take a small action. This action could be clicking on your ad, visiting your website, subscribing to your newsletter, downloading a freebie, opening or clicking links in emails, and more.
There are many possible actions a user could take in this stage, and they probably need to take multiple actions before they get to the next stage in the Customer Journey. What those are depends on what you have to offer.
Creating a holistic advertising campaign that includes traditional media, social media, PPC, and video ads invites users to learn more about you and explore your website. If you’re focusing on B2B marketing, you’re probably putting some marketing dollars into targeting people with the right industry or job title on LinkedIn. And once someone has subscribed to your newsletter or downloaded your lead magnet, you’ll want a strong email marketing campaign set up to welcome them and guide them on their journey.
Stage 3: Purchase
Ah, the one we all like to see. They’re now ready to make a purchase, make an appointment, sign up for that subscription… Whatever this step is, it makes all the hard work worth it!
Consider what this system looks like from the customer’s eyes. Just because they have started the purchase process doesn’t mean they’ll finish it! It may seem easy to you because you’re well-versed in your business, but does the purchase process make sense and give the consumer all the necessary information? Making sure this stage in the journey is a smooth process sets you up well for the next step.
Stage 4: Follow-up
This stage is easy to forget, but digital marketing offers a lot in the way of following up with customers. CRMs keep track of digital conversations so your team can make sure customers are well taken care of. Putting an automated email campaign or text messages in place allows you to check in on customers after the purchase stage. This is also a great time to offer support or request a review.
Plus, when it’s time, you can continue the relationship by following up with suggestions for another purchase, engaging on social media, and more.
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Especially if you’re taking time to audit your current marketing efforts or refresh your strategy, make sure you know the full journey customers are taking. Determine what it looks like, from the customer’s view, at each stage. Digital marketing is available at every step to help improve the process for both you and consumers.
If you want to partner with a team of marketing experts to tackle your Customer Journey, let’s talk! Our team works alongside our clients to strategize, craft the Customer Journey, then implement and optimize the plan.
