Enhance your organization's sales funnel analytics with airSlate SignNow

How to create outlook signature

[Music] welcome back earlier in the course you learned how digital marketing and e-commerce are continuing to change the business landscape you found out a little about careers in these industries including core skills day-to-day responsibilities job titles and career paths finally you considered some of the skills you already have that can help you advance your career now it's time to explore the ways that digital marketing and e-commerce create value for companies and for their customers in this part of the course you'll learn how companies use digital channels to reach customers and explore foundational concepts that can turn potential buyers into loyal customers lastly you'll learn why measuring marketing performance is so important to success digital marketing is constantly growing and changing that's part of what makes it an exciting field to work in but some things are always important like raising awareness fostering trust and building loyalty the methods may change but learning the fundamentals can help you adapt and grow along with the field are you ready let's get started [Music] did you know that over 60 percent of the global population is online and more people are joining them every day that's why every business big or small needs an online presence to be competitive but it's not enough just to have a website there may be a lot of people online but there's also a lot of companies that want their attention and their business your target audience needs to know you exist how you can help them and what makes you different from the competition breaking through this crowded field and actually reaching potential customers that's where digital marketing comes in now you might have noticed i haven't mentioned anything about selling products yet that's because digital marketing is bigger than sales it's not that selling products or services isn't important but it's only one piece of what digital marketing can do for companies individual sales are easy to measure but they don't mean much if your target audience doesn't trust your brand or your customers don't come back for a second third or fourth purchase a successful digital marketing effort guides all of a company's customer interactions it allows companies to think strategically about how to reach customers through digital channels before during and after a purchase it can be harder to measure the value of these activities but a well-coordinated strategy allows businesses to thrive online and even grow let's think through an example imagine a company that makes running shoes decides to invest in digital marketing they create some video ads and place them on a popular news site they create accounts for several social media platforms and start posting content but their posts don't get much engagement and their ads don't attract many new customers what's worse they don't even know why they aren't getting results they've wasted time money and resources on a digital campaign that doesn't work now let's think about what could have happened if that same company made an effort to learn about their audience instead of posting ads on a news website they targeted sites that focused on running because they did research they knew where to find their new customers online that knowledge also let them create tailored content for their social media accounts that reached the right audience and because they researched their audience they were able to set meaningful goals for their strategy with clear goals in place they knew exactly how to measure their success the information they measured allowed them to adjust their customer communication and improve their video social and email campaigns they were able to recognize opportunities to reach potential customers and engage with them effectively yes sales went up but their well-planned digital strategy also built awareness trust and loyalty you'll learn more about how marketers create and execute strategies like this one throughout the program for now let's recap digital marketing is more than running ads to drive sales it's a set of practices that can affect a company's customer interactions at all levels and during every stage of the purchase journey by learning about their customers digital marketing teams can reach their target audience in a crowded online marketplace and nurture customer relationships over time coming up you'll learn more about the value digital marketing creates for businesses and some of the challenges marketing teams face when planning and executing strategies for online engagement [Music] welcome back so far you've learned about some of the things digital marketing and e-commerce can do for e-commerce businesses you know the advantages of digital marketing and the challenges of reaching customers in a crowded online field you also know that the first and most important step to any marketing strategy is learning about your customers let's get deeper into that last point it's easy to think of a business's marketing efforts as being all about them about ways to bring in customers boost profits or grow their online presence but a really effective marketing strategy starts with learning about customers needs and pain points pain points are the specific problems customers and potential customers want to solve instead of asking how do we sell more products the most successful businesses want to know how do we help customers address their pain points or achieve their goals one is about the company's goals the other is about the customer journey what is the customer journey well think about the last time you recommended something to a friend it could be a product like an app or a tool or a service like a restaurant or a contractor now think about your journey with that product or service how did you first find it if you had questions how did you get answers what convinced you to try it how did it help you solve a problem or achieve a goal and finally what made you decide to recommend it to someone else the path you take from learning about that product to getting your questions answered to making a purchase is your customer journey from your perspective the goal of that journey wasn't necessarily to purchase a specific product it's just the thing that you ended up purchasing happen to fulfill your needs here's an example let's pretend you're in the market for a new weather app maybe the one you have isn't reliable and you keep getting caught in the rain without an umbrella so you search online for best weather apps and find some options one stands out because the name is familiar you think a friend might have told you about it recently or maybe it was an online ad you narrow your options to a few candidates and start reading reviews two have all the features you want but you pick the one with the familiar name it tops several best of lists and it has a trial subscription so you download the app but it's not working right you go back to the reviews and find out this is a known issue so you contact the support through live chat they help you fix the problem quickly which makes you feel good about the company you start the trial and after a month you've always had your umbrella when it rained you get an email reminder that your trial is about to expire and you're so happy with the app that you purchase a subscription now you're a loyal customer each interaction with the brand during this purchase journey is called a touch point from the search to the customer reviews online ad trial subscription live chat and follow-up email every touch point had the potential to help or hurt your impression of the brand and its product a bad experience at any point can mean an abandoned journey so it's in a company's best interest to make sure you get information and answers you need along the way with enough customer research marketers can use these touch points to create a customer journey map a customer journey map is a visualization of the touch points a typical customer encounters along their purchase journey you can even have multiple journey maps based on the patterns and behaviors of different types of customers of course it's impossible to know exactly what route each person will take but journey maps aren't about predicting the future they help you understand how and why customers are interacting with your business when you know how customers are finding you how they're learning about you and what problems they want to solve you can work to make their experiences better and better customer experiences ultimately mean greater success for your business and there you have it by understanding customer journeys you can create better more user-friendly experiences coming up you'll learn how journey maps work along with another tool the marketing funnel to target their marketing efforts and encourage potential customers to make purchases [Music] now that you know about customer journey maps it's time to introduce a related concept the marketing funnel the marketing funnel also called the sales funnel or conversion funnel is an idea that's older than the internet in fact marketers have used it for over a hundred years if it's been around that long it must be a pretty powerful tool so what is a marketing funnel and how does it work a marketing funnel is a visual representation of the process through which people go from first learning about a brand to becoming loyal customers the funnel is wide at the top and narrows toward the bottom because a lot of potential customers will enter the top of the funnel but only some of them will reach the bottom to become loyal customers of course people will drop off at every stage in between so you want to make sure you're doing everything you can to keep them moving through the funnel there are a lot of different versions of the marketing funnel and you'll learn about a few of them later right now i'm going to introduce you to a simple version of the funnel that has four stages awareness consideration conversion and loyalty at the top of the funnel is the awareness stage this is when a potential customer encounters a brand for the first time maybe from an ad or a recommendation at this stage the customer probably doesn't know enough about that company to form an opinion they're just aware it exists awareness is the widest tier because even though a lot of people might know about a company only some of them will think about doing business with them that's why it's important to raise as much awareness as possible among target audiences a target audience is the group of people most likely to purchase a company's products they're the ones whose attention your digital marketing efforts should capture things start to narrow at the next stage consideration this is when some potential customers from the awareness stage start to think about doing business with a company at this point they could be actively browsing the website or comparing different brands so making a good impression is key those who move beyond consideration go to the conversion stage conversion is when someone decides to make a purchase and become a customer to increase the chances of conversion businesses should demonstrate their value and provide a user-friendly experience the last stage is loyalty it takes a huge amount of effort to move potential customers from awareness to conversion so once a customer completes a purchase you want to give them reasons to return making current customers happy can increase trust and keep them coming back for years to come now if you're thinking that this all feels pretty similar to a customer journey map you'd be right marketing funnels and journey maps are related concepts and they're best when used together here's how they complement one another first you know that a journey map traces the customer's path to purchase along specific touch points but a marketing funnel is part of a business's plan for moving customers along that journey a journey map adopts the customer's perspective but a funnel considers that same process from the position of the business second the structure of a marketing funnel is simpler than a journey map customer journeys are complex because they demonstrate how customers might interact with a brand their path to purchase are unique and they can repeat or loop back on themselves in contrast the funnel is a linear model that breaks this journey into broad stages it's not about how specific customers reach consideration or conversion but what a company can do to move lots of customers from one stage to the next remember the weather app example let's think about a few of the touch points our hypothetical customer encountered and how they might fit into a marketing funnel the customer was reminded of the app by the online ad in search results making these awareness activities the trial membership could be a consideration offering since it helped the customer learn about the product but it was the reminder email that finally got them to commit so that's a conversion tactic funnels like this one help businesses focus their goals and marketing efforts making their path from awareness to loyalty as smooth as possible they drive engagement and make it more appealing for customers to do business with the company when used together journey maps and marketing funnels help marketers understand and serve their customers better than either can alone let's review along with customer journey maps a marketing funnel is a powerful tool that allows businesses to focus and coordinate their marketing efforts to get the most out of a funnel they should try to optimize their work at each stage from awareness to consideration conversion and loyalty a carefully planned funnel can help businesses succeed online coming up we'll explore a few different versions of the marketing funnel and discuss how they evolve through e-commerce meet you there [Music] hello again earlier in the course we went over the concepts of the customer journey and the marketing funnel now let's explore the funnel in a little more detail starting at the top with the awareness and consideration stages we'll consider some of the things teams can do to get attention from potential customers and drive engagement effectively first awareness you already know that awareness is when a potential customer encounters your brand for the first time this may seem like a simple idea but how do you make sure your brand gets in front of the right audience the first step is research finding out who your customers are and where they are online can help you focus your marketing efforts in the right places getting to know your particular audience allows you to pick the channels that have the best chance of reaching them there are a lot of different tactics a business can use to reach customers one way is to improve their rankings and search engine results they can do this by optimizing website content around specific search terms or paying to place digital ads on websites social media email or video platforms forming promotional partnerships with other brands or influencers can also help raise awareness you'll learn more about each of these tactics later in the program for now just remember that a strong top of funnel marketing strategy takes advantage of multiple channels and creates a consistent experience across all of them it's also important to keep in mind that awareness isn't a one-time event once someone knows about your business it can take days weeks or even longer for them to get to the consideration stage so once you've reached a potential customer the goal is to get them to remember you say your company sells refrigerators that's a big purchase and not one that you make every day so even if a potential customer knows about your business they might wait until their old fridge breaks to start thinking about a new one maintaining a consistent online presence can remind them that you exist when the time is right that way they'll think of your business when they do need your services now let's move on to consideration you know that consideration is the getting to know you stage it's when people start exploring your business and finding out what makes you different from the competition during this stage the goal is to increase the chances that a potential customer will eventually make a purchase they might be reading online reviews or actively browsing your website by now so you need to give them reasons to stick around or to come back if they've already left at this stage some potential customers will become leads a lead is a potential customer who has interacted with a brand and shared personal information like an email address let's take that refrigerator example again imagine that customer goes to your website and checks out a few different models but they don't make a decision right away maybe they need more time to think about it or want to compare different brands or they could have just gotten distracted you can engage that person again by serving them ads based on the products and pages they visited that makes it more likely they'll return to make a purchase once a potential customer is on your site you should aim to educate them about your offerings and explain how specific products or services address their pain points that can mean offering engaging useful content like blog posts newsletters or webinars free samples tools or trial memberships can let potential customers test out your services before committing the goal is to start building trust and the quality of your products and give customers what they need to make an informed choice to recap the top of the funnel boosts awareness and customer engagement at the awareness stage marketers use a variety of tools and channels to connect with potential customers and stay fresh in their minds during the consideration stage they should make it clear what they're offering and how they can meet customers needs when executed carefully awareness and consideration tactics can lead to more people eventually becoming customers coming up you'll learn more about marketing funnels and discover some ways to measure awareness and consideration success [Music] so far you've learned about some ways to raise awareness and engage with potential customers you know that selecting the right channels to reach a target audience is one of the most important things businesses can do to market products online but we haven't gotten to the most important part how do you know if the tactics you've chosen are working are there ways to improve on what you're already doing or do you need to start again with a whole new plan to answer all these questions is measurement the fact is no matter how much research you do or how carefully you plan a marketing strategy none of it matters unless you can measure your success measuring outcomes at each stage of the funnel allows you to find out what you're doing right what you're doing wrong and where you can improve in this video we'll discuss some of the metrics companies use to measure success at the top of the funnel a metric is a quantifiable measurement used to track and assess progress toward an objective marketing metrics can gauge different aspects of campaign performance and effectiveness which can help businesses make improvements for the future for example to measure awareness of their ads marketers use tools to track things like impressions reach and frequency impressions are the total number of times an ad appears on people's screens that number includes users who encounter the ad more than once so if an ad is encountered 200 times by 100 people the number of impressions is 200 since it's been shown 200 times in contrast reach is the total number of unique individuals who encounter an ad across their different devices no matter how many times a person gets that ad they're only counted once so the reach of an ad that's encountered 200 times by 100 people would be 100. frequency refers to how many times each individual encounters the ad in a given time frame so if each of those 100 people gets the ad twice in a week their frequency would be two these are just a few of the metrics you can use to gauge awareness you'll learn more about tracking and analyzing awareness measurements later on in the program the goal of the awareness stage is usually to get ads in front of the right people at the right times by analyzing impressions reach and frequency marketers can find out how big of an impact their ads are having if the numbers are below the company's goal for awareness they may decide to re-evaluate their ad strategy but businesses can also have more specific awareness goals like getting a certain amount of visitors to a page on a website exactly what you choose to measure depends on what you're trying to achieve that's why it's important to set goals for each stage of the funnel at the consideration stage there are different ways to measure success but they all come down to one idea engagement how much how often and for how long are potential customers engaging with your content analytics tools can track things like how often customers search for your business online the number of first-time visitors to a site the number of pages per visitor and how long visitors spend on a page signing up for emails or newsletters is another good measurement of engagement and getting customer contact information will make it easier to remind them you exist and demonstrate your value later on it may seem like more engagement is better but that isn't always the case if the goal is for customers to find what they need quickly but customers spend a long time completing tasks it may mean you need to reevaluate the layout of your website measuring website interactions can give you a lot of insights so knowing which numbers are important and what they mean for your goals is crucial even with clear goals and accurate information measuring awareness and engagement is often more challenging than measuring bottom of the funnel concerns like sales later in the program you'll learn how to interpret this kind of information and how businesses use it to improve their tactics from moving leads from consideration to conversion let's review measuring awareness and engagement is the most important things brands can do to ensure success at the top of the funnel marketing teams use analytics tools to measure awareness through numbers of impressions reach and frequency consideration can be measured through website engagement including page visits detailed views and email signups knowing what to measure in order to reach your goals is an important part of marketing success coming up you'll learn more about the funnel and what to do at the conversion and loyalty stages [Music] welcome back in the last lesson we covered the awareness and consideration stages of the marketing funnel we discussed some of the things businesses should do and measure to raise awareness and boost customer engagement now let's get into the conversion and loyalty stages of the funnel we'll consider what teams can do to drive sales and keep customers coming back again and again you know that the conversion stage also known as the decision or purchase stage is when someone makes a purchase and becomes a customer not everyone who considers a purchase will convert and potential customers make purchases when they think that one company solution fits their needs better than others so it's essential that they do everything they can do to demonstrate and deliver value at this stage you want customers to trust you and feel confident in their decision to buy your product the goal of the conversion stage is simple it's to turn potential customers into buyers but how different companies go about making that happen depends on their products and audience it's also important to keep in mind that different customers can get from consideration to conversion through different touch points but it is possible to identify trends and customer behavior so you can personalize content and improve target areas you'll find more about identifying these trends later in the program to set themselves apart at the conversion stage businesses should provide clear and useful content and experiences that includes everything from accurate product descriptions to a smooth checkout process and a clear returns policy well-placed product-focused ads in a clearly organized website can be persuasive too whatever the methods making it easy for leads to find answers and take action makes conversion more likely now some marketing funnels end after the customer makes a purchase but building and maintaining customer loyalty can be just as important as converting them in the first place successful businesses balance customer acquisition with retention because once you've made the effort to build a relationship with a customer you want to keep that relationship going customer loyalty depends foremost on the quality and value of your product but even if a customer loves their purchase that's no guarantee they'll come back for more building loyalty is about creating a great customer experience during and after purchase many companies use things like follow-up emails rewards programs or social media engagement to nurture relationships with customers on an ongoing basis those interactions should always be purposeful and thoughtful for example email coupons can encourage repeat purchases but sending a coupon for something a customer just bought they probably won't be too happy about that when companies focus on creating a positive post-purchase experience they can drive future sales and when customers who aren't just brand loyal but devoted fans and that's it let's review at the bottom of the funnel businesses focus on converting potential customers and encouraging those customers to return in the future during the conversion stage they demonstrate value through quality content and experiences after a purchase they build loyalty by continuing to engage customers and build relationships by optimizing these results at each stage businesses can thrive in a crowded online marketplace coming up you'll review what you learned about marketing funnels so far and find out some things businesses can do to measure success at the bottom of the funnel meet you there [Music] by now you've learned a lot about the marketing funnel and how businesses use it to raise awareness increase consideration encourage conversion and build loyalty you know some of the things they measure at the top of the funnel and understand why tracking this information is key to success in this video we'll explore some ways to measure success at the bottom of the funnel in the conversion and loyalty stages let's go the most basic thing you can measure at the conversion stage is the number of conversions a conversion happens when a potential customer takes a desired action in this case when they make a purchase seems simple right the number of conversions is crucial information but it's not the only thing you can measure at this stage tracking time to conversion cost per conversion the average number of touch points before conversion or the average order size can provide valuable insights into how customers interact with your brand these insights also allow you to address drop-off issues like abandoned carts cart abandonment is when a customer adds an item to their cart but doesn't complete the purchase believe it or not it's estimated that nearly 70 percent of online carts are abandoned so finding out where customers drop off in the checkout process can help you improve procedures and increase your conversions okay it's time for the last stage of the funnel loyalty how a business chooses to measure loyalty depends on their target audience and particular goals some common things to measure include the rate of repeat purchases the length of time between purchases the number of orders per customer and the rate of account activation after sign up the level of engagement with rewards programs is also another indicator of customer loyalty over time loyalty metrics allow businesses to assess and refine strategies to keep customers boost sales and save money but they also reveal where they can manage customer relationships more effectively in the end customer loyalty is the truest test of how well the entire funnel serves customers and meets their needs we'll get further into how conversion and loyalty measurements are used later in the program for now just remember beyond completed purchases conversion measurements also track behaviors like time to conversion and order size these measurements provide valuable information that can enable teams to curb drop-offs and increase sales loyalty measurements track things like account activation time between purchases and orders per customer by measuring loyalty businesses can improve retention rates and build revenue over time and there you go measuring results throughout the funnel is the best tool brands can use to optimize their effort at each stage and a well-planned funnel means they can nurture leads effectively throughout their purchase journeys coming up you'll explore some ideas of where the e-commerce industry might be headed in the future congratulations on finishing this video from the google digital marketing and e-commerce certificate access the full experience on coursera including job search help and start earning the official certificate by clicking the icon or the link in the description watch the next video in the course by clicking here and subscribe to our channel for more lessons from google career certificate