So let’s talk about something that I like to call the customer journey. If you do your marketing, you always have to have the customer journey in mind. Meaning, how are they going to interact with you and your marketing?
And you have to start at the end.
Where to Reach Your Target Audience
So let’s take the automotive example. It’s a very simple one. It’s very applicable.
You want to increase your sales. You’re an automotive salesperson. You want to sell more cars. Now you need to know who your clientele is. If your clientele are people in their 20s and you want them to buy a car, you’re not going to get them on the TV commercials.
They are streaming. They’re not on TV. That money is wasted.
Now, let’s shift gears to another example: farmers. These hard working folks aren’t typically glued to their screens like the younger crowd. Instead, you’re more likely to catch them at industry-specific events like farming trade shows. These gatherings serve as gold mines for connecting with your audience face-to-face. Set up a booth on the trade show floor, where you can chat one-on-one with farmers, showcase your offerings, and demonstrate your products or services.
By pinpointing where they spend their time, tailoring your approach accordingly, and understanding these unique nuances of your target audience’s behavior you can create a winning marketing strategy.
Getting Their Attention Through Relevant Content
Ever wondered where to cast your marketing net in the vast sea of online platforms? If you’re delving into B2B territory, chances are LinkedIn is your playground for reaching potential clients.
So you have to figure out where you are going to get your customer’s attention? it’s crucial to ask yourself:
- Where are they interacting?
- How are you going to get their attention?
And that is through relevant content, right?
If you take out an ad in a magazine, what is the headline? What is the picture? So if you do that on social media, the same thing applies here.
What is the headline? What is the picture?
So most likely it is someone for the car dealership in the model that you’re trying to sell to that target audience with fun features, with enjoying the car that will grab the attention of that individual. Now what does the customer do? What do they do? So you have to always tell your customer the action that you want them to take. So again, car dealerships, you want to sell them a car, here’s the car, you grab their attention within two to three seconds. Now you tell them, visit our website to see our inventory, call us, click this link, and so on, right?
Now the next important thing is… You won’t believe this, but we put out a print ad in a magazine with a phone number and the phone number went to no one.
Guiding Customers Towards Desired Action
Always make sure that when the customer takes that desired action, it actually works.
If it goes to the landing page. The landing page works. The phone number works. The website works. The lead gen form works.
And it is yet again, it needs to be relevant information.
Your landing page should not only load promptly but also provide relevant and visually appealing content. If your website looks like it’s made back in 1993 when your customer wasn’t even alive yet, you’re going to lose them. If the lead gen form is too complicated, you’re going to lose them. If the phone number doesn’t work, you get it, they’re going to lose them.
So now in this world of distraction or inability to make a decision right away, there’s this thing called retargeting.
Retargeting: What is it and How to Use It?
So how do you keep the conversation going with potential customers once they’ve shown interest but haven’t quite sealed the deal? How do you retarget them?
If you are unsure what retargeting is, picture this: you go on a website, let’s say Nordstrom, you pick those shoes, you put them in your basket, or you just look at them. Later on, you’re just doing your taxes and there is an ad with the exact shoes making you come back. Or it gets an email to your email account saying, ready to check out yet? That’s called retargeting.
It’s easy, you can do it, but it costs money.
So again, how do you engage them again? A lot of times, the purchase cycle, the decision-making cycle is longer. For a pair of sneakers, it’s much quicker. You can probably get them to click and buy them right there. If it’s a car that’s a commodity you don’t get all the time, it might be longer. So you have to think of what retargeting strategy is right for you.
Google retargeting, with its timely pop-ups offering enticing deals, might be your go-to for immediate purchases, especially for items with lower price margins. On the flip side, for high-value items like cars, a more personalized and creative approach—think newsletters, social media engagement, or even community events—might be the ticket to success.
In my industry, sometimes it takes 8 to 10 times before someone makes a decision. So how are you doing that?
In essence, retargeting isn’t just about reeling customers back in—it is about putting yourself in the customer’s shoes.
Ensuring A Seamless Customer Journey
Success in marketing hinges are more than just dazzling visuals and catchy slogans—it’s about understanding, anticipating, and seamlessly facilitating every step of the customer journey.
Did you manage to captivate their interest? Did you meet them on platforms where they’re most active? Did you clearly communicate the desired action? Was the content they encountered post-engagement still in alignment with their interests and needs? When they took the action, was the content still relevant?
If you’re advertising a car and suddenly redirecting them to a different section, you risk losing their interest. And once they’re ready to take action, it’s crucial to ensure there’s someone available to assist them. So keeping these factors in mind and prioritizing a seamless customer experience is imperative for a successful marketing campaign. You can make the most beautiful printout, you can make the most beautiful digital marketing campaign, but when the customer wants to take that action and there is no lead follow-up, there’s no one on the sales team helping that customer, then it’s all for nothing.
