But first, establish some key elements:
1) What motivates customers? What needs they have? What are their concerns and hesitations?
2) Customers discover the brand, research, choose, purchase, advocate... They move around different stages.
Consequently, our objective would be: Mapping out the way a consumer gets through different stages until they finally buy (or not),
Always considering: How can I help my customers achieve their goals on my website, still achieving mine?
Apply Inbound Marketing Methodology
Inbound Marketing is not only a strategy, is a philosophy about how understand and perform marketing activities around a central concept: Moving from marketing activities focused in the firm to marketing centered in customer interest.
Define Customer Personas
Customer Personas are fictional representations of segments of buyers based on real, relevant and properly collected data reflecting their behaviours and some relevant characteristics (demographics, income, etc.) they share.
Research (qualitative and quantitative) is the instrument to define those segments. This research must be focused on:
- Your Customer's Goals.
- Their hesitations, concerns and necessity of information.
- How do they view your product or service.
To perform this research you can:
- Elaborate Customer Surveys based on qualitative aspects: (What real people think, which is not the same as your idea of what they think; getting information about buying habits, what motivates them, and how they see your product or service.
- Use Analytic tools (Google Analytics) to determine individual user behaviour on your website.
The importance of Data
Decision making process must be supported by relevant data, not by models based on experience and intuition only.
Your website design must be aimed to help customer to accomplish what they want. Watch their behaviour on line and remove anything impeding their satisfaction and the fulfilment of their goals. Use analytical tools to get relevant data in order to improve your company success.
Make easy for your customers to get the information they want about your products or services and about your company.
Collecting data is not enough. A substantial task is analyze this data, paying special attention to those that really matters, and avoiding those that are not relevant to our purposes.. Structure your collected data in a way that be useful to take actionable steps to improve your customer experience as they interact with your business, on and off line.
Mapping The Customer Journey
Most that has been said until now goes around (in certain ways) outdated concept of sales funnel and about the convenience to find a new tool that help us organise our marketing efforts. We have emphasized the notion of customer persona and the need to take actions based on relevant data, to help our customers achieve their goals. Now, let's say what a "Customer Journey Map" is for:
"Is a framework that maps out the stages of your customer's lifecycle. It enables you to improve your customer experience through helping you best understand how customers are interacting with you now and what to areas to invest in moving forward". Joanna Lord (BigDoor)
A customer journey map is useful to spot the touch points in which your customers contact with your company online and offline.
Let's highlight some relevant points about customer journey maps:
- Must be based on data driven research.
- Must consider the different phases customer experience as they interact with the company (A customer can jump from one phase to another based on a number of factors).
- Sentiments, goals, touch points are dimensions to be considered when building a customer journey map.
- They may interact with some touch points and miss others entirely.
Your website deserves all your attention
Obviously, you can interact with your customers on line as well as off line, but there is no doubt that websites are key elements in today's business. When designing your customer journey map, be aware of the importance of having an optimized website. In any case, to create a map we could proceed along the steps showed below:
1) Define the Behavioural Stages
You already have performed quantitative and qualitative research to build your personas model. Now, you have an approximate idea about the processes they go through as they interact with your firm on and off line. In this evolutive process we can enumerate the following stages (BigDoor Model):
As consumers move along these stages, they can ask themselves questions and define goals:
Obviously, you can interact with your customers on line as well as off line, but there is no doubt that websites are key elements in today's business. When designing your customer journey map, be aware of the importance of having an optimized website. In any case, to create a map we could proceed along the steps showed below:
1) Define the Behavioural Stages
You already have performed quantitative and qualitative research to build your personas model. Now, you have an approximate idea about the processes they go through as they interact with your firm on and off line. In this evolutive process we can enumerate the following stages (BigDoor Model):
- Discover.
- Compare.
- Consider.
- Commit
- Retain.
Chart from "A Quick Guide to Customer Journey Mapping" (BigDoor)
2) Align Customer Goals With The Stages
Don't forget that your customer journey map:
Don't forget that your customer journey map:
- Isn't about your company's goals; it's about your customer's.
- You must be able to envision which touch points are key elements to help customers reach their goals.
It raises an important question:
Is your website properly designed to support your customer's goals?
Today, websites are the places where, sooner or later, customers interact with companies.
3) Identify The Touchpoints
Touchpoints are the places where your customers are engaging with you on your site and where you can be supporting the completion of their goals. So, you can realize the importance of finding them. You could use Google Analytics to perform this task:
Suggestions For Change and Final Considerations: Practice "Inbound Marketing"
You already have defined and segmented your Customer Personas, have considered the stages in which they move. You also have identified touchpoints and used analytics to gauge the effectiveness of the company's website.
I think it is a great opportunity to adopt best inbound marketing practices, which can help in the whole process of mapping your customer's journey, as they act on important stages and touchpoints along this journey, for example:
Related Post:
3) Identify The Touchpoints
Touchpoints are the places where your customers are engaging with you on your site and where you can be supporting the completion of their goals. So, you can realize the importance of finding them. You could use Google Analytics to perform this task:
- Behaviour Flow Report: Show the path users move from one page or event to the next. It will help you understand where your users are struggling to get where they want to go on your site.
- Goal Flow Report: This report helps you to see whether or not your users are completing a goal (that you set previously) through a funnel. Pay attention to the places where users are unexpectedly leaving your website.
4) Are Your Customers Achieving Their Goals?
Your Google Analytics report show you where problems surge as customers interact with your brand on line. Get insight about what is behind those problems to efficiently address them. Qualitative research would help you in this particular point, as said before.
Remember that we have always to be focused in the fulfilment of our customer's goals.
Suggestions For Change and Final Considerations: Practice "Inbound Marketing"
You already have defined and segmented your Customer Personas, have considered the stages in which they move. You also have identified touchpoints and used analytics to gauge the effectiveness of the company's website.
I think it is a great opportunity to adopt best inbound marketing practices, which can help in the whole process of mapping your customer's journey, as they act on important stages and touchpoints along this journey, for example:
- Implement a blog to better connect with your customers and generate leads.
- Make it easy for people to find you, your products and offers using SEO methodology (prepare a relevant keyword list)
- Create Landing Pages and Thank You Pages, including effective CTA's (Call to Action Buttons).
- Have a good Social Network strategy, making people share, like and comment. Social Networks are good places to solve questions, find out what people think about the brand and create engagement.
- A Step by Step Guide to Building Customer Journey Maps, by Jennifer Havice.
- A Quick Guide to Customer Journey Mapping, by Joanna Lord.