How do I get more customers??

Optimising your PATH TO PURCHASE

It’s a question bubbling in the minds of all business owners.

“How do I get more customers?”

If your answer is simply ‘advertising’, you’re missing about 85% of the puzzle.

Advertising is a highly effective tool for making customers aware of your brand and product – there’s no arguments here!  But (there’s a but), if you pour money into a bunch of ads without first ironing out any kinks in their path to purchase, you’ll have lost them from the start.

It’s the equivalent of investing in a super fancy display window for your shop, then putting the entrance door in a back alley next to some dumpsters within a broken neon sign. You’ll get their attention, but you won’t get them through the door.  Advertising might push your brand into a customer’s line of sight but going from looking at something to purchasing something is a complex journey that you need to draw the map for.

What is Customer Journey Mapping?

Customer Journey Mapping, or the ‘Path to Purchase’, is a handy term to describe the visual map of a customer’s journey from Point A to Point B with your business.

It includes every interaction, question, decision making process, and possible barriers a customer may experience from the start of their journey with your business, right through to purchasing, referring, and re-purchasing.

This end-to-end journey from ‘researcher’ to ‘purchaser’ might take 30 days, or it might take 30 seconds – but the map should look the same.

Your customer journey map might be a flow-chart enthusiast’s dream with colour-coordinated texters on a giant whiteboard, or it might be on a scrap piece of paper during a moment of genius while you’re out for dinner. Regardless of how it’s initially drawn, it will serve as the key to lowering the barrier to entry for your customer.

So, what does it look like?

Starting the journey  

The path to purchase should be as easy and seamless as possible for your customer to get from Point A to Point B. Not like a 90s sat nav that takes you down a dirt road, through some tollways, and then freezes.

The first step starts with how customers find and initially engage with your business. Where do they go to look? How much research do they need to do? Do you find them, or do they find you? What does the first contact look like, and how do you get them started on their journey?

Answering questions before they’re asked in the decision-making process

Put yourself in your customer’s shoes.

When you’re making a purchase decision, what would you want to know about the business, service, or product? What are the questions you would ask? Do they ship to your area? How long does it take? Have other people bought from them? What was their experience?

Pre-empt your customer’s questions and make the answers as clear-cut and accessible as possible without leading them astray from their purchase path.

Eliminate barriers and make the destination visible

Optimising your path to purchase for a customer means removing as many barriers as you can to make it a smooth journey. Some barriers might be obviously laying across the path such as having limited payment options or no digital presence. Others might be tiny cracks you didn’t notice but make for a bumpy ride, such as having your contact details buried in your website somewhere, or not making key information accessible enough. The more barriers in place, the less likely your customer will continue on their purchase path and will eventually go in search of another.

You don’t need a bunch of fancy software (or colour-coordinated texters) to draw a customer journey map - you just need to ask the right questions.  

Touch base with us to get the ball rolling!