Welcome to the Small Business Guide to Shaping the Customer Journey.

The customer journey is the sum of all experiences a customer has when interacting with your business. From their first Google search to their most recent purchase, every touchpoint adds up to a total customer journey. And in today's digital world, there are countless touchpoints to consider. Taking charge of the path your customer takes with your business is critical to creating a smooth journey that builds loyalty and encourages return business and lots of referrals.

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Full table of contents

1 Understanding the customer journey

What is the customer journey, anyway? If you're unfamiliar with the term or need a refresher on the nuts and bolts that go into influencing your customer journey, this is the place to start.

2 Tools for driving the customer journey

You want to drive the customer journey, rather than letting it take control itself. There are a number of marketing tools that can help you create your desired path for customers.

3 How content shapes the customer journey

Because today's customer journey has so many touchpoints, twists, and turns, you need a way to help your customers find the clearest path to conversion. Content is the way to do just that.

People in professional services need to be good at what they do, but their audience hopes that’s a given. Sometimes even the best of the best have a hard time growing their business because they are so focused on the services they provide, they just don’t dedicate time to the growth of their company (or simply don’t know where to start to do that).

Full table of contents

Google My Business and citations

Google My Business is a crucial online, digital tool or service from Google that is available to local businesses or service area businesses. You have to have a business in a location to claim a profile for that location, but when you do, it does unlock some powerful tools.

Google Ads paid local traffic

One of the most important ways to get found today as a local business is to show up - front and center - when someone whips out their phone and searches Google for a product or service near them.

Google Ads, along with a focus on SEO, is how you can dominate your market for local search.

Local website optimization

While there is a growing percentage of web designers who understand how to design strategically, there are still many business owners who have the “make my site pretty” mentality. By not keeping SEO, content, strategy, user experience, website functionality, and design in mind, companies risk losing business opportunities.

Reviews and competitive analysis

Most local business owners are aware that positive online reviews are good for business, but over the years, I’ve realized many aren’t aware of just how much they can impact it. Today’s consumers are increasingly relying on reviews to make decisions about the products and services they purchase.

Backlinks on- and offline

No matter what Google tries to do to devalue backlinks, they still remain an important factor in your ranking.

Getting high quality backlinks to your content is one of the more important factors in getting your content to rank. Buying links and acquiring links in shady ways is no way to go about this.

4 The connection between customer experience and the customer journey

In the end, the sum of all the customer journey's parts is what your audience experiences when interacting with your brand. From the ads they see to the product they buy to the customer service they receive, these elements of the journey all shape a customer's perception of your brand.