#Lockdown Live: Guide to customer journey mapping

Customer journey mapping is about crafting an intentional journey for your customers and includes every interaction and touchpoint that they have with you whether it is digital or in person. It is very important as it allows you to better understand your customer, and also gives you insights on how to improve your customer’s experience, thereby increasing loyalty, brand love and ultimately, sales. 

 

During the lockdown, I hosted a series of live events on our Digital Marketers Unite Facebook group.  In this episode, we will be speaking about creating a customer journey, but do check out the other topics such as personal branding, marketing on a budget, and campaigns and integrated digital marketing – they are only 30 -40 mins each and give a nice introduction to each topic.

 

Step 1: Who is your Target Audience?

 

Firstly, it is extremely important that you know who your target audience is, as you have to create different content and a different customer journey for your different audiences. 

 

If you divide your audience into segments it is easier to create customer-specific content to share. 

Most people have finite resources, so I suggest focussing on one segment at a time. Check out our handy target marketing table with a downloadable template that could help you work it out if you get stuck.

 

Step 2: Set Up Facebook and Google Pixels

If your Facebook and Google pixels have not yet been implemented on your website, I suggest you activate them as soon as possible. 

 

Pixels come in handy in crafting a customer journey as they can track who has watched what, or visited your website, and then go on to show them the next series of content. 

 

Another great idea is to load your mailer list of past customers into Facebook and it gives you the option to target this audience, to exclude this audience, or even to find lookalikes or people with similar interests.

 

Step 3: Mapping out the Journey

The journey your customers go through is divided into four main sections, awareness, interest, desire and action. 

Ultimately your goal is to grow customer awareness, change that into interest, the interest into desire, and then desire into action.

 

 

The funnel gets thinner, indicating your dropoff of customers because out of all the people you reach only about 5-10% of them will actually make it to the action part of the journey and become customers.

 

Awareness

This is the acquisition part of the journey. In this section you have all the people who are unaware of you and your product or service.  This is where your journey with customers begins. 

 

Unless you are fortunate enough to have a well known brand, customers do not trust you yet. 

 

People do not buy from strangers. 

 

To help further the acquisition of these potential customers, use more emotive, compelling language rather than logical language. Focus on their needs before your own. What do they need? 

 

Use the channels available to introduce yourself, your brand, and your product or service. Make use of social media and use videos, ads and possibly an educational blog. 

 

Focus less on what you do, and more on the feeling that they will get from you. When you address people at this point in their journey, be sure to gently go about converting them into customers, so they do not feel rushed and leave. 

 

It is important to take them through a ‘learn more’ process before you hit them with a ‘sign up’. They will buy or sign up when they are ready, and have all the information they need and want.

This is where the pixel comes in, it can identify people who have engaged with your content, and make sure they are shown the next series of content, below.

 

Interest and Desires 

Next, we have the conversion stage. In this part of the journey, the awareness has changed into interest. They know about your business and what you do. 

 

Now your content can become a little more hard-sell with your audience, and be less emotive and focus a little more on explaining your product or services. 

 

Using digital tracking like Facebook and Google pixels, you know that these people showed interest and watched your video or read your blog for example. You can now create content and target these people specifically, and motivate them to buy, or at least go to your website so a cookie can be attached. 

 

Once the cookie is attached, you can hit them with a remarketing banner later on. Be careful not to show them content that they have already seen. 

 

Your next goal is to get them to sign on to your emailer, so you can message them over long periods of time. Email addresses are great, and I suggest you grow your mailer list as much as possible. Nobody likes to receive SPAM, so be sure to only share helpful content. 

 

This is normally a long, slow sale. Once the interest turns into desire you might possibly have a sale on your hands.

 

Action

They have bought, downloaded, watched, signed up or added to cart. Well done! 

 

Now to get them to come back for more. 

 

High customer retention is something that every business wants. When you have those loyal customers that either come back to buy from you again or possibly refer other people to you, your brand awareness grows.  

 

It is best to not share the same content that they have already seen or content on something they have possibly already bought. You of course also get your one time buyers, and for them, you also create different content.

If you use a CRM system like Zoho One, your mailers will be automated and you can also ensure that the right people see the right content.

 

Lapsed Customers

Like I said, retention of customers is what you want, so reactivating lapsed customers is the smart thing to do. 

 

Here you need to take time to target the people that have stopped buying from you or don’t use your services anymore. Once you know who these customers are, you upload your email database to Facebook and then create content specific to them, or you can send out emailers, or, if you have a high-value product or service, send them a gift to remind them about you!

Now that you have created your journey map for one segment, you can do it for the other segments as well.

I hope this was helpful when it comes to your customer journey mapping! Feel free to join our Digital Marketers Unite Facebook group for the latest tips and tricks on digital marketing.

Good luck, and give us a shout if you need help.

 

About Dylan Kohlstädt

Dylan Kohlstädt started Shift ONE digital in 2011 and now has a team of top subject matter experts working with her from her offices in Cape Town and Jo’burg, and clients based all over the world.

 

Shift ONE specialises in getting you customers through authenticity: creating authentic content that builds communities and turns customers into fans. We create believable top-converting websites, that rank on page one of Google SEO, and next level social media, online advertising, email marketing, graphic design, blogging, press and PR, lead generation, writing, video, animations, and more.

 

Dylan also founded the Digital Marketing Academy in 2013 in order to pass on what she knows, upskilling marketers and entrepreneurs in digital marketing skills, in a fun, face-to-face or online environment.

Dylan Kohlstädt has worked in advertising, marketing and online in South Africa, UK and Australia and attended a Google for Entrepreneurs immersion program in Silicon Valley where she learned about going from garage to global.

Dylan Kohlstädt, CEO and founder, is a subject matter expert on digital marketing whose articles are regularly featured in entrepreneur and business magazines, TV and radio. Dylan has 20 years of marketing management experience, eight of which are in digital marketing. She also has an MBA through UNISA.

 

You can reach Dylan at:

Email: Dylan@shiftone.co.za

Social media: @dylankohlstadt

Web: www.shiftone.co.za