5 Marketing Strategy Hacks - Part 5

So far, in this set of blog posts on Marketing Strategy Hacks, I have covered 5 very important topics. The first topic was Sacrifice. This is the idea that your brand needs to have a clear mission and vision. It can’t be many things to many people. Your brand needs to sacrifice so that it can position itself in the market place for success.

The second Marketing Strategy Hack topic is the brand story. You can use a brand story to create value to your offer and add consistency to your messaging across marketing channels. By adding context to your offer in the format of your brand story you can greatly improve the chances that your target audience will assign the proper value that your brand sees necessary.

My third Marketing Strategy Hack is gaining smart analysis. In this post I overview SWOT Analysis and the new Content Inc. method for growing an audience.

Post number four covered content marketing and how to prepare for the future. Your brand needs to have a content marketing niche that is directly related to your target audience and audience personas. All of these marketing strategy hacks have been leading up to number five, the customer journey.

Marketing Strategy Hacks Part 5: The Customer Journey

The customer journey used to be almost linear. It went something like this. Someone needed something and maybe they called a few stores ahead of time, and then chose which ones to shop at to find it. They were most likely influenced by a TV commercial, radio, or a billboard along the way. The customer’s previous experiences in different stores also might affect where they start as well.

Around 1990 to 1999 the customer journey was less sophisticated because there where less options. Now, there are hundreds of options to start a search and fulfill a need or desire.

Many people start off on Google and then end up on a wide variety of online channels. They might end up on YouTube, Pinterest, or a customer review website to name a few. Shoppers now use an average of 10.4 sources of content to make a purchase.

 4 out of 5 local searches on mobile devices end in a purchase. If your brand has physical stores, the exciting part is that 73 percent of those mobile searches provide sales in bricks-and-mortar stores.

The customer’s journey has also increased in the number of devises used. We now have smart phones and tablets that need content that is optimized for viewing. Speaking of mobile, 4 out of 5 local searches on mobile devices end in a purchase. If your brand has physical stores, the exciting part is that 73 percent of those mobile searches provide sales in bricks-and-mortar stores.This means optimizing your customer journey for mobile will pay off.

A Customer Journey Definition

I found a few definitions for customer journey but they seemed to be a bit wordy and complex. Here is how I describe it:

The moment a customer or prospect starts looking for a solution to their problem or desire, by moving from one place to another (online, offline, and all touchpoints) in order to select a solution that they have a level of trust towards.

Based on this definition, I will provide the parts that play a role in the customer journey.

An Omnichannel Marketing Strategy

Omnichannel marketing is an important term in 2017 and beyond. This is the case because of the customer’s journey and how they hop from one channel to the next. Omnichannel marketing is about being on all online and offline marketing channels. This is a tall order, one that does not happen overnight.

In my last post, I talked about content marketing and the need to choose one channel to as a main focus and build an audience. Omnichannel marketing does not contradict this idea but supports it. As your brand adds new channels to their marketing strategy, these new channels can help support your one big channel with your largest audience.

The reason that omnichannel marketing is important is because of the range of touchpoints that exist in the customer journey. There are hundreds of channel options or touchpoints. The next channel that your brand is not on, may lose the sale. Personally, I like the sound of my brand being visible and active on all channels. Every brand should desire this.

Organizing Your Content Types

When thinking about the customer’s journey, there are different stages that a customer or prospect may be at. For example, the person may not be ready to buy now. They many to ready to learn more or compare your offer to other offers.

Your brand needs to produce the right content for the right moments in the customer journey. I read a great article by Search Engine Land that describes the categories of customer intent:

“When customers are in the “I-Want-to-Know Moment,” they will be most responsive to information that provides an answer or solution rather than a sales page that encourages them to buy. Consider that 87 percent of consumers do research before they even set foot in a store, according to Google. This means you need to reach consumers well before they even come into contact with an associate on the sales floor.

When customers are in the “I-Want-to-Go Moment,” they will be more responsive to local search results, maps and specific directions on where something is located, rather than information about product.

When customers are in the “I-Want-to-Do Moment,” they are looking for ideas and useful information, such as tips or pointers to complete a task. Recipes, step-by-step guides and how-to videos or tutorials are some examples of content that would best serve these customers.

When customers are in the “I-Want-to-Buy Moment,” they are looking for clues on what the best deal is and how to get it. This is the stage where a coupon, offer, app that allows for a quick purchase, or even an Amazon-style one-click ordering feature would be most impactful”.

All of your content types should be addressing one customer intent. Your brand should have enough content to strategically move a customer along.

How Much Content Is Needed?

Depending on your product or service, your customer journey can get very complex. The good news is that you don’t have to equally produce content for all possible moments. The best strategy is to choose the moments that will give the most results.

Yes, you should have content for the 4 types of customer intent above, but you don’t always need to be producing content equally for every possible moment in the customer journey. That would not be realistic or strategic. Your best option is to pick 2-4 moments that your brand is really different in their solution and create more content for those moments. It’s not that you don’t have any content for the other moments at all, but that you have a strategy for the main focus of your content.

A Connected Content Strategy

The practice of content marketing is continuing to grow and be adopted by brands. Most brands know that they need to be producing content that adds value to a niche audience. Many of these brands are also creating more and more content year after year.

The increasing amount of content production is not neccicerily a bad thing, but it could become one. Some brands make a lot of content but that content is disconnected in its goals and context. Your content strategy should have one big goal with a few supporting goals. The content should be connected by one overarching theme. Inside of that one theme fits all of your subtopics that support it.

It’s not about always creating more content than the previous quarter. It is more about optimizing content for the right moment in the customer’s journey.

Your brand’s connected content strategy should then be used to meet the needs of the customer’s journey.

Marketing Strategy Hacks Part 5: Closing Thoughts

By connecting all of your bran’s content and finding the right moments in the customer’s journey you can really stand out from your competitors.

The combination of how your brand is different (positioning) with controlling your perceived value is a good start. You can use your mission and vision to develop a brand story that guides the perception of your customers.

By using content marketing you can prepare for the future and lead with valuable content. All of these actions really lead to presenting the right content at the right moment in the customer’s journey.

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