The user journey a customer or potential customer takes on your website is different from their user experience. These two terms are closely related, but they are not synonymous. User experience refers to how a business’s website makes a person feel while they’re on it.
A user journey, or customer journey, is the course a customer or potential customer takes through a business’s site. This course spans from the time they first start interacting with the site through the time they become a first-time customer or a repeat customer. Therefore, having the ability to map, analyze and optimize the various user journeys on your website can have immense value for your business and your digital marketing strategy.
Why is user journey mapping so valuable to digital marketing strategies?
Let’s establish that a streamlined user journey is valuable to your business. Research shows that 74% of people can, and likely will, switch brands if they feel the purchasing process is too challenging to navigate. As a result, a poor user journey can easily lead to the loss of many potential customers and failing to meet revenue goals.
So, user journeys are valuable to businesses and understanding them has immense value for their digital marketing efforts. Enter user journey mapping. Analyzing and mapping the journey users are taking on a website can be valuable to digital marketing because:
It allows digital marketers to visualize user journeys.
There are multiple user journeys on your website, but digital marketers may have difficulty visualizing what those journeys are. In turn, visualization difficulties can make it more difficult to pinpoint where user journeys are breaking down, and that can lead to wasted digital marketing efforts.
The combination of data analytics programs like Google Analytics, HotJar or SEMRush and visualization tools like Miro, UXPressia, or even a physical or digital whiteboard can help. The analytics programs allow digital marketing teams to gather data about customer behavior on a business’s website. Then, the visualization tools allow them to map the various user journeys on a site.
It allows digital marketers to identify and address breaks in user journeys.
Once the various user journeys on your website are mapped out, it becomes much easier to see where the breaks in those journeys are occurring. Digital marketing teams can then reach out to whoever is responsible for maintaining and updating the site and ask them to fix things like:
- Broken links.
- Broken buttons.
- Missing conversion opportunities like forms.
- Dead clicks.
Digital marketers can also create targeted content that helps potential customers learn about new and improved user journey steps. They wouldn’t be able to do either without the visualization that user journey mapping offers.
It allows digital marketers to create content that supports user journeys.
Content is a key component of any user journey. Often, the first contact a potential customer has with your business is through a piece of content that appeared in their search results.
Content on a website can also help guide customers through their user journey. In addition, website content can work to keep customers motivated to buy from a business. Furthermore, content can also help motivate customers to become repeat customers.
Mapping a website’s user journeys makes it far easier for digital marketers to build content that effectively guides and motivates a business’s potential and returning customers.
Want to attract new visitors to your website and understand the user journey they’re on? BURG+CO. can help
Increasing traffic to your website plays a role in increasing conversions and bringing in new clients. However, it’s difficult to turn visitors into clients if you don’t understand what the user journeys on your site look like. Fortunately, BURG+CO. can help.
Our team has years of experience in helping businesses improve their digital presence to attract new leads and retain existing ones. If you’re looking to perform better in search engine results, attract more visitors to your site and increase your understanding of the user journeys on your site, we’re ready to talk to you to see how we can help. Contact our team today for more information about all the digital marketing services we offer or to schedule a complimentary consultation.
