What does a customer journey look like on a Web site?

Customers are essential to the existence of your business; in the world of Internet marketing, a customer journey is easier to track than many other types of marketing. With tools like Google Analytics and Google Search Console, you can get a clear picture of how a customer came to your website and how they then proceeded to make a purchase. In this blog post, let's take a look at what a customer journey can look like, and how you can extend it.

Statistics tools

With a website, you can see in fine detail how a customer came to your website, and how the customer subsequently interacted with your website. By far the most popular tool that can be used to view such data is Google Analytics. This is partly due to the link that can be made with Google Ads, or advertising within the Google Search and Display network which is used by almost every online business to some extent. Google Analytics is easy to link to your website, and can even be easily integrated with certain Content Management Systems through a plug-in. But can also be easily put in manually with a small piece of code that can be placed in the header.

Google is of course not the only option for this, there are also locally hosted options you can use for this like Matomo. However, you will probably miss the link with Google Ads. But in return you can offer more privacy to your users. So it will always be a consideration of what exactly you want to keep track of, and how you see and handle the privacy. Nowadays you should not only mention these things in a cookie report, but also explain them to your users in your privacy page.

Awareness

The first step a customer will have to take is to become aware of your existence, in most cases through a promotional channel. This can be social media, the Google search network or other advertisements and communications that you have running. Also "offline" expressions can play a role in this for your company. For example, this could be Radio, TV or a newspaper ad. On all these offline advertisements you can ensure that a customer is directed to a specific page, or landing page. This can then use a special promotion or a discount percentage as an incentive.

Awareness is a big part of the customer journey and often stands or falls with this. Without continuing to attract new customers, many businesses cannot continue to grow or exist in a reliable manner. Therefore, continuing to invest in advertising and content for various publishing methods is high on the list.

Consideration

The consideration of a potential customer is also an item that is high on the list, to win over a customer there are several factors that play into this. Your offerings or services should match what the customer desires. The website should be user-friendly and provide clear information for visitors who desire this and there are statements from previous customers to use. Think about reviews that are increasingly being looked at, and previous projects that show your company in a great light. All of these factors play into the consideration of a potential client.

So invest time and money in optimizing your website itself, meaning the information on it, the design and the technical things like functioning on any size screen for mobile. And the speed of the website which is an important pillar. Time and again, studies show that a user who has to wait a long time for the website finds 3 seconds too long already. So make sure your website is fast and put effort into the user experience.

Purchase

After a customer decides to purchase you are not quite there yet, the purchase process is also important. This is collected under the name conversion. And can take different forms depending on your website. For most, however, this will be a purchase on the website for a product or service. Or this could be filling out a quote form. In either case, this process should be streamlined, and a low barrier. It is therefore important that a shopping cart process not require 10 steps to be completed. But only consist of the much-needed, modern browsers also make this easier by remembering the customer's data and entering it for them. But still it is not recommended to have many steps for this in this process.

It is also important that you have several payment methods active that are easy and safe to use. Within the Netherlands the most popular method is IDEAL, but it is also important to support credit cards, PayPal and other payment methods that you often see in your industry.

Aftersales and loyalty

After a customer has successfully gone through the whole process, after this it is important to let a customer know the next steps as soon as possible. So either a confirmation of the order being received or a clear roadmap of what happens next. If you have a delivery time for an ordered product, communicate this clearly to the customer, and immediately provide various contact options for dealing with questions.

This puts the customer at ease and makes it clear where they stand. After delivering the product or service, you can always ask how the customer experience was. With many parties, this is also the point to ask to rate their product or service. So that this in turn can be used to convince other customers to purchase.

When the customer's journey is complete you might think that after this it is also finished, but this is not the case. After all, you now have the customer's data and if you like the product, you now have someone who to some extent has become loyal to your service. Therefore, repeat purchases are also an important factor for many companies and businesses. You do this by sending a newsletter, staying active on Social Media and when new products are launched, for example, by drawing attention to this.

Do you keep an eye on the journey a customer takes to get to you? Start now with our tips!