April 26, 2023
Digital Customer Journey: What You Need To Know
Every customer that ends up making a purchase from your website has to have found it somehow. Whether they saw an advertisement on social media, googled your niche, or followed a link from your newsletter to find you truly matters. By understanding and analyzing your customers’ journeys to your website, you’ll be able to better optimize your digital marketing strategy.
What is a digital customer journey?
A digital customer journey is the path of online interactions a user has with a company or business online. It can start from the initial awareness of the product, brand, or company, and end with the final purchase of the product or service.
Along this journey, a customer may come across your business's social media pages, website, email marketing, or mobile app. But the digital journey also includes touchpoints like your company’s customer service channels, online review platforms featuring your brand, or search engines helping people find your products.
A classic digital journey may occur as follows: a customer discovers a product through a social media ad, visits the brand’s website, and completes the purchase process online. Another might be that the customer receives promotional emails and notifications from a brand they were recommended by a friend. The personalized recommendations made by the brand lead to a seamless online purchase by following an email link.
By optimizing the connections between these touchpoints, you can help provide customers with a seamless experience across all channels.
What are the stages of a digital customer journey?
Let’s say you’re planning to buy new shoes online. Here’s what the digital customer journey might look like for you:
1. Awareness
After you realize that you’re in need of some new sneakers, you become aware of a new brand generating buzz online for receiving really great reviews. You may see this brand highlighted in magazines or review platforms. Soon enough, you view a targeted ad on your social media channel for a pair of sneakers from the brand.
2. Consideration
After following the ad, you complete some research about the shoes, their features, and their materials. In this stage, you learn more about the product, its price, and its availability.
3. Decision
You’ve done some serious contemplation and decided these are the shoes for you. The results are in, and you want the new sneakers.
4. Purchase
By providing your payment and shipping information to the brand’s website, you order the shoes to your home.
5. Post-purchase
After receiving the shoes, you leave a review on the website about your experience. You may decide to follow the brand on social media, sign up for email newsletters, or even re-purchase the sneakers later on. If there are any issues, you may seek the help of customer support.
How is the customer’s journey related to my website?
Whether your business strictly runs e-commerce or is online in person, your website is still a crucial part of the digital customer journey. It’s the place that represents your brand on the internet!
Customers will browse your website for more information about the products and services that the business offers. Even if the customer doesn’t make a purchase straight away, they may still sign up for your newsletter, follow you on social media, or form a preliminary opinion about the brand’s image.
Why is the digital customer journey important?
The digital customer journey is crucial for any business that wants to succeed online. By understanding and optimizing each stage of the customer journey, businesses can create a seamless and positive experience for their customers, increase engagement, and drive more sales.
A well-designed and optimized website is essential for this process, as it can serve as a central touchpoint for customers throughout their journey. Customers expect a seamless and personalized experience, and if they encounter obstacles or frustrations during their journey, they are likely to abandon the process and turn to a competitor.
By investing in your website and the digital customer journey, you can differentiate your business, build customer loyalty, and ultimately drive growth and success in the digital marketplace.
Why you should consider the digital customer’s journey
In addition to creating a seamless customer experience and increasing engagement, optimizing the digital customer journey can also provide valuable data and insights for your business.
By tracking customer behavior and interactions throughout the journey, you can gain insights into their preferences, pain points, and purchase behavior. This data can help you better understand your customers, identify areas for improvement, and make informed business decisions that can drive growth and success.
A well-designed and optimized website can also help you to build brand awareness and reach new customers through search engines, social media, and other online channels. Don't underestimate the power of your website and the digital customer journey– it's an essential tool for any business that wants to succeed in today's digital marketplace.