If you follow marketing trends, you must have come across the term – digital marketing customer journey. It goes by many names; others call it a map or framework. Whichever name you know, this development remains one of the proven methods to grow a business around its customers – and to get an assured return on investment.
And in this article, we shall be looking at what a customer journey map is, how it helps your business, and how you can create one.
What Is A Digital Marketing Customer Journey Map?
Did you ever wonder if it’s possible to document each of your customers’ interactions with your business and their experience afterward? If you did, customer journey maps would sweep you off your feet – they do just what you seek. How so?
You see, customers would interact with your business in countless ways. That could be either by following you on social media platforms, reacting to your blog posts, buying from you – or even all. And beautifully, all those interactions are datasets that can help you streamline your offers to convert future leads.
That point is where a customer journey map comes in; it is a detailed visual representation of your customers’ experiences while associating with your brand. It gives you a snapshot of how any of your audience has been and might react to your offers – and what more you could do to gain their attention.
Summarily, a customer journey map (if done right) is a tool that will spur your business to enhanced conversions and revenue. In particular, it can speed up your sales cycle by up to 16.8%. And the best part: you would spend less because you already know the pattern of your audience’s behavior.
Also read: 10 Key Concepts of a Successful Digital Marketing Strategy
However, note the keyword – if done right! So, how can you document your customers’ journey the right way?
Creating An Effective Digital Marketing Customer Journey Map In 5 Simple Steps
Develop A Buying Process From Your Sales Funnel
The chances are that you already have a tested and trusted sales funnel for your business. So, use that to decide how the information points/touchpoints on your website work – and their effectiveness too. And if your funnel hasn’t been yielding results, you might want to fix it first.
Think WWCD – What Would Your Customer Do?
While analyzing the stages and information points on your sales funnel, ditch all robotic ideas. Think human and look at all the processes like a neutral – a customer looking to purchase a good. Does your funnel appeal to your emotions, needs, and personalities? If you feel any hiccup along the way, the chances are that your customer would too.
So, humanize your sales funnel. More importantly, make it as comprehensible as possible. You can draw inspiration from your support calls and emails!
Refine Your Information Pods/Touchpoints For Enhanced Interaction
Take a look at the information points on your website, are they streamlined for easy use? For example, do you have social share buttons? Are there comment sections on your blogs? How about the likes and Call-To-Actions?
Take your time and refine those touchpoints. See which one is working and which isn’t – then, fix such!
Now, Create A Map Of Your Customer Interactions
By now, you have streamlined your information points to your funnel as humanly as possible. The next step then is to create your customer journey map. But first, compile your observations and revisions so far into logical sequences. Next, engage a graphic designer to construct a visual representation from your research so far. We’ve actually made the map for you:
Lastly, test your already made map with Google Analytics. Check to see the loopholes along your funnel and fix them.
Align Your Marketing To This Process
Now that you’ve mapped how your customers interact with your business online, you need to map your marketing efforts to that journey. This can be a bit daunting if you don’t have systems and processes and well as staff to manage this day-in and day-out.
The risk of NOT putting a marketing process in place is that your competitors have and they could be capturting your customers at any stage of the journey where you are not on top.
Use The Right Tools For the Job
Small businesses may not have the staff or budgets for fully outsourced digital marketing services. We created the Local Business Online Toolkit specifically with this in mind. It provides the kinds of tools and data insights that large corporate marketing departments use but with small business owners’ time and budgets in mind.
