The Why Behind Cross-Device Customer Journey Mapping

With the amount of technology we have at our fingertips today, it becomes harder and harder to track how a customer ended up buying your product. Sure, a customer may end up purchasing online, but maybe they first saw your product advertised on television, or they visited your retail location and ended up deciding to buy online because of free shipping. One telling fact: only 2% of customers buy on their first visit to a website.

The path to purchase isn’t straight and narrow, it’s now a winding path; however, companies can use their own data to develop a customer journey map that leads customers back to purchase. Remember the three C’s: create, capture, and calibrate.

First, create cross-device consistency. 67% of consumers move between devices when they’re shopping online, and 98% of those consumers switch between devices in a single day, such as moving from a smartphone to a laptop or tablet. Tailor your e-commerce site to different devices; two out of three smartphone users say that a mobile-friendly site makes them more likely to buy a company’s product or service, and 74% say it makes them more likely to return to the site.

Next, capture their attention fast- and keep it. If your site takes too long to load, it doesn’t matter how beautiful your website is or how well your product works. Today’s typical consumer can only pay attention for eight seconds (compared to the goldfish, which can pay attention for a whopping nine seconds). Customers prefer a 0.1 second response time for the feeling of an instantaneous response; a one second response time still keeps the user’s flow of thought and lets them feel in control, but a 1-5 second response leads your readers to become distracted and feel like they’re at the mercy of the device.

Finally, calibrate for customer aperture. Aperture refers to catching the customer at the right time and in the right mood, and it’s different for each customer. Some variables of aperture include:

•  Purchaser’s location

•  Purchaser’s attitude or state of mind

•   Purchaser’s goal

•  Amount of time they have at the moment

•  Whether it’s spontaneous or planner purchasing

Make shopping personal for your customer by utilizing real-time data and marketing techniques. Real-time marketing, which means systematically responding to your customers in the moment, increases conversion rates by an average of 26%.

It’s a long and winding customer journey, but by using the three C’s, you can better plan your digital marketing strategies to lead your customers to the purchase at the end of the path.

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