How do you impact your customer journey online? And how do you know where to look to make this impact?
Online strategy is all about creating an experience for your customer. So no matter where your customer lands on your customer journey, you are in control of that piece of the puzzle and you can make a positive impact.
We want to make a positive impact because then your online customer tells all their friends about the amazing experience they had. And – poof – more customers.
Over the next four weeks, I’m going to break down the channels of impact that you can really start to pay attention to and start to make a difference in customer experience.
Here are all the channels, traditional and digital, that can influence potential customers:
- interest and awareness
- findability
- reputation
- conversion
- advocacy
Today, we’re going to talk about the first step in the journey, interest and awareness.
Before we dive in, I want to say that this all works really well when you have a really strong message on your website and you are active on your website. Websites are never ‘done,’ but all of this online effort works better if you have a website that’s easy to navigate, really clear on your offering and speaks to the outcome of working with you.
Interest and awareness is really just getting your audience excited about your products or services. You will post to your social platforms, engage with any comments or shares, and really start to build that expert level with your audience.
You get to be creative with your Facebook and Instagram advertising – and create a real buzz around your product or service.
Television and radio ads and billboards aren’t going away completely, but they’re being supplemented by digital advertising.
And that’s where I come in.
Digital advertising (for interest and awareness) are things like:
- online advertising
- email marketing
- SMS (or text) marketing
- YouTube video ads
These are all ways to create interest and awareness with your online products or services.
Now let’s break them down.
Online advertising
Use your social platforms to create customized Facebook advertising campaigns. Remember, you are just creating awareness and interest here, you’re not exactly selling at this point. So create an ad that speaks to the outcome of what you provide.
Email marketing
This is an opportunity to let your those people on your email list know what you’re up to – the different things that might interest them or that they need to be aware of. Email marketing is simplified now with programs such as Mailchimp and ActiveCampaign. There’s an extensive list of the email marketing options (thanks to HubSpot) here.
Text marketing
Texting has one of the best engagement rates of any of the online marketing mediums. Emails (unfortunately) can sit unread for days, phone calls can go unanswered, but text messages are almost always read immediately after they’re sent, according to Neil Patel.
And remember, you can always use a texting service to help you manage it all.
YouTube video ads
YouTube ads are those you see before you watch a video on whatever you’re searching for. It’s a very effective way to advertise to the masses.
Google is the biggest search engine, followed closely by YouTube (which Google owns). See how interconnected it all is?
And the ads that play on YouTube are always tailored to your audience’s interests. So it’s very niche – and it’s always very specific advertising.
Next week I’m going to speak about findability and reputation, which is the search piece of the puzzle.
Donita Fowler is an online marketer who supports entrepreneurs in their quest to be the boss of their online platforms.
Donita is a Troy Media Thought Leader. Why aren’t you?
The views, opinions and positions expressed by columnists and contributors are the author’s alone. They do not inherently or expressly reflect the views, opinions and/or positions of our publication.
