How to Market to Customer Expectations in 2023
Digital Marketing
Jan 30 2023
There are some notable marketing challenges on the horizon. One of the challenges waiting for digital marketers in 2023 is meeting customers’ growing expectations for a seamless, nearly perfect experience with the brands online.
You can improve your opportunities in the market by meeting those expectations — but first, you have to know what to expect. Here are a few ideas to consider.
Create a Customer Journey Map for a Cohesive Customer Experience
A customer journey map shows you each resource a customer comes into contact with during their experience with your brand. Creating a customer journey map gives you an opportunity to see where customers may need more support.
You can create customer journey maps with several tools, including (but not limited to) Excel sheets, diagrams, infographics, or custom illustrations. Whichever layout or format (or template) you choose, make sure to list every point of interaction your customers could have with you when interacting with your company.
When starting the process, follow these general guidelines:
1. Make different buyer personas with clear objectives.
2. Choose the target customer from those personas.
3. Map out all the touchpoints with your customers and brand. You can call these “stages.”
4. Map out what actions customers might make at each touchpoint.
5. Analyze if there are parts of the customer journey that need additional support and if you have the right tools to provide it.
6. Consider customer data and feedback to identify pain points.
7. Take action to streamline the customers’ journey, adding support where it’s needed to simplify customer conversion.
Leverage Voice Search as an SEO Tool
According to an eMarketer survey, around 40% of digital users in America use voice search. Despite that, voice search isn’t necessarily the first thing people think about when putting together their marketing strategies. But in 2023, consider voice search a must-have in your marketing strategy to make it easier for potential customers to learn about your business.
When people try to find out more about your company, they’re likely to use the voice search function (most notably on Google) to find the information they’re looking for. They may ask for your company’s open hours or phone number, a customer service email address, or other information.
Be sure to update that information on your Google Business Listing for the New Year. Think about other places people search for information, too, like Bing and Safari, and update your information to make it freely available. This smoothes out the customer experience, giving them need-to-know info just a few seconds after they make the request.
Improving User Experiences Across Devices
Users will also want to see a better flow of information across their devices so they feel as though their shopping experiences are streamlined. That may mean taking some time with cross-device ID targeting and getting extremely clear on who’s interacting with your business. You also want to consider optimizing images on your website and being sure your customers can easily find the information they need.
Since customers want consistency when shopping, focus your digital strategies on at least three systems: tablets, desktop computers, and mobile devices. Make sure your website opens on each of those without extensive delays for a better visual experience. Make appropriate optimizations so your site appears correctly on each device.
Talk to current customers to determine where improvements are needed. Simple customer surveys are a good way to discover if the front page is loading too slowly, or perhaps the checkout process has too many steps. Once you know, you can make corrections from there.
The focus then shifts to getting your ads to target the same user in the same way across all three device options. You want them to continue to see the items they were looking for repeatedly, since that may entice them to take a second look.
When someone is ready to buy or take the next step, the process needs to be intuitive and error-free for seamless conversion. Have your chatbot or customer service agent set up in an easily accessible area and ready to help in case things go awry.
In 2023, meeting customer expectations requires you to be ahead of the curve by providing a seamless experience from the moment customers see your brand to the moment they walk away with a product. Taking a few of these steps can help you improve your likelihood of retaining customers and get them talking about how positive their interactions with your business were.
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