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Have you ever picked up a magazine on the strength of a cover blurb, only to discover inside that the article doesn't deliver what the blurb promised? Even when the article is strong and engaging, the reader feels somewhat dissatisfied or even downright angry.
That's the same thing consumers feel when their online experience is a series of disjointed impressions rather a smooth journey from one step to the next. The disconnect between ad and site jars potential customers and sends them seeking relief elsewhere.
Understanding this phenomena, and realizing the impact such disjointed experiences can have on your business, is an important first step.
"It's a recognition that the customer is in control. It's about listening to what he finds relevant and engaging," says Mark Taylor at Wunderman. He calls the process the "optimization of the customer journey."
What we need to do is make their experience seamless. We need to optimize their experience every step of the way by making sure that the message we're giving is the message they want to hear.
When we do, consumers will be that much more engaged with us, and each step of the journey will engage them even more, driving them ever closer to conversion.
Click, Stick and Close
Of course, you might argue, this is the year of optimization. We're already working on optimizing our own part of the experience. We're testing content within the website. We're beginning to test and optimize our offers. We're working on improving things within our own silo, and numbers are improving steadily. Communication across silos is difficult, will it really make that big a difference?
The answer, of course, is yes. It will make an enormous difference when customers experience a seamless journey from the first click through the close of the sale.
But testing and optimizing within each step of the journey is a valid and necessary first step. The smartest companies are testing and optimizing their ads -- often the first "click" of a customer's experience with you -- trying out different headlines, calls to action, URLs, and they are seeing increasing levels of ROI.
They're testing and optimizing on their site -- getting customers to "stick" -- by experimenting with top 10 lists, customer recommendations, copy, navigation and images.
And they're optimizing at the end of the experience -- the "close" -- by testing and optimizing forms, "thank you" pages and more.
Each of these, the click, the stick and the close, can and should be optimized in order to improve customer satisfaction and resulting ROI. If you're doing optimization on that level, then you're already ahead of the curve.
The Next Step
Now begin thinking of them not as separate entities, but as a group of experiences that work together: the click, stick and close.
When you begin to optimize the three together, you'll improve ROI more than you thought possible. If it seems insurmountable, begin small. If you're in the website silo, begin to reach out to folks in the ad group. Ask them what they're showing in their ads and begin to ask yourself what you can do to support those ads.
Only when we stop maintaining those silos and begin optimizing across the "click, stick and close" will we stop doing consumers a disservice.
And that will make an impressive difference in the bottom line. Because our customers don't care that we work in silos. They don't care that communication is difficult. They don't notice when they go from a landing page to a site. They don't know the difference between a search ad and an organic listing. All they know - and all they care about - is having a useful, consistent experience that gets them the information they want.
That should be all we care about, too.
Jamie Roche is president at Offermatica. Read full bio.
