Digital Marketing for Conversion Rate Optimization : Prioritizing Efforts for SMEs with Consideration to Information Overload

Digital marketing involves several channels that represent important touchpoints across the customer journey which SMEs must prioritize and invest in effectively. However, SMEs can struggle with limited resources of time, budget and knowledge which makes successful implementation of digital marketing and conversion rate optimization difficult. The challenges are even more severe when adding information overload to the context and how this affects consumers behavior along the increasingly complex nature of the customer journey. Thereby, the purpose of this study is to explore what Swedish SMEs should prioritize when it comes to digital marketing touchpoints to increase conversions, especially emphasizing how consumers’ behaviors may be affected by information overload across the customer journey. This was carried out by using a qualitative approach with an exploratory nature and by conducting in-depth interviews with consumers and experts in the digital marketing field. The main findings of this study suggest that online advertising, SEO, social media, web pages and customer reviews are of highest priority for SMEs to increase conversions. Further, information overload has a significant role in the customer journey in terms of large quantities of information, wrong characteristics, information disorganization, complex task and process parameters and lacking quality of content. Lastly, information overload is also shown as a conflict between marketers and consumers