Customer Journey Optimization – Digital Marketing Strategies

What does the customer want when he or she is navigating your website?  What is the customer’s end-goal?  How does the customer feel during the website visit?  Those are all incredibly important questions to answer in order to truly develop a website and digital marketing strategy that will optimize your conversion rate.

We at Oamii are laser-focused on digital marketing success for our clients.  So, as the premier South Florida digital marketing agency , we are constantly working to pioneer the next digital marketing strategy to stay one step ahead of the competition.

The concept of mapping the “customer journey” has been around a while in the marketing industry.  However, keeping an eye on the journey of the digital customer is an approach that has not yet reached fruition in the digital marketing world.

But have no fear. Oamii is already on the case. We understand that data-driven marketing, including an understanding of click volume and dwell time, can be enormously helpful in allocating a company’s marketing effort.  Yet, that does not always give the full picture.  Tangible, profitable digital marketing success can only be achieved by understanding how marketing data relates to the digital customer’s journey.

To drill down on the concept of the digital customer’s journey, let’s take a moment to first discuss the importance of understanding the customer journey, and then finding useful strategies to enhance the digital customer’s journey online .

Why Do We Map The Customer Journey?

As you would expect, the “customer journey” means the path a customer takes from becoming aware of your brand and interacting with your brand, to defining the interaction both in a practical and emotional way.

The way for marketers to visualize that customer journey is to map it out.  As a consequence, customer journey mapping has become a powerful tool used to analyze what marketing strategies work by actually ‘walking a mile’ in the customer’s shoes.

While customer journey mapping might sound like a daunting task, given the myriad factors and idiosyncrasies of individual customers, it is actually not as difficult as it sounds. It does not require 100% accuracy. Rather, it demands a marketer to consider typical customer experience and the signposts (or touchpoints) that occur along the way.

To better understand the concept of the customer journey, let’s first talk about how that would look in the real world, and the relevant touchpoints.  A customer is shopping in his town center.  He sees your storefront and the signs in the window (touch).  He enters the store and has a reaction, however subconscious, to the layout of the store (touch).  A retail employee approaches and greets the customer in a friendly way (touch).  The employee offers help (touch) and has a strong knowledge of the products in the store (touch).

The employee helps the customer find a perfect pair of slacks (touch) that are high quality at a good price (touch). When purchasing the slacks, the employee tells the customer that the slacks can easily be returned if the customer changes his mind (touch).  The employee gets the customer’s email address (touch).

The customer leaves feeling good about his purchase, and he posts something favorable about his slacks, and the store, on social media (touch). A few weeks later, you send an email promotion to your new customer (touch), offering 20% off of the next purchase (touch), and reminding him of your brand (touch).

You can see how many touchpoint opportunities there were to market to the customer and reinforce a good feeling about your brand and your product. Imagine now if the storefront was not attractive, or your employee was rude or dismissive.  That would make for a very different customer journey.  Indeed, the customer’s experience of your brand must be paramount in your mind.

Armed with an understanding of the basic thought process behind the customer journey in general, Oamii strives to make that marketing technique work in the digital marketing world.

Having developed websites for many startup companies, we have dealt with clients who used to continuously redesign their websites to increase traffic. It was all done with the hope of attracting more customers. Yet, as the top-ranking South Florida digital marketing agency, we know that traffic volume or the look of your website has little to do with achieving a higher conversion rate.  Higher conversion online comes from customer journey optimization.

Accordingly, when we work with clients on developing and maintaining a website, we at Oamii boost conversion by offering a valuable digital customer journey.  You don’t simply want to push all of your users to your sales letter, or to your opt-in page.  Rather, in our experience, we have discovered that there are four steps to effective customer journey optimization.

1. Customer Persona .  You first need to identify your customer segment with some accuracy.  You and your team should explore your prospective customer’s desires, pains, needs, and attitudes.

2. Use the Data You Have .  Try to make the most out of the data you already have at your disposal.  For example, if you find that your customers tend to drop off and turn to competitors after a certain amount of time, focus your marketing energies on increasing retention at that critical time before they drop off.  Moreover, see how your data dovetails with the customer persona you have already identified.

3. Teach Your Brand .  Your website should not simply move the user toward a signup page.  Rather, see if you can use your website to educate your customer on your brand, your culture, and your philosophy.  That way, you foster loyalty instead of just a single purchase.

4. Continue the Relationship .  Marketers should not stop once a purchase is made. According to Econsultancy , 82% of companies recognize that customer retention is far cheaper than acquiring new customers.  If you find that to be the case in your business, then have your website (and email strategy) geared towards keeping the relationship going with your current customers.

To learn more about Oamii’s focus on customer journey optimization, and for any other insights from the top South Florida digital marketing agency, contact us today online or at 561-228-4111 .  Our people, process, and product make us Florida’s best agency for digital marketing.