Mapping the Customer Journey on Your Website

The Customer Journey refers to the path your customers take as they go through the buying process. Your website is just one step on that path and understanding your customer’s journey can make all the difference when it comes to having a website that actually converts and makes sales.

The Customer Journey can be broken down into 5 steps:

Awareness - when your customer first becomes aware of you. This could happen in any number of places, on or offline. Maybe you were mentioned in a conversation, maybe your Google ad was noticed, maybe you popped up on a Social Media feed…

Consideration - when your customer starts to think about whether to use your services or buy your product. He or she may decide to follow you on social media for while, or they might check out your website. This is where your website and things like lead-magnets can make a difference as people sign up to your newsletter to continue to learn more about you.

Decision-making - this is when your customer decides to buy from you.

Delivery - think about the experience your customer has when he or she buys from you. Your onboarding process for example, or how you actually deliver your service or product…these are crucial steps in the Customer Journey, because that journey doesn’t end once the customer has bought from you

Loyalty and advocacy - this is the ultimate goal for you as service provider. You want to create loyal customers who rave about you to everyone else.

When your customer arrives on your website, the goal is to provide them with the right info at the right time. This means structuring your web pages in a way that guides them through that process. Don’t solely focus on the ‘buy now’ end goal, put the emphasis on guiding them step by step.

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So how does this work in practice?

Usually your customer would be at the Consideration stage when they land on your website. They have heard about you somewhere else, or have seen your ads or social media content and they decide to take the next step. So how do you guide them along the next phase of the journey?

An example would be to use your homepage as a funnel or roadmap, from where people can decide which direction to take. According to Nifty Marketing, 76% of businesses are still using their homepages as a landing page, in other words, a Sales Page. That means they are directing ad campaigns or social media campaigns to their homepage, in the hope of make sales, rather than to a Sales Page or Landing page. I prefer to advocate Homepages as somewhere to introduce your audience to your brand and get them to continue on to other pages on your site, to explore your products and services.

Your About page is often the second most-visited page on your site - this is where people go to learn more about you and, crucially, how you can help them.

Your Services or Sales Pages: this is where decisions are made. Customers may return several times to this page before deciding whether to buy or not.

Your Blog or Resources page: I believe this is possibly the most important page on your website. This is where you get to build your authority, create more awareness and build trust with your audience. It’s also where you get to share your knowledge and expertise with Google and other search engines who can pick up your content.

FAQ page - this is also where customers can go during the Consideration stage of their journey. Use this page to answer all the questions your customers ask you via email or on discovery calls. Be helpful, transparent and comfort your customers in the knowledge that you can help them.

Contact page - where customers can go if they still have questions.

Each page should have its own call to action, guiding your audience to the next step before they decide to buy/set up a consultation call or whatever your end goal is. This means that no matter on which page your customer lands when they come to your website (not everyone lands on your homepage), they are directed to the next logical step on their journey.

What if they are not yet ready to buy when they land on my website? How do I get them back?

This is where your email marketing comes into play. If your customer peruses your website but is not quite ready to buy from you, if you can entice them into giving you their email address, you can keep them in your funnel, or on their Customer Journey. By getting their email address, you can continue the conversation or at least continue to provide value via your newsletter so that they can continue to consider your services. You can use a newsletter and topic-specific emails to people who may have downloaded a particular lead-magnet or freebie on your website. You can read more about email marketing here.

What about the last steps in the Customer Journey - delivery and loyalty?

Obviously once a customer decides to buy, they are on the next step of their Customer Journey. This is where you really get to shine. You take them from your beautiful website to the joy of working with you or buying your product. You must provide an exceptional service (smooth, clear onboarding or perhaps beautiful gift-wrapping of a physical product, a personal note to go with it etc). Look for ways to enhance the experience for your customers as much as possible so that they are delighted with your business and want to do business with you again. And not only, that, you want them to be so delighted with your service that they tell everyone about you through testimonials, positive reviews on Google, Facebook, LinkedIn or wherever they hang out online - because that is where other customers like them hang out too. This is the Advocacy piece of the Customer Journey. And this starts the whole process over again…other potential customers hear about you (Awareness), go to your website (Consideration) and so on.

When you keep this cycle or Customer Journey in mind, it makes helps you to see where your website sits in the mix and how to plan it in such a way that it takes your customer on the next step of their journey.

If you’ve got questions, please put them in the comments below, I’d be delighted to help.