Since I still have the “Spring is here and I must buy something” impulse. I kept looking for other website. Now that I knew I want to look professional and simple, I started the adventure from Organic Search (e.g. Google Search) on “discounted designer dress” and found this website.
The website provided 40% – 70% discounts on famous branded designer dresses and the average price was $150 – $200 after discount. Though i wanted to look professional, I was still a poor student. So I immediately filter the results from “under $100”. Not many results showed up (obviously) and only a few were interesting. I immediately selected the interesting ones, compared their original prices and confirmed that they were of great discount. I made the purchase of 2 $100 dress (original prices would be $400 – $500). The whole process only lasted for 30 mins: 28 mins spent on research + 2 mins on making the decision. They were not cheap, compared with my previous experience. However, I was contented. I also wondered why.
Customer Journey on Online Shopping (again)
As explained in my previous blog, companies use many digital marketing tools to boosting sales in customer journeys. Those tools may not be necessarily useful if you are not targeting the right customers. However, whether someone can be your target customers are also highly depend on the company size and style. Approaches of a small company in digital marketing campaigns can be very different from a larger one, even though they may sell similar products.
Google’s customer journey analytical tool allows us to take a closer look on how company size, industry and region affect the customer journey. Take online shopping in the U.S. for example, the purchase journey for small businesses starts from organic search. Then the small companies can use social and generic paid search campaign to boost interest. Since small companies are relatively unheard of, it is harder to get referrals therefore most efforts are made in emails and brand paid search. The most difficult part would be gaining brand awareness at the beginning and earning trust during the process.
However, for big companies, since they have established their brand image in general public, they can start their customer journey through display play and social media campaign to remind customer about their existence. Once the customers show interest to products, companies can use paid searches, emails and referrals to boost the interest. The most difficult part will be successfully differentiating itself from other brands and create the “call for action” (call it the impulse, or sales).
Find the right customers and excel at the online journey
After all, targeting the right segment may be the most important step. For companies with many or limited resources, it is critical to locate the right target audiences and then polish the customer journey with digital marketing tools. Yet, for both small and large companies, the last step before purchase is direct campaign. Customers still want that direct human touches. I think the next challenge will be using digitalization and data analytics to create highly customized and passionated direct campaigns within budget.
Like me wanted to use minimum money to buy the best dresses, many companies are trying to use minimum digital media budget to gain maximum impacts. After all, calculating ROI still matters.
My Internet of Everything 