What is your customer journey?

WHAT IS YOUR CUSTOMER JOURNEY?

The customer journey or buyer journey is the set of interactions a customer has before they visit your website. It allows us to understand buyer behavior and map out all of the possible scenarios a customer faces before they reach your products/services. When you document “the customer journey,” you are mapping out different behavioral scenarios using existing data.

WHY YOU NEED TO MAP YOUR CUSTOMER JOURNEY?

Mapping your customers journey is a strategic way of analysing all touchpoints the customer faces. It leads to improve decision making and will give insights into the types of content that the customer is interested in. Here are a few reasons why it is important to map your customer journey:

It allows you to optimise your content to ensure its relevance at different stages.
It helps you to stay focused on the critical touchpoints.
It forces you to think critically about the current customer experience and how they interact with your services.
It helps you to put together a strategic content plan that will be engaging for the right target audience.

RESEARCHING YOUR CUSTOMERS JOURNEY

Brainstorm with your team to discuss all of the potential touchpoints
Conduct qualitative research with current and past customers.
Benchmark competitor experiences. How are their customers reaching them?
Use data from all available sources (website traffic, analytics, social media, emails etc)

DESIGNING YOUR CUSTOMERS JOURNEY

Build your Buyer Personas (we recommend at least 3 personas)

Your buyer personas should be accurate representations of your target audience. Demographics, geographics, interests, work and problems they face provide valuable knowledge for all content campaigns.

Select one persona to build their customer journey

Begin with one particular buyer in mind. Focus on all of their traits.

Identify the customers objectives

What is this buy trying to do? What problems do they face? What content are they looking at?

Define the different stages for this persona

What does their research stage look like? How will they consider their options? When will they make a decision? These are some of the questions you need to answer about each buyer.

List out as many touchpoints as possible

Describe each touchpoint. For example, local shop, local online newspaper, Facebook, Instagram, Tiktok etc.

Identify Customer pain points

What annoys this buyer when they are searching for a product or service?

Use the map to work on gaps in your content flow

Identify and describe the gaps and types of content that will lead to more interactions with this customer.

Measure the results

Have you designed useful content for your buyer that has led to more engagement and interactions with your products and services?