Marketing is a game of inches, and most business owners aren’t generating the kind of sales they could be if they took steps to tighten every interaction with their audience.
If you think of your collective marketing efforts as a wet sponge, do you really know how much juice is left in there that squeezing just a little firmer could extract?
Take the concept of the “customer journey”, for instance:
You and your fiercest competitor might have ten ads each—they convert equally and lead to equal sales…
But if their ads work together to take people on a satisfying journey and yours don’t, they’re going to have a more compelling customer journey (which might mean less sales for you).
In that particular example, the difference would seem minimal. A little anchor here to be referenced further down the path… a seemingly insignificant point made there to help deal with a common objection later… the list goes on…
But since marketing is a game of inches, those small differences add up faster than you can keep up with. Think of it like compound interest.
Nailing the customer journey yourself is one of the hardest things to do as a business owner. It’s difficult to remove yourself from your expertise, your years of hard work and research, and your passion. How can you possibly examine your own company with a clean slate after so many soul-crushing hours devoted to its every detail?
The answer is: You can’t. Not really. Some do it better than others, but ultimately, it’s the companies that hire the right marketers that end up thriving.
The most important thing to do if you’re trying to nail your customer journey yourself, however, is examine it and ask obvious questions:
First, you need to get a sense of what the journey looks like as is. Ask yourself (or look into) which ads people usually see first and which they usually see last. Put them in order and take them in as a singular experience.
Then, ask the questions. Is it too repetitive? Is it engaging? Are there redundancies? Are some points made too early? Too late? Could you strengthen a point made during the final sections with some supporting evidence or suggestions in the earlier sections? Could you wait until later in the journey to make an important point in order to be less threatening early on?
You’ll find that even after a relatively quick analysis, your creative juices will start to flow. You’ll start to think of ways to fine-tune your marketing efforts almost instantly (and your customers will thank you for it).
Now just imagine all of the other quick fixes (and indeed, long-term fixes) that you haven’t made or thought of that could squeeze more juice out of your marketing sponge.
That’s a good place to start when it comes to examining your journey. Keep in mind though, great marketing is powerful. “Good enough” isn’t actually good enough. Think of your favourite brands or companies and the marketing behind them. Think of the way those brands speak to your soul—you could be having the same effect on your audience.
But are you?
If you’re ready to take your sales and your customer journey to the next level, contact us today to start the conversation.