Your customers are the lifeline of your business. Without them, your business would not last too long. 

The challenge that you, and every marketer, faces is how to get the attention of your best potential customers and get them to take action. 

In a previous blog we discussed how you can create a marketing funnel from top to bottom. You can think of the path your potential customers take from discovery (top of the funnel) to nurturing (middle of the funnel) to closing (bottom of the funnel) as a journey. 

As a marketer you want to make this journey as seamless and enjoyable as possible for your potential customers. 

Think about it. If you are…

• …too hard to find,
• your value proposition is not evident,
• or the actual buying process is difficult to navigate…

…then you will not have many people completing the journey from the top of your funnel to the bottom. 

Your marketing efforts will suffer and you will not be able to scale your business as you envision. 

So how do you design a journey that will potential customers to paying customers?

Let’s take a look.

Determine Your Touchpoints

Your first step is to list all the ways you interact with your customers. This is particularly helpful at the top of your funnel, but it is useful to list the primary points of engagement at all levels of the funnel. 

For example, a potential customer may:

• Click through to your website from an ad on Facebook
• Or open a link to your YouTube channel that you sent via email
• Or click to your online shopping cart via social media

Envisioning these touchpoints will put you in the shoes of your potential customers. You can use these insights to make sure that however your audience interacts with your marketing channels, the experience is a positive one. 

Do Your Homework

Next, you want to make sure that you understand who are your best customers and what will motivate them to take action. This means doing some homework.

Dig into who your previous and current customers are to determine what motivated them to contact you or make a purchase. You can do this by conducting surveys or speaking to your front line staff or sales people. 

Your goal is to better understand your target audience so you can best address their needs. If you are able to illustrate that you know the pain points of your best customers and that your business has the experience and expertise to address those needs, then you will be able to get your audience to take action. 

Deliver Relevant Content

Part of being able to illustrate your capabilities is to deliver relevant marketing content. This means that the content you develop and share should be focused on the needs of your audience. 

The key here is not to solely focus on your capabilities as business. Rather you want to create a story where your audience is the star. Show them that you not only understand their struggles, but you are able to solve their problems. 

Do Not Be Afraid To Mix It Up

As you are demonstrating your value, make sure to make it interesting by mixing it up a bit. By this we mean using different types of content and in different formats. 

While it is good to develop a style that reflects you and your business, you do not want everything you do to appear cookie cutter or paint by numbers. Over time you run the risk of being boring and easily ignored. 

By changing content types and formats you are giving your audience new looks while addressing their needs. This keeps you fresh in their mind for when they are ready to take action. 

Be Prepared

When you have a potential customer ready to become a paying customer, make sure you are ready to make this transition a smooth one. This means being ready and able to address any questions or concerns. If you are processing sales online, make sure that your online shopping cart is functioning properly. If you use your website to process leads, make sure you have someone ready to answer questions. You do not have to have 24/7 coverage, but it helps to communicate with an interested customer when they can expect a response. 

Remember the goal here is to make the experience as seamless and pleasurable as possible.

The competition is fierce when it comes to getting the attention of your best potential customers and getting them to take action. For this reason, you must design a journey that will make it easy for your potential customers to find you, understand your value proposition, and easily make contact or make a purchase. Doing this will help you make your marketing efforts more effective and will allow you to grow your business!