So, we have spent the last few weeks discussing Digital PR and what it is, how to truly own your owned channels, how to push traffic to your site via social activity, and how to audit your website and see how it’s performing in terms of google.
But what happens once your potential consumer arrives at your website? Well, that comes down to the state they are in. So, let’s explore some of these.
- They are ready to buy! Well, this is the dream of course. They have done their research and found you online via organic search, some PR coverage/articles they have read online, a paid google ad, your social media channel, or an influencer’s content piece with a link in bio to your site (wow… so many ways to connect!!), and you offer them the perfect solution to their need. You have an excellent customer experience to offer and a well-designed journey, and they naturally convert to a sale. Huzzah!!
- They spend minor seconds on your site and bounce off after looking at the first page! Not the dream, but we can’t please everyone. You simply didn’t offer what they were looking for and the referral channel didn’t deliver what it promised. It happens, and that’s fine.
- They spend a few minutes on your site, but still pop off! This is quite possibly the least ideal scenario. This may mean that your site had the potential to deliver on what they were looking for, but it just didn’t quite hit the mark in terms of the content and offering. This is where bounce rates and time spent on your site, which can easily be garnered from your website’s back end google analytics, can tell quite an interesting story, and the pages they visited will also tell you what you may need to look at improving.
- They spent a long time on your site, seemed to like the content, and bookmarked it for future reference because they know they will be back, but they just weren’t ready to buy….Ok, that was a mouthful and I’m pretty sure I could have said this better, but we digress. Bear with me. So, in essence, these are the potential customers that are exceptionally valuable, and you really do need to keep them warm and stay in touch with them! You are, after all, at the beginning of what can be a flourishing lifelong relationship (ok, maybe that’s a stretch, but you get what I’m saying…).
For the sake of this specific blog post, let’s focus on group 4… although, to be fair, this certainly applies to group 1 and 3 too. Forget 2’s. Tire kickers….
If your potential customer has arrived at your site and you’ve kept them there, hats off to you and your content team for creating a compelling experience and information that has kept them engaged and happy to learn more about you!
Given they seem to be engaged with your brand, but are not quite ready to buy, how can you ensure that you don’t lose them down the track, and they do eventually turn into a customer? And this is a really dangerous territory to be in, when you think about it. Here is an example. Let’s pretend that you sell heaters, and the range provides excellent value for money. You have written blogs posts on your site about how to find the best heater for your house, how to ensure the safety of your family, what is the best way to keep heaters economical through winter, etc etc. The customer has arrived at your site after reading a similar article in a media outlet about the best heaters to buy this winter with a link to your site, and they are loving the content…. But the sun is out today and it’s not quite cold enough, so they’re not sure if they really need it yet. If they leave your site, move on to other things, days go by, it’s highly likely they may forget about you. And here’s the kicker. The weather turns, it’s absolutely freezing out there, and heaters are top of mind for many. Your competitor has decided to carry out an aggressive look-alike social media ad campaign (meaning they will target your customers because they look like theirs on their social channels!), and in this group happens to be the avid reader and potential customer that was really interested in you just a few days ago…. And guess what… this person was really really cold that day, saw the ad, thought it was you (or not, let’s be honest, they were just wanting heat immediately), and BOOM, your competitor got the sale even through you did all the hard work to educate and prime them for a sale. ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! Indeed.
So, what do we do to ensure this doesn’t happen again? There are many ways to circumvent this situation, but we’re going to stick to a certain area in this blog which encompasses CRMs (customer relationship management tools), and the funnel, which are designed to continue nurturing your potential customer long after they made their initial visit and invested time on your website.
- What are CRMs? In a nutshell, these are database management systems that can be basic (such as the one we use called Active Campaign) all the way to the ultra-sophisticated (such Hubspot) based on the needs, and the budget your company has access to.
- What do I do once I have one? When you have made the decision on which one is the right one for you, it’s about having the right training on how to best use it, and quite simply ensuring it is linked to the back end of your site and is integrated well.
- What happens on my site? When you shop, or enquire about a service online, oftentimes you will see “join our mailing list and get 10% off your first purchase” or “join our mailing list and access our easy 1-2-3 guide on keeping warm this winter” (probably not the second one, but it’s really really cold in Sydney today….). you get it though, right? Effectively, we want to incentivise the potential customer to join our database with their email address. You can ask for more info, but you will have to provide a lot more value in order to achieve this. Remember, you really don’t have a relationship with them yet, so you can only ask for so much!
- What’s the funnel? Great news, they have signed up to your database, but what do you do now? Simply put, this is your digital sales funnel. It can become quite sophisticated in its approach based on their ensuing behaviours but can also be very simple and used as a tool to stay in touch, provide special offers, and push them via EDMs back to your website to convert into a sale. You might choose to send them a welcome note when they first sign up and offer them a discount as a thank you. Next, you might want to send them the 7 ways our ancestors kept warm before heaters were invented…. And lordy, how lucky we are we don’t live in that time, and oh, we have a sale on tonight, so get your best heater in town right here on our website…. Ok, enough with the heaters already. But you get my drift.
I don’t want to bore you with anymore heater talk, but you can see now that with a clear and regular content plan for your database and funnel, you can keep your potential customer engaged, offer them exclusive deals, and convert them into a buyer and brand fan.
But if all of this is overwhelming, and you don’t know where to start with your Digital PR campaign, hit us up and we’ll be happy to help and point you in the right direction!
Yours warmly (see what I did there…),
Agent Sharon
