Once upon a time, business owners didn’t put much thought into the customer journey. It was all about getting the word out about what the business offered, with little attention paid to how the customer learned about the business, what their experience was like at various touchpoints, and how those combined experiences affected the customer’s overall journey toward conversion.
That has changed. Today, we understand that every single touchpoint between a lead and a brand has a cumulative effect on whether they’ll convert into a customer or go elsewhere. Business owners must understand the customer journey so they can make the necessary adjustments and improve the chances that a lead will become a customer rather than defecting to a competitor.
Conversion analytics play a central role in this process.
Conversion analytics are exactly what they sound like – data surrounding customer conversion rates. This information is based on conversion tracking, which Sprout Social defines as “when a brand monitors the actions consumers take toward the completion of a business goal”. You might be more familiar with the more general term data analytics, of which conversion analytics is a subset. So, it’s not just transforming from a customer to a lead but can include a wide range of goals and actions, such as:
Every brand has a customer experience that’s cobbled together from multiple touchpoints, brand perceptions, pain points, and challenges. By tracking these various points, you can take conscious action to remove hurdles, improve the overall experience, and increase the likelihood that your customer will take the desired action.
One of the most important benefits of conversion analytics is that they help you get to know your customers’ needs better. With a full understanding of their requirements, you can offer better solutions. Often, it’s not your product or service that the customer wants, but the solution to a problem they’re facing. It’s not a software suite they need, but the ability to save time or streamline their schedule, for instance.
Customer needs are based on pain points – things they’re trying to achieve but can’t. If you don’t understand those pain points, then chances are good that your solution isn’t all that it could be, and that your overall customer journey is less than ideal.
With conversion analytics, you can better understand those pain points and then tailor your product or service better. You can also market your solution based on benefits not features, which tells customers just how you can help them overcome their challenges.
What’s the best metric by which to judge a business’s success? Hint: it’s not revenue. That’s a superficial result and doesn’t tell the whole story. Instead, it’s customer satisfaction. The businesses that deliver the best customer satisfaction are truly the most successful, regardless of how much profit they might earn.
Why is that? Satisfied customers will come back time and again. They’re also more likely to recommend the product or service to others, eventually becoming brand evangelists. Conversion analytics can give you a glimpse into how satisfied your customers are and what you need to do to bump those numbers up.
Today, no business can succeed by operating only a single channel. Even if you have just a single brick-and-mortar location, chances are good that you’re active on social media or that you have a website where potential customers can at least learn more about you. However, not all the channels you use are as effective as they could be in funneling customers toward conversion.
Conversion analytics can help you define how effective each channel is and then determine what you can do to change the situation. For instance, boosting posts on Facebook could be just what you need to drive targeted traffic to your website to increase its conversion rate.
Not that long ago, businesses marketed their products and services to every customer in the same way. There was no differentiation, no personalization. That doesn’t work today. Each customer wants (and deserves) to have their unique journey recognized.
While you might sell the same product or service to every customer, they come to you from different backgrounds, driven by different needs, and converted by different methods. Personalization is a critical element in effective marketing and conversion analytics can help you analyze customer data and deliver the personalized experience your customers expect.
No business exists in a vacuum. No matter how small your niche might be, you’re not alone. Your industry is affected by a wide range of factors, from competitors to emerging best practices, industry rules, government regulations, changing consumer perceptions, and more. If you cannot adjust to those changes, you’ll eventually fail.
Conversion analytics can help you identify important changes you need to make by monitoring customer feedback and sentiment, competitor actions, and sales trends. It’s all part of staying up to date and ensuring that you remain relevant within your industry.
Conversion analytics provide you with critical data to inform your decision-making process, the development of new offerings, and even how you market your products and services. Unfortunately, gaining access to some of this data can be difficult. Smith.ai can help.
Our virtual receptionists can ensure that your phones are answered 24 hours a day, boosting customer satisfaction. However, we also offer additional solutions, such as call intelligence and metadata, call recordings and transcriptions, and email and SMS follow-up, all of which are critical to understanding your customer journey, personalizing the customer experience, and boosting conversion across the board.
To learn more, schedule a consultation or reach out to hello@smith.ai.