When it comes to growing your eCommerce business, you know that you need to stand out from your competition. 

Pushing for growth, you’ve invested in SEO (Search Engine Optimisation), paid for Google ads or even used Featured Snippets to claim your spot on the first page of Google. 

But there’s just one problem. 

You aren’t getting the results you expected when you invested. Your click-through rates are low, your bounce rate could do with improvement and you’re not achieving the sales that you are working so hard towards. 

The truth is, focusing on SEO will help your business become more visible online and boost your chances of generating sales. But it doesn’t necessarily mean you will get loads of enquiries. 

If you haven’t focused on the buyer’s journey, considered your customer expectations or optimised user experience, your customers will go elsewhere. 

So, what is the buyer’s journey? What is user experience? And how can you use them to generate more enquiries and sales, get a better return on your sales and marketing investment and stand out in a crowded market? 

In this blog, we will walk you through the basics and explain how KDM Digital can deliver on the buyer’s journey and improve the user experience. 

What is the buyer journey? 

If you’ve ever made a purchase online, you’ll know that you don’t decide to make a purchase on a whim. You’ll take your time to research the options available and evaluate them before you make a decision and click that enquire or buy button. 

This process is called the buyer’s journey and involves three key stages. 

1. Awareness:You realise that you have a problem they need to solve.
2. Consideration: You start to research how you can solve this problem and weigh up the various options available.
3. Decision: You evaluate the options available, narrow down your choices and make a purchase.

his same process applies to all purchases made both online and in person. 

Why does the buyer’s journey matter? 

If you can understand the buyer’s journey, you can understand what challenges your customers or clients are facing, overcome their objections, target their needs and create a better overall user experience (UX). 

In the words of Forbes, user experience is; “…the overall experience of a person when using a product (such as a website), specifically referring to how easy or pleasing the product is to use. Putting an emphasis on user experience will not only benefit your customers but will consequently deliver results for your company.” 

With both the buyer’s journey and UX (user experience) in mind, you can tailor your service, product or digital marketing campaigns to better meet the needs of your unique customers,  demonstrate your value and make it more likely you’ll generate enquiries and the revenue your business deserves. 

This also works wonders for your brand as a whole, improving how your customers perceive your brand, boosting engagement, loyalty and trust, and making it more likely you’ll see a difference to your bottom line.

How does user experience help generate more sales or enquiries? 

When you focus on user experience, you’re ensuring that your customer enjoys their interaction with your brand or company, whether on your website or in-person. 

Let’s give you a quick real-life example to demonstrate what we mean. 

Imagine that you’re going shopping for a new pair of shoes so decide to visit your local high street shoe shop. If you feel comfortable inside the shop, receive excellent customer service, feel that the brand speaks your values and can easily see the footwear options available, you’ll enjoy the overall experience. 

This means you’re more likely to make your purchase from that particular shop instead of a competitor down the road with a disorganised shop that ignores you when you walk in and that seems like it’s aimed at a whole different age group to you. 

The exact same applies to eCommerce or online sales. 

By focusing on user experience, you can become the brand that stands out from the crowd. Again, you’ll build trust, streamline the shopping experience, address your customer’s needs and make it more likely they’ll click the buy button than click away from your website. 

If you want to achieve the eCommerce or online success you deserve, you must prioritise user experience when developing, updating or optimising your website. 

[Need help? Contact the team here at KDM to find out how we can design your website for success]

How to improve user experience on your website 

With the above in mind, how do you optimise the user experience and create a website that meets the needs of your customers at every stage of the buyer’s journey? 

You ensure you target their needs, deal with their objections pre-emptively and ensure your website is user friendly. At KDM, we understand the unique requirements of the digital marketing world and can design and create, tweak or overhaul your website to help you generate more enquiries and sales. 

Here are a few of our tips. 

• Make navigation simple, intuitive and clear
• Use the navigational toolbar and sidebar to help customers find what they are looking for
• Ensure you’re using colour, fonts and other elements effectively 
• Craft a clear CTA. Your website visitors should know exactly what to do next. 
• Use active words in your copy. This encourages your customers to take action. 
• Add links and buttons that help guide your customer to take the next step. 
• Design your website and landing pages to target each stage of the buyer’s journey
• Improve your page load speed to avoid frustration
• Clearly communicate your brand or product benefits. Make sure your product descriptions are clear and keyword-rich
• Avoid making false promises
• Ensure customer service is clearly visible and easy to use 

If you need help creating a user-friendly website that uses the buyer’s journey to generate enquiries and sales whilst boosting your brand image, get in touch today.