Mapping Your Customer Journey

One of the most important things you can do before embarking on a digital marketing strategy is mapping out your customer journey. When working with a goal-focused designer and marketing strategist, they are going to want to know how your business works and how your customers go from hearing about you to buying from you.

I’ve talked before about your website being a map to your business and your customer journey, so defining this will be critical to being successful with your website and digital marketing. While this is something that can be revised and fleshed out throughout the process, by having an idea of what you need to think about, the process can go a lot smoother.

Start with the End in Mind

On the most basic level, you need to know what you offer to people and how they can hire you. Basically, how do you make money? It sounds simple but you need to go farther than just “I’m a coach” or “I’m a photographer”. You need to know what you offer, who you offer it to and in what form you offer it.

Let’s take the coach example for a moment. Your strategy is going to be totally different if you are coaching business people who are dealing with imposter syndrome than if you are coaching new moms trying to deal with overwhelm. Also, you need to know what form you are going to use. One on one coaching is very different than a group program with weekly Zoom calls.

These are foundational decisions that will shape a lot of your plans going forward. Identifying your ideal client and how your services are structured will influence everything from your marketing platforms to the technology needed on your website.

It’s okay if you don’t know exactly how much you are going to charge, what platform you want to use to deliver the content and other things like that, but you should have the basic structure of what you offer mapped out.

Now that you know what you offer and how you make money, you can work backwards to the next step.

How Should People Contact You?

You also need to know how people should initially contact you. Do they buy something directly from your website, should they schedule a call with you, send you an email to get more information? This is going to depend on your personality and business model.

It may be pretty obvious whether or not your customer buys something directly from your website, but if they don’t, then some more decision making has to take place. Do you prefer to vet people for a good fit via email before getting on the phone? Maybe you prefer to get on a video call first because you are more comfortable in a chat? There is no distinct rule as to what is right, even within industries. A lot of it depends on how your business works and what you are comfortable with.

Also, remember that this may be a multi-step process. For example, with Clare Concept, most potential clients fill out my contact form and then schedule a consult call. I want to make sure that this is a project that fits in my schedule and seems like a good fit, before I waste either of our time with a call. It also allows me to provide referrals to great people I trust if I can’t work the project into my schedule.

Once you decide how people should contact you, we can work backwards with digital strategy to decide how to help move your potential customers to the point of contacting you or buying a product on your website.

Planning Your Strategy

There are a number of considerations to think about at the point of planning your strategy and will be highly dependent on your business. When you work with a strategist, they will help you iron out all the details and figure out what works best for your business, but I’ve included some major things to think about that will help you be better prepared for this conversation.

Levels of Business

Do people start with a lower priced offer and then move to a higher priced one? For example, buying a e-book before buying a larger course. Maybe they buy a one-time service before subscribing to a membership. If so, this adds another level to the digital marketing strategy as we need to move people from awareness to customer as well as trying to get customers to become repeat customers. Will there be customers who go right to that larger offer without that smaller one? If so, you’ll want to appeal to them in addition to appealing to people who are looking at your smaller offer and helping people from your smaller offer to your bigger one.

Marketing You are Comfortable With

Also, think about what type of marketing feels comfortable to you and the type of content you can produce. If you detest writing, then a blog isn’t your best bet. Does social media overwhelm you? Then it shouldn’t be your primary marketing channel. You don’t have to zero in on how you will market right away, but having some ideas of what you are comfortable with and what you aren’t will certainly help narrow that process down.

Be Realistic

Finally, think about what is realistic. The best marketing strategy is one that you can stick to. A complex and involved marketing strategy may be great and help you get a lot of traffic, but you need to be able to commit to it. I would much rather see my clients stick to a smaller plan than abandon a larger plan because they feel the larger plan will get more results. Remember, you can always add if you bring on a team or have more bandwidth. Think realistically about how much time you really have to commit to this, so that you can create a marketing strategy that works.

There are a lot of factors that go into creating a digital marketing strategy. When you work with a digital marketing strategist, they will help you through the details to create the right plan for you. However, knowing these elements of your business will help to prepare you for that conversation and make choices that will get good results. If you are ready to see how digital marketing can impact your business, let’s talk.