Understanding Your Customers Journey
Understanding Your Customers Journey
Content is crucial when it comes to online marketing. Since back in the day with SEO, we have been gracing sites with fantastic articles and landing pages. Then along came content marketing, which is now a core part in many digital marketing strategies. Even the small yet very powerful content such as PPC ad copy and social media posts are important, as these all play their own crucial part in the customers overall experience.
From attainment to conversion, content plays a crucial part. However, many marketers never stop to realise how that role progresses during the customer’s journey. The most difficult challenge in terms of content would have to be Discovery Content, as it enables people to discover you before they even know they really need you – basically brand awareness.
A useful solution is to use content marketing to add value to your branded assets, such as, graphics, images, quizzes, videos and blogs – appearing on sites your customers are viewing. For example, if you’re a baby clothing supplies business, your strategy may include targeting sites that are popular with current mothers or female adults looking to be future mums. This will then tie in with social media, which has been one of the main ways we have discovered and consumed content so far this year at Purple Fruit.
In order for content to be shared and clicked, it needs to really draw the reader in and entice them, and therefore it will need to be easy to read, informative and entertaining – designed with your target audience specifically in mind.
Another key aspect to consider is the “Curious Searchers” – these are people who search across search engines like, Google, for informational queries such as “wedding flower ideas” or “Hen party games”. An entertaining and informative blog on your site could gain visitors from these searchers, and if it’s engaging enough, those casual browsers may turn into regular followers.
Deliberation Content is where the customer is at the stage where they know exactly what product or service they need and they know that you may provide just what they’re looking for. However, they need convincing, so you will need to draw them in including information about how they will benefit from your product, how it works and what they need to do in order to take the next step (Call to action). In order to achieve this successfully, you will need to deliver content that’s in-depth and includes practical information that will genuinely benefit the reader, these could be anything from “top tips on how to service your garage door” to FAQs and step-by-step “how to” guides.
When it comes to content marketing, your thought leadership must be promoted on the right websites that will attract the target audience you are aiming for. This means you will need to publish your content on websites that your target audience would most likely to visit for authoritative information. When it comes to search engines, these people may search for strong keywords so please be sure to include these terms in all of your landing pages.
If you are currently bidding on AdWords for these keyword phrases, your ad copy will be vital in standing out from the crowd. You may already have a rough idea of the call to actions that will be most effective by this stage of the buying process, but it’s still crucial that you test and optimise your ads in order to strive for improvements.
The other type of content that plays an important role in the world of content marketing is, Decision Content. So once you’ve got through half the battle and managed to get your potential customers onto your site, you will be faced with the next challenge – converting them into real customers.
This final hurdle is challenging and there is still a great possibility of you failing at the last point. In order to try and help you get through this, Purple Fruit have noted that over the years, pages explaining your products or services must be persuasive yet authoritative, while the extra testimonial, case studies and shiny reviews can be just the last edge and push your potential customer needs in order to convert.
If you are prepared to stretch your budget, you may even consider creating video product demos and interactive tools to give your customer a positive viewing experience.
Social media will also play an important part at this stage. These days many people will visit your social account in order to find out a little more about your brand – so be sure to really get them on board by posting interesting posts and eye catching special offers whilst also promoting your fabulous customer service skills.
Last but not least, at Purple Fruit, we cannot stress this enough to all of our fellow marketers, “One size does not fit all”. Using content to capture your customer’s attention and to influence them to buy your service or products relies on your ability to address the audience in an appropriate manner at the right stage of the process they are at.
You must bear in mind the most effective and influential messages throughout your entire process and this will include using your own common sense. For example, you would not wave an invoice to a customer who has not yet decided to buy your product or who has just walked into your showroom or exhibition. Just as you would not cold call a customer who is at the last stages of making a certain big decision. It is all about communicating with your customers on an individual level in the right way and at the right time.
You must keep in mind what stage of the journey your customer is at as you will need to address them differently at every stage. Before you begin your content strategy please take the time to research your customer’s journey as its key to a successful and strong strategy.
If you have any questions in regards to content marketing, please do not hesitate to contact the geeks! – We are here to help!
