Why optimising the customer journey is key for digital marketing success

In a crowded marketplace with many different channels and digital marketing activities taking place, understanding the customer journey has become more important than ever. As businesses continue to compete for consumer attention in various marketplaces with multiple competing brands, the ability to map out and optimise the customer journey can be the difference between success and failure.

In this blog post, we will look at what the customer journey is, why it’s crucial for digital marketing success, and how it can be utilised to enhance your business’s growth and presence both online and offline.

The customer journey can be defined as the steps a potential customer goes through from the very first time they become aware of your brand to the point they make a purchase—and interact with your brand beyond the point of sale.

It’s a complete 360 view of the customer’s experience with your brand, including all interactions across multiple touchpoints, such as social media, websites, emails, and in-store visits for example.

1. Awareness: The customer becomes aware of your product or service either through their own search or via advertisements.

2. Consideration: The customer then considers your product or service as a potential solution to their needs and compares this to similar competing solutions.

3. Decision: The customer will then make a decision to choose your brand and make a purchase.

4. Retention: After the point of purchase, the customer continues to engage with your brand, in the hope of this leading to repeat purchases and continued interactions with your marketing channels.

5. Advocacy: Satisfied customers will become advocates of your brand and begin promoting your brand to others in their network.

When your understand your customer journey, you can tailor your messaging to meet the direct needs and expectations of your audience at each stage of the process. Personalised and timely content resonates more with customers, leading to higher engagement rates and conversion rates.

For example, a customer in the consideration stage may engage more effectively with a detailed product comparisons, while someone in the decision stage of the customer journey may react better to offers and discounts.

By mapping the customer journey, you can identify the common pain points and areas where the experience may fall short which allows you to optimise in the most impactful areas. By addressing these issues directly, you can enhance the overall customer experience, leading to greater satisfaction and loyalty with your customer touch points.

For example, you may find that a certain form on your website is causing people to drop off and not contact you. Identifying this will enable you to A/B test different variations of the form and help to optimise this part of the experience.

Knowing which stages of the customer journey that are most critical to your business allows you to allocate your marketing resources more effectively to these areas.

For example, if you find that a significant number of potential customers drop off during the consideration stage of the customer journey, you can focus more attention and resources on content marketing or retargeting ads to nurture these leads.

This targeted approach to resource allocation maximises your return on investment (ROI) and ensures your marketing efforts are concentrated where they will have the most impact.

Understanding the customer journey allows you to begin measuring the success of your marketing campaigns. This is achieved by tracking key performance indicators (KPIs) at each stage of the customer journey. Businesses can gain useful insights into what’s working and what’s not across their marketing channels. This data-driven approach to marketing allows businesses to continuously optimise marketing strategies, improving efficiency in the process.

The customer journey is not just about making a sale which then ends the journey. The customer journey is about building long-term relationships that extend past the purchase stage and lead to repeat business

Businesses need to connect with each customer at each touchpoint and provide value throughout their journey to gain trust and loyalty. These strong relationships lead to higher customer order value and higher lifetime value (CLV).

As you begin to refine your digital marketing strategies around your customer journey, remember to ensure you provide the most seamless and customer friendly experience on all platform. Staying attuned to changing trends will keep your marketing delivery and message relevant and effective.