The online conversion path is a series of steps your potential customer takes on your website before they become a lead. While there are many variations of conversion paths, it generally has the same flow.
What Is An Online Conversion Path
Think about your own behavior for a moment.
What do you do when you want to buy a new laptop or phone?
I figure you’d do something like this:
- Open a browser and type the brand & model (e.g. MacBook Pro)
- Read several articles that talks about what you were looking for
- Refine your search to something more specific to your needs (e.g. Can the MacBook Pro handle Photoshop)
That process is most likely the same process your customers do when they want to buy something.
The Importance of the Online Conversion Path
If you look closely at the path I described above, people aren’t looking for prices and discounts.
When people start their buying journey, they care about getting answers to their questions. They care about solving their problems.
This is where a lot of businesses go wrong.
In digital marketing, it’s important to remember that people’s buying behavior have changed. In some cases, people are already 80% through their buying journey when they reach out to businesses.
If you are not present in that early part of their research process, you will most likely not be their top choice.
And that’s where the online conversion path comes in.
Focus on the Customer, Not Yourself
Most of the time, businesses produce content that only talks about themselves. Promos. Discounts. How awesome their products and employees are. That they care about their customers.
But do all that content help prospects who are looking to buy something during the early part of their journey?
A big no!
The 5 stages of awareness tells us that if you focus on creating content about yourself, you’re alienating a lot of people.
What you should do is start creating content that solves your industry’s problems. Focus on your customers’ needs first, before your own.
