From brands to marketers to customers, how business is done is evolving. As we shared in our blog The Evolution of the Customer from the Era of Norman Rockwell to a Pixel, our increasingly digital world is driving this evolution. How? Today’s connected customers are looking for experiences that are valuable to them—as they have always done in the real world. Digitally, they search multiple touch points for the best deals and products, socially share what they discover, and expect 24/7 brand engagement. All of this leaves digital marketers scrambling to find clever solutions for pain points in an ever-changing world.
Now more than ever, customers are inundated with ads throughout their day. They click on ads from their mobile phones and shop online from their laptops. They may see ads on Netflix, hear ads on Spotify, and experience them on any of their favorite apps. Then, the next day, it starts all over again.
This inundation of ads gives the customer many options to explore as well as many journeys down frustrating internet rabbit holes. Imagine how many you’ve experienced! But what does this mean to a brand or a marketer? Opportunity. Every customer touch point with your brand is an opportunity. If you don’t deliver the value that customers are searching for they’ll quickly close the window and move on to a competitor. If you greet them with the same canned offer they’ll ignore that offer and close the window. If you do it repetitively on each visit—they’ll move on.
“70% OF BUYING EXPERIENCES ARE BASED ON HOW THE CUSTOMER FEELS THEY ARE BEING TREATED.” —McKinsey
Brands should interact with customers visiting their site with common sense. An all too familiar experience that defines this is the generic “Join Our Newsletter!” pop-up that appears on a brand’s site, reappears throughout your browsing experience, and even worse still appears after you’ve signed up for the newsletter.
This is akin to an aisle of fragrance spritzers in department stores who try to douse you with fragrances while you are simply trying to get to the department where you want to buy socks.
“OMNICHANNEL SHOPPERS HAVE A 30% HIGHER LIFETIME VALUE THAN THOSE WHO SHOP USING ONLY ONE CHANNEL.” –Google
Your customers, more than likely, visit your brand via multiple channels and campaigns. It’s crucial to understand their customer journey in order to create value for them.
A customer journey could be that they saw your ad on Facebook and clicked through to your site. Maybe they looked at a specific product—the same one featured in your ad (Product X). Then, mysteriously, they bounced. But later they saw your sponsored post on Instagram and again clicked through to your site to view Product X only to bounce again. If you knew that this was a typical customer journey, knew the channels, campaign and product that lead them to you how would you logically react to them? Hopefully not with a Newsletter pop-up! Make them an offer on Product X.
