Customer journey mapping is a well-established technique for insight-forward businesses – and content continues to be key to moving consumers in the right direction
Finding smart ways of nudging consumers towards parting with their hard-earned cash without bludgeoning them with desperate marketing propaganda is no easy task.
Enter that well-known velvet-gloved iron fist of the marketing arena: content.
Content influences when customers make purchases and how enthusiastically they engage with your brand before, during and after the conversion process. It draws potential consumers in with its personable charms, then entices those on the fence over into the realm of enthusiastic purchases and brand loyalty.
Pre-conversion
The pre-purchase stage is a murky one, with lots of potential forks in the road where consumers may gravitate towards other brands or lose interest entirely.
Content provides a link between the hazy recognition that a purchase is necessary and the concrete decision to buy a product or service. Tailoring content to your audience is a subtle yet effective way of coaxing them into the purchasing funnel and starting the conversion process.
FCSI offers an example of a website using content to point its users in a profitable direction. Foodservice consultants regularly make highly specialised purchases across a range of areas, from interior design to waste management – as such, the website pumps out product reviews to provide for the needs of these cuisine connoisseurs. The consultants benefit from regular updates on cutting-edge products and manufacturers watch the profits stack up.
If you’re not using content to suck prospective purchasers into your conversion funnel, don’t expect it to see much action.
Mid-conversion
So you’ve managed to sufficiently intrigue using ultra-personalised content – the consumer is on the verge of making a purchase. How do you close the deal?
The answer is more content. Nailing down this stage in the journey revolves around how content is presented as much as what’s being produced.
Certain formats are proven to work better than others when finalising a conversion. Research suggests that video, for example, can boost buying intent by 97% when used to publicise a brand or product.
If you struggle with lots of users teetering on the edge of a purchase, boosting content diversity could be the solution. A tool like Content Cloud may be just the ticket – with hundreds of creators on hand, ready to be commissioned, it can provide a handy boost to ailing content campaigns.
Post-conversion
Think your content conquest is complete just because it’s helped you close a deal? Think again!
Post-purchase interaction is essential for building up long-term relationships. From a content perspective, this may be as simple as a confirmation email. It can, however, go much further, with customer feedback one highly efficient way of building relationships and obtaining free brand publicity.
This, more than any other marketing method, is the best way to pull in publicity for your products and services. 88% of consumers say they trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations, customers spend 31% more when a business has excellent reviews and even poor feedback is better than none, with 52% of software product users claiming they trust a product more if it has a few negative reviews.
Abandon introversion, embrace conversion
Used wisely, content can be the overarching feature bending customer journeys into a self-fulfilling cycle. It begins at the start of the funnel by narrowing down purchasing intentions, continues in the middle by tipping wavering consumers towards a purchase, and ends by cementing long-term loyalty.
Take the content-paved path to customer journeys and watch the clients come flocking in.
