Your customer’s buying journey is a marathon, not a sprint. And that marathon goes up and down hills, sometimes the customer goes in the wrong direction, gets stuck at a cool-looking plant to take photos of, stops to talk to other customers, and then makes it across the finish line…eventually – or they give up halfway through. You get the picture.
Your customer’s buying journey isn’t as simple as walking into your store, or clicking on the checkout button on your website and immediately buying your product or service. There are many steps that they will take before converting into a paying customer. It’s important to study this path to understand when they are veering away from your business in their decision-making process.
Take a moment to absorb these statistics:
- 85.4 % of internet users search for information online at least once per month.
- 77% of people do their research on their phones.
- Email marketing converts at 4.29% which is higher than search engine marketing, direct, and social media marketing.
Next, contemplate these questions:
- How will your customer find your business and purchase your product?
- Will they search for you on the internet? Will they find you on their phones through social media?
- Will they open your emails if you send them one?
If there is one thing we know for certain it’s that each customer’s buying journey will be different from the one another.
If you’re confused and frustrated trying to figure out why they didn’t buy from you…
Run through these 5 steps
1. Define the need or the problem of your customer
Why would they buy your service or product? The number one thing you should be highlighting in your marketing campaigns is how your product or solution benefits your customers. After all, they are the ones with the credit cards buying from you! Identify how your product or service would solve their problems, and craft your wording around selling them into thinking you have the perfect solution.
2. Define how your customer will likely research your business
Now that your customer has a problem they want to solve, they will start researching brands, products, or services that will help fix that problem. This is where SEO on your website comes into play. If they can’t find you on the first Google page, your business might as well not even exist. It’s not just about search engines though; more and more people are using social media search engines to research businesses/products as well. Look closely at your target audience and determine where they are most likely getting their information from. If you sell orthopedic shoes, TikTok wouldn’t necessarily be the first social media platform that your customers are searching from. Regardless of your target audience, make sure you have a website fully optimized so that it is easy for your customer’s buying journey to find out more information about your business. It’s crucial that websites have a very good user experience not only from a desktop computer but from a mobile device. In fact, in our opinion, you should focus on your mobile experience first in many cases.
3. Define how your customer will likely compare your product to your competitors
This is human nature – can you blame them? Your customer might close off your site, or walk out of your store and go to a similar business just because they felt like it without any other reason. This is part of their buying journey we can’t control. However, what we can do is make what they are looking for easy to find. Are they price-shopping? If so make sure the price is on your website. Are they needing to compare the difference between product a and product b? Give them a comparison chart. Whatever you think they might ask for, make it readily available to them on your website.
4. Define what matters in their purchase decision
Of course, your customer will compare and contrast you to your competitors, but decision-making time is when top-quality customer service comes into play. Your customer will look at reviews, or ask from word-of-mouth before deciding to make a purchase. If they have questions get back to them quickly with good answers. If they get stuck in the buying process, have someone readily available to help.
5. Define what can be improved
Not everything in your customers’ buying journey is under your control but, there are things that we can control. Whether you’ve been in business for a year or ten years you need to know and understand that just because it’s the way it’s always been done it’s not necessarily the best it can be. Look at the product you are frustrated with and say how can we improve it. And, this doesn’t necessarily mean you need to change the product itself. You might rename it, repackage it, add a couple of bonus offers, or sample products to it. Ask yourself and others ‘what would make this better?’
The 5 D’s aside, how do you check in on your customer’s buying journey?
You use crucial tools in your marketing campaign. You can’t improve what you don’t measure, or what doesn’t have a benchmark established.
The beauty of remarketing ads
How many times have you searched for a product, and now the ads are popping up everywhere? That’s when remarketing strategies come into play. These ads are strategically set to target existing customers or site visitors that didn’t complete their purchase. Maybe that customer was searching for a mortgage broker, but they don’t need the service for another couple of months. That targeted ad will find them again/follow them around to keep that business top of mind. Quite often when using this tactic it results in a sale when the time is right for the customer. Other customers might know of your business from word of mouth and find your website or landing page right away to book a consultation. But, every customer is different, and are all at different points in their customer buying journey so having a variety of different ways to target your customers is essential to securing those leads and additional sales.
Invest in the right tools to install into your website to help increase your conversions.
From unique landing pages connecting to specific ads to chatbots and lead form tracking to heat mapping, and abandoned cart emails setting the right automated tools in place, you’ll not only cut down on manual work but, leave less room for human error. Now before you jump at us for talking about robots, there are things that still need a human touch but, there are also things that make your customers happy because they create a better user experience. You don’t need to use them all but, you should in this day and age be leveraging technology so that if nothing else you maximize your marketing dollars.
If you’re ready to invest in your business and create a real plan you can execute to increase your sales while keeping solid profit margins in your pocket, call us.
From website coding and landing page creation to developing your business’s brand identity on social media or optimizing your Google campaigns, we are a one-stop shop for all your marketing and advertising needs. (See even knowing that you will read this blog is part of our customer’s buying journey). Let’s sit down and discover where you are losing sales or losing leads, and establish a plan going forward to optimize your conversion points and sales funnels. Book a free no-obligation consultation to learn more now. It will be the best investment you make in your business this year.
