Customer’s Journey and Conversion Funnels

Mastering your customer’s journey is crucial to your organization’s success, and conversion funnels are handy tools for that achievement. Conversion funnels are essential for growing your revenue stream and client engagement.

By evaluating each step of the funnel, businesses can uncover opportunities to optimize their efforts and convert more leads into lasting customers. Customers take a unique trip through your company’s conversion funnel as they purchase. As a result, you must capture their attention, establish trusting relationships, and persuade them to act.

What Is A Conversion Funnel

As a marketer or salesperson, you shape the customer’s journey. Conversion funnels, or sales funnels, provide a realistic structure for this process by allowing potential customers to go through several steps until they complete the desired action: a transaction or purchase.

A good conversion funnel reveals where your visitors and target audience are coming from, what they do on your site, and what happens when they convert. This data can be used to improve your marketing efforts and increase conversions. This post will teach you more about target audiences and how to find them.

Marketers can utilize conversion funnels to track customers’ journey from initial interest to final purchase. Understanding the distinct progression of the digital customer experience enables you to find chances to impact each stage.

The Customer’s Journey

Every customer has a unique journey with your company.

The days of a sequential, linear client journey are long gone. Instead, they perform several activities from the minute they become aware of your brand until they attain their goal, each of which needs tailored approaches for an optimal result.

More customer journeys are taking place online, and 80% of consumers place as much value on the experience as they do on the products and services. As a result, you must comprehend online consumer behavior and provide them with relevant digital experiences.

Understanding and optimizing these clients’ journeys enable you to provide an experience that will tempt them to return again and again.

Organizations utilize a variety of conversion funnel models. They are all dependent on the sort of business and customer. They can also differ since marketing and sales have slightly distinct models. We will look at the Top, Middle, and Bottom (T/M/B OFU) funnel model, which is more sales oriented and thus more applicable to the performing arts. After all, without an audience, there can hardly be any performance.

The TOFU (Top/Middle/Bottom of the Funnel) refers to the early stages of the customer journey when the primary focus is on raising awareness and generating initial interest in a product or service. For example, the TOFU funnel could function as follows in the performing arts:

Top Of Funnel (TOFU): Awareness

The initial stage in every conversion funnel is to attract visitors. Make the general audience aware of the approaching performance or event.  This can be performed via a variety of marketing channels, including social media, email marketing, sponsored commercials, public relations, and so on. The goal is to reach a large number of individuals and capture their attention. Once you’ve piqued their interest, you’ll want to keep them interested. To persuade them to take the next step, you can utilize email marketing campaigns, popups, or even retargeting ads.

Engaging yet informative content is ideal for keeping these visitors intrigued. Reviews, articles, or videos may help maintain their interest. SEO is a fantastic way to identify intent-based inquiries to assist in the development of visible and discoverable digital content.

Middle Of Funnel (MOFU): Build Interest and Tempt them

After making people aware of the show, the following step is to pique their interest and communicate with possible customers. This can be accomplished through sneak peeks, trailers, or behind-the-scenes footage highlighting the performance’s distinctive elements and why it’s worth watching.

Next, you’re attempting to persuade your prospects to buy a ticket. You can emphasize the significance of the performance by stressing the audience’s unique experiences, such as live music and fantastic scenery. They also highlight the artists’ talent and the effort they put into the performance.

Bottom Of Funnel (BOFU): Conversion

Once you’ve persuaded them to buy something, you must move them closer to making a purchase. By providing clear calls to action and a simple ticket purchasing process, the company makes it simple for customers to acquire tickets. They also offer discounts and special packages to entice customers to take the next step.

The TOFU funnel’s purpose in the performing arts is to raise awareness and interest, increase desire, and convert potential customers into ticket-buying customers.

Once you’ve convinced the customer to buy something, you need to move them toward making a purchase.

Closing the sale is the last step. Whether it is physical goods or digital downloads, this is the part where you collect payment and ship out the item.

Dream Warrior Group, a Los Angeles Based web design and digital marketing Company, providing solutions for your online marketing needs. Our expertise includes Redesigning your site as a perfect marketing tool.  Call us now at 818.610.3316 or click here.

Search Optimization Changes: Artificial Intelligence and Search Engines – Part 2

In my previous article, I promised more specifics regarding the steps you can take to improve your search optimization for the age of AI. The funniest part of the whole process has been the repetition.

For the past several years, I have been describing  Google’s shift towards better, more accurate search results. Currently Google Search algorithm seems to contain everything desirable for an AI-driven search optimization.

So, unlike my conclusions in 2021, and early 2022, they were most likely thinking about more than just accuracy. It appears that Google’s data engineers were also thinking about AI and the future of search.

The coming 18 months AI will permanently change how search engines employ and interact with us to rank content. Artificial intelligence has already altered the SEO environment, but we should expect more substantial developments in the coming months. There will be more frequent Google SERP updates as Google fends off other search engines trying to gain market share.

Here are some of the expected effects of these changes:

Voice search will become increasingly significant.

Voice search is getting more popular as smart speakers, and other voice-activated devices become more widespread. As AI advances, we should expect search engines to understand the natural language better. Such improvements mean that content authors must optimize their content for voice search by utilizing conversational language and focusing on answering particular inquiries that consumers may have. To gain more insight, refer to our article on Voice optimization.

Natural language processing (NLP) will become pervasive.

The use of NLP helps search engines grasp the intent underlying the search request far more clearly than today. Search engines should interpret natural language far better as AI advances. Extensive use of NLP means that content providers must concentrate on producing high-quality, natural-sounding information that answers particular issues that users may have.

The importance of user experience will be greater than ever.

As search engines improve their knowledge of user intent, they will likewise enhance their ability to measure user experience. As a result, page load speed, mobile friendliness, and ease of navigation will become even more vital for SEO. Therefore, content providers must produce material that answers user inquiries and creates a positive user experience.

Technical SEO will be even more critical.

Technical SEO (efforts that focus on enhancing the technical features of websites) will become increasingly important. Search engines will incentivize site owners to produce better user experiences: more robust UX will result in higher rankings on search engine results pages (SERPs). As technical SEO continues to influence the user experience—and searchers’ expectations rise—technical SEO will continue to be one of the most critical factors for organizations to consider when developing their overall SEO strategy and investments.

Personalization will become more critical.

Artificial intelligence (AI) already helps tailor search results based on user behavior and interests. However, personalization will play an even more significant role in SEO. Content makers will need to focus on developing material that is targeted to specific audiences and takes characteristics like location, device, and search history into account. Increased personalization also means a greater need for second and first-party user data gathering.

Visual search will become increasingly prevalent.

Visual search is currently a popular feature on several search engines, and we anticipate it to become considerably more ubiquitous in the next 18 months. In addition, as AI advances, search engines will better detect images and videos. Therefore, visual content optimization (for search) by employing descriptive filenames, alt tags, and captions will be vital.

SEO will see an increase in the use of video marketing.

The coming year will undoubtedly be the year of video. Companies will put out more video content as they seek to garner audiences on more visual and video-based platforms, such as TikTok and Instagram; at the same time, more video and content teams will use search data to guide their tactics. This transition will also benefit people in Google’s ecosystem, as searchers pay more attention to video results.

As audience tastes alter, brands prioritize content quality over production quality (such as effects, lighting, etc.). Straightforward, mobile-recorded videos will likely be a focus because good content does not require large production.

In the next 18 months, AI will substantially impact SEO. As a result, content providers must focus on developing tailored, high-quality, natural-sounding material that answers particular user inquiries while offering a fantastic user experience across all platforms.

Companies must also optimize their content for voice, visual, and video search and consider issues like technical SEO, personalization, and natural language processing. Content providers may remain ahead of the curve by following these trends and ensuring their content is discoverable and exciting for their target audience.

Dream Warrior Group, a Los Angeles Based web design and digital marketing Company, providing solutions for your online marketing needs. Our expertise includes Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Social Media Posts & Marketing & Google PPC campaigns.  Call us now at 818.610.3316 or click here.

Change in Search: Artificial Intelligence and Search Engines – Part 1

AI (Artificial Intelligence) is concerned with developing intelligent software capable of doing activities that generally require human Intelligence, such as natural language processing. For example, AI will create more intelligent search engines, search results, and search optimization.

Generative AI is a subset of artificial Intelligence that employs machine learning algorithms to create new and unique data or material, such as photos, music, video, or writing. Deep learning models, which can extract patterns and attributes from big datasets and utilize them to generate new samples, are at the foundation of Generative AI. Creative design, content generation, and virtual assistants are just a few of the uses for generative AI.

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is the improvement of the visibility and ranking of a website or online content in search engine results pages (SERPs). It entails various strategies to improve the quality and relevance of a website’s content, structure, and functionality to enhance organic traffic and attract new customers.

Artificial Intelligence & SEO

Generative AI will rapidly improve crawling and indexing, personalization, and content quality, whether voice, image, or video.

Artificial Intelligence will also change the look of search engines in the future by providing richer and more dynamic search results, personalized search results, voice search, natural language processing, and improved image and video search capabilities.

AI Improves Crawling and Indexing

Generative AI may improve crawling and indexing by providing higher quality and unique content that search engines can index, enhancing the website’s ranking in search results.

Because search engines favor new and unique content, Generative AI can generate a large amount of original content optimized for specific keywords, topics, or user intents. This route to search optimization can help search engines discover the website and draw more organic traffic.

Generative AI will create metadata such as title tags, descriptions, and headers, improving on-page SEO and making the website more search engine friendly. With more optimized and relevant metadata, Search engines can better interpret and show website content in search results.

Artificial Intelligence Increases Personalization of Search Results

AI increases personalization by creating tightly tailored information and experiences based on the preferences and behaviors of the individual user.

AI is trained on enormous datasets of user interactions and behaviors, such as browser history, purchase history, and social media activity, to find patterns and preferences of individual users. Based on this information, Artificial Intelligence can give tailored content such as product recommendations, personalized news feeds, or tailored marketing messages that are more likely to engage and resonate with the user.

By generating natural language responses, generative AI is used to build personalized chatbots and virtual assistants that answer and recommend based on the user’s needs and preferences, leading to increased engagement.

AI will lead to improved content Quality for better SEO

As we are already observing, when groomed properly, generative AI is a powerful tool for improving content quality by generating relevant, high-quality, and original material that can be optimized for specific topics and user intents while ensuring that the content is free of errors and easy to read. Improved content will improve user satisfaction and loyalty, ultimately driving business success.

Artificial Intelligence will create new and innovative search experiences.

The looks of search engines will change because of AI as search engines will continue to integrate AI-powered features and functionalities to improve the user experience and better understand user intent.

AI-powered search engines can create new and innovative experiences beyond traditional keyword-based searches. With natural language processing, chatbots, and virtual assistants, each person can create engaging and interactive search experiences.

Some ways that the looks of search engines may change because of AI include Richer, more interactive, more personalized results with voice results and videos.

The looks of search engines may change because of AI. AI-powered features and functionalities will improve the search experience and help us understand user intent. As a result, many of the reference sites, such as “10 best of this” or “20 top of that,” will disappear from the results. At the same time, many reference sites, such as IMDB, may lose much of their traffic.

But, it is a given that specific products or services such as a Concert or a Play will still have to be searched for and SEO will be there to make sure your show or product shows up first.

Conclusion

The implications of AI for the future of search engines are vast, exciting, and far-reaching. The inner workings and the UI of search engines will be very different.  How they process and understand user queries and how they deliver search results and content to users will change.  Still, there will be areas where search display will go on very similarly to what you see now.

In the following article, I will review the areas of SEO that AI will bring to prominence and attempt to explain what we need to do in each area.

Dream Warrior Group, a Los Angeles Based web design and digital marketing Company, providing solutions for your online marketing needs. Our expertise includes Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Social Media Posts & Marketing & Google PPC campaigns.  Call us now at 818.610.3316 or click here.

When AI goes Marching on

People have gone insane over Generative AI (the Algorithms used to generate new data that resembles human-generated content, such as music, code, images, text, simulations, and videos ). Unfortunately, Microsoft’s hype machine is working overtime (Bing with AI hit the mat and crashed after 3 hours of testing), while Google is in hot water.

Speaking of #ai rants and raves, folks went crazy about Google’s AI Chat Bot – Bard – yesterday. Everyone agreed that Bard made a mistake, and Google’s market cap fell by $100 billion (yep, billion). Looking closer at what was asked, something to the effect of “what recent results from Webb space telescope can I tell my 9-year child about?” Bard answered with many discoveries, mentioning that (the) “telescope was utilized to take the very first snapshot of AN exoplanet.”

The first time humanity took a photo of an exoplanet was around two decades ago. Many in the media (both social and traditional) began foaming at the mouth, and Google stock dropped. But, in the end, Bard was right: the Webb Telescope had discovered an exoplanet, albeit not the first.

AI is only code

Generative AI is merely lines of code, as clue-free as many children. Its responses are open to interpretation by the listeners. So, please stop telling me how “excellent” (Keanu Reeves style) AI can be because it is only as good as the nerds that use it (including myself) and the entities that code it.

I am working on a more informative article on AI, search engines, and digital marketing. Still, it may be a while because keeping up with AI development and my distaste for those who declare themselves gurus after two weeks of reading on a subject forces me to dig deeper and let the gurus rant and rave.

Dream Warrior Group, a Los Angeles Based web design and digital marketing Company, providing solutions for your online marketing needs. Our experts will help you modify your site and get you ready for the upcoming challenges on the web.  Call us now at 818.610.3316 or click here.

7 steps towards voice search optimization

Alexa and Siri are unquestionably essential aspects of our daily lives. For example, we may ask Siri or Alexa to find the closest athletic event, play, or day spa. In addition, searching the web using voice search is frequently faster and more convenient than typing in a query.

The problem is that regular voice searches are different from text searches. When speaking with our devices, we word our questions differently, closer to how we communicate in person. As a result, to reach this growing pool of searchers, SEO specialists and marketers have had to adapt.

On top of that, ranking for voice search is difficult. Devices that offer voice search frequently show only the top three results for a given query. You’ll need exceptional content and a strong voice SEO to get there.

Voice search isn’t just a passing novelty; it’s slowly becoming the norm. Approximately 40% of US internet users use a voice assistant at least monthly, which is growing daily.

Voice search is yet another significant opportunity to obtain organic search traffic. You will gain access to a new group of individuals who use smartphones and smart speakers to find businesses and make purchases using voice search.

Voice search optimization can help improve your website’s overall SEO and rating. Search engines love it when websites optimize for voice searches, which can provide your site with greater authority and hence higher rankings on results pages, if not higher rankings overall, possibly even landing in a voice search result.

Voice search optimization is the collection of methods that improve the chances of your content appearing in voice search results. The idea is to address common verbal questions in your content so that consumers can find your website in voice search results provided by voice search technology and virtual assistants.

A typical voice search starts with a word (for example, “Alexa” or “Hey Siri”), then a query or statement (for example, “What broadway plays are performing near me?” or “When are the 49ers playing the Rams?”).

The device then responds verbally or, if it has a screen, with the top results from a search engine results page. The purpose of voice search optimization is to obtain a position in this type of search.

While there is some overlap between on-page and voice search optimization, some essential characteristics of voice search distinguish it from a text search on a website like Google.com.

Voice search inquiries, in particular, are more conversational than text searches. They are more like how we speak in real life. For example, you may use a voice search, “What are some decent spas around me?” A text search query is phrased more like “live shows near me.”

As voice search became more popular, search engines became better at deciphering the meanings of longer, more conversational questions and returning relevant results. This was the birth of long-tail keywords. Google has changed the focus of the search to searcher intent, recognizing the underlying meaning of searches and offering more relevant results to more conversational voice queries.

You are now responsible for creating content relevant to voice search users. To acquire voice search traffic, you don’t need to change your current SEO strategy:

  1. Make use of schema markup.
  2. Use questions and other long-tail keywords.
  3. Make local SEO a priority.
  4. Use conversational language.
  5. Make your site mobile-friendly.
  6. Attempt to capture featured snippets from Google.
  7. Improve the speed of your website.

 

1 – Make use of schema markup.

Another strategy that enhances your site’s on-page SEO in general, as well as voice search SEO, is schema markup.

Schema markup is structured data that you can add to your website’s HTML to assist Google and other search engines in giving more detailed results. Schema markup often includes essential information about your company, such as hours, addresses, contact information, price information, reviews, and more.

Human visitors cannot see schema markup. Instead, it aids indexing bots in better understanding your material, increasing exposure in search results and increasing clicks. Because search engines will regard your site as more relevant, it will have a better chance of appearing in voice search results.

2 – Use questions and other long-tail keywords.

As previously stated, voice searches are typically phrased differently than text searches. They are more detailed, longer, and more likely to be complete queries than mere keywords. We’re used to speaking in whole sentences with greater detail than we are to typing.

This makes sense when we consider interaction cost: for most people, typing out a query takes more time and effort than saying it out loud. Because speaking is less physically and mentally demanding than typing, voice search inquiries are lengthier.

Targeting long-tail keywords, particularly question keywords, in your content is a highly effective strategy for voice search optimization. This will allow you to attract visitors who submit longer, more specific inquiries.

Long-tail keywords have three or more words and are an essential part of overall keyword optimization. Because they are more tailored to the user’s aim, they attract high-intent visitors. You can even narrow them down to be more relevant to your business (for example, “spas in the Denver region” rather than “spas”), which means less competition on the results page.

Trying to cram a slew of questions and answers into your page’s material might be problematic at times, which is why many websites include a frequently-asked-questions section or dedicated page.

An FAQ section allows you to list every frequently asked search question about your website and provide an answer that can compete for a spot in voice search results. This content type is also ideal for Google-featured snippet placement, which we’ll go over in more detail later.

Consider “who,” “what,” “when,” “where,” and “how” questions while looking for question keywords. Include these in your page copy (for example, in an H2) and follow up with a brief, satisfying answer. After your initial response, you can go into greater detail in the body of your material.

You don’t have to rely just on intuition while looking for long-tail keywords. To locate the most relevant keywords for your target consumer, you can use one or more keyword research tools. You can also get ideas from the “similar searches” or “people also ask” areas of the Google results page to discover which questions your target audience frequently asks. Enter a search term related to your business and see what Google suggests.

3 – Make local SEO a priority.

Local SEO refers to the technique of increasing search engine presence for local businesses, usually brick-and-mortar establishments. Local SEO is critical for these firms since it targets potential clients in neighboring areas who are highly inclined to purchase. It’s also one of the most effective methods for optimizing voice search.

Consider this: When someone conducts a voice search on their smartphone, they’re probably on the go and looking for something nearby, such as a restaurant or store.

There are numerous methods for improving your local SEO, but the most crucial is to create and maintain a Google Business Profile. This is the list that displays when you search for “_______ near me.” It informs visitors of your location, contact information, hours, directions, and more.

Because voice search results frequently pull information from various profiles, your Google Business profile is helpful here. As a result, a thorough listing increases your chances of ranking for specific local voice searches.

If you haven’t already, this is one of the most beneficial actions to take for your site’s overall SEO, especially if you’re a brick-and-mortar shop. In many circumstances, your Google Business Profile is the first and only opportunity for searchers to learn about your company. Make sure that it is always correct.

4 – Use conversational language.

Voice searches are conversational. So, it would help if you give your material a conversational tone to meet readers where they are. A less formal writing style is viewed as more relevant to voice requests, in addition to feeling more natural and simpler to read.

Incorporating more conversational words (e.g., “I,” “me,” “you,” “we”) in blog articles, avoiding jargon and too technical language, and adding touches of comedy to reinforce your views are some strategies to make your material more conversational. If you must adhere to an established brand voice, make the tone of your material fall toward the more informal end of that voice.

This is not, however, a license to lower the quality of your content. Maintain a more informal writing style while ensuring that your material delights and adds value to users. Google still rewards high-quality material like this — write it (nearly) as though you were saying it aloud.

5 – Make your site mobile-friendly.

Mobile devices account for more than half of all worldwide internet traffic. If that isn’t enough to convince you that mobile optimization is crucial, consider that 27% of smartphone users utilize voice search.

Google believes mobile user experience to be essential to a good website and incorporates it into its results. To appear in both text and voice search results, use responsive design and look for other ways to make your website mobile-friendly. It’s another move toward remaining competitive in voice search.

6 – Attempt to capture featured snippets from Google.

Google highlighted snippets are small pieces of material that appear above organic search results on the Google results page. They are extracted from a web page that ranks highly for the query and, if caught, can provide a significant traffic boost. They could be presented in the form of a paragraph, a numbered or bulleted list, or another format.

This is important for voice search because if a featured snippet exists for a question, a virtual assistant will most likely interpret it as its answer. It would help if you attempted to capture the featured fragment to win the question.

Unlike a Google Business profile, appearing in a Google featured snippet cannot be guaranteed, so do your best, and do some voodoo (it may help, who knows?).

7 – Improve the speed of your website.

How much do you consider the performance of your website? Hopefully, you’ve given it some thought – it’s widely accepted that a page must load in less than two seconds before the user experience suffers.

Page load time, like mobile optimization, is a Google ranking element that influences how well your site appears in voice search results and beyond. It’s all about the experience once again: Google wants to show us results that will make us happy, and no one wants a slow website.

There are numerous ways to boost the speed of your website. To begin, we recommend using a speed-testing tool such as Website Grader to see where your site currently sits. 

Dream Warrior Group, a Los Angeles Based web design and digital marketing Company, providing solutions for your online marketing needs. Our expertise includes Website Development, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Social Media Posts & Marketing & Google PPC campaigns.  Call us now at 818.610.3316 or click here.