Brands need to get into the minds of their customers to know how to create the right experiences for them. Knowing what your customers need and want from you can help you decide which products to sell, how and when to communicate, and what information to share to help inform their decisions. A customer journey map organizes this process so you can decide how to help customers at every touchpoint.
The online customer journey describes a consumer's path throughout all product, brand, and company touchpoints that help decision-making. This process is called a journey because consumers usually look at a product or brand several times before deciding to take action. They can also flow both forward and backward through the various stages in response to different stimuli and sources of information.
To set your digital customer journey up for a win, you first need a clear understanding of all components involved. These include your target group, customer behavior, optimal communication channels and content formats to use, and most importantly, the user intent at each stage of the journey.
Let’s dive into the customer journey framework and how to optimize the process by creating a customer journey map and using metrics that matter when analyzing the customer journey.
Table of Contents
What Is a Customer Journey?
Why is the Customer Journey Important?
What Does an Online Customer Journey Look Like?
The Customer Journey Model Explained
What Is a Customer Journey Map?
Who Does the Customer Journey Map Follow?
Types of Customer Journey Maps
How to Analyze and Optimize the Customer Journey
What are the Benefits of Creating a Customer Experience Map?
What are Customer Journey Mistakes to Avoid?
How Do I Know if I’ve Been Successful at Optimizing the Online Customer Journey?
How to Use a Customer Journey Map Template
What Is a Customer Journey?
A customer journey is the accumulation of every step a customer has taken before and even after purchasing from your company, and the various emotions they felt each step of the way. These steps are often signified by touchpoints, or moments where the customer interacted with your brand in some way.
Customer journeys are relevant for any company, regardless of the product or service they sell.
Two examples of what a customer journey could look like include:
- B2C Customer Journey: You’ve moved cities and need new weather-appropriate clothes. You’re scrolling through Instagram and see an ad that you click on. You decide not to buy anything, but you sign up for that company’s email list. After you receive an email coupon, you go to the site to finally buy the item that initially caught your eye.
- B2B Customer Journey: You need to get new software for your PR team. You Google the options, see the top results and click through to a G2 Crowd report. You find reviews on some of the options and then go straight to their respective websites to schedule demos. Due to budget constraints, you wait a few months and then eventually purchase your top choice.
These may sound relatively straightforward in writing, but tracking this process is often not so simple.
Why is the Customer Journey Important?
Sales and marketing teams are not the only departments in your company that should be actively using your customer journey to drive business activities.
Customer journey maps are also a necessary communications tool for a variety of reasons. They help you:
- Target Your Efforts: PR and comms pros need to understand how to reach their company’s target audiences effectively. Budgets are often tight, and every activity needs to deliver a proven ROI. If comms professionals keep pitching publications that their ideal customers are not actually reading, then you’re just wasting resources, or vanity pitching top-tier publications to feed the ego of your client
- Uncover Content Ideas: Responsible communication activations should keep customer needs and pain points in mind. By keeping your comms team versed in the customer journey, you can more easily identify the best storylines to pursue
- Enable Cross-Functional Collaboration: Any customer-facing or customer-targeting department in your company (so, arguably everyone) can benefit from some version of a customer journey map. More specifically for comms, your marketing and sales teams are likely creating resources to help move customers along their journey and down the marketing funnel. Comms teams need to know about these resources to ensure they’re not duplicating efforts, take the lead in using them to secure more backlinks to the company’s website alongside company interviews in those earlier-determined key publications
What Does an Online Customer Journey Look Like?
When defining what the online customer journey looks like, brands should try to consider all possibilities. There are tons of paths that lead to the same destination, and not every path is linear.
Let’s say you want to purchase a new pair of headphones. You might start thinking about how and when you plan to use your headphones. For example, do you want to be able to connect to a mobile device? If so, does your mobile device support a wired connection or will you need Bluetooth headphones?
From there, you might do a simple Google search to get a feel for the available styles, brands, colors, and price points. Then you might narrow down your options, watch some product videos, then look at some product reviews from other users before making a purchase. Some people even look for coupon codes or discounts before deciding where to buy.
See how many different actions a consumer might take before choosing their headphones? This approach applies to just about any product your customers buy online. They might take these actions in this order; they might not. There might be other steps they take.
As a brand, your job is to learn more about consumer behavior and the steps your customers take when making buying decisions. This is where customer journey mapping tools like the Meltwater Suite can add value to your strategy.
The Customer Journey Model Explained
Before we discuss tips for optimizing the online customer journey, let’s first briefly discuss the steps involved.
1. Awareness
During the first step of the customer journey (awareness), the user becomes mindful of a need or want. Sometimes, they come to this realization on their own (e.g., their headphones break). Sometimes, the brand presents a problem the user didn’t know they had.
2. Consideration
At this stage of the journey, the person is actively looking for options. The second step is defined by the user’s intent to gather all the relevant information to make good decisions. The user has all the basic information about a subject already from step one. The consideration/evaluation stage is about narrowing options down and comparing.
3. Purchase
During this stage, the user is ready to make a decision. At the transaction stage of the customer journey, it’s important to keep things as simple as possible, so as not to overwhelm the customer and thereby prevent the sale from going through.
It’s at this stage of the B2B online customer journey that the ‘second moment of truth' takes place. The second moment of truth refers to the customer’s experience with the company they’re considering after they’ve become aware. This can occur both before purchasing the product, such as experiencing a hands-on demonstration on TV but may also happen after a purchase. This is usually the case in the modern age of online and live shopping when a customer doesn’t truly experience the product until after it arrives.
A second moment of truth that occurs before purchase will have a greater influence on whether a customer will pay for a service or product. On the other hand, a second moment of truth that happens after purchase will have a bigger impact on their satisfaction and continuing relationship with a brand, therefore affecting reputation.
4. Customer Experience and Engagement
During this stage of the cycle, two-way conversation is key. Customers and prospective leads need to be kept "warm." Even if the lead didn’t respond to further call to actions, there’s still an opportunity to re-engage with them.
Further reading on customer experience (CX): The best customer experience management software, a guide on omnichannel CX, How to Improve B2B Customer Experience [5 Steps], The Best Customer Experience Software & Platforms, The Greatest Customer Experience (CX) Trends, CX statistics you should know about, How To Measure Customer Experience, How to develop a customer experience strategy, The best customer experience examples, Customer Experience Dashboard Basics, What Is Customer Experience (CX) Design?, CX analysis best practices, How Does AI Affect Customer Experience?, and The Retail Customer Experience Guide.
5. Customer Loyalty
What happens after the transaction? The customer's journey should be seen as a loop – just because the transaction is complete doesn’t mean it’s game over. For instance, there might be further needs that come with the purchase, like repair services or upgrades.
Tip: Learn more about how to build and maintain customer loyalty and watch our free on-demand webinar to learn how to map and visualize your customer journey.
What Is a Customer Journey Map?
Every map is designed to help users find their way to a specific place. In the business world, a customer journey map fulfills this same purpose. But instead of guiding customers, it serves as a blueprint for brands to better understand the customer buying experience.
A customer journey map can be defined as a visual representation of how customers discover and buy products. It plots all the possible actions a customer might take to reach a decision.
Items that make up a customer journey include:
- The 5 stages of the customer buying journey
- Customer intent and motivations
- Moments of friction
- Channels of information
- All other touchpoints between customers and brands
Putting all of these things onto a single map makes it easier for business owners and brands to see connections between them. By understanding the paths your customers take and the relationships between touchpoints and actions, brands can improve these paths to create optimal outcomes.
Who Does the Customer Journey Map Follow?
Customer journey maps work for all types of customer touchpoints, whether you’re a business-to-business or a business-to-consumer brand.
However, there’s a difference in user journey mapping when you’re serving clients vs consumers vs customers.
Client Definition: What Is a Client?
A person who anticipates professional support and/or consulting from a business, often the case with professional service providers like attorneys, tax professionals, and financial institutions.
The terms ‘customer’ and ‘client’ are often used interchangeably, but the difference between customer and client matters in the buying journey. Using the word ‘client’ implies a long-term relationship between the buyer and the business. Clients typically receive ongoing advice or product and service recommendations from a business. This isn’t true for customers, who typically deal in transactions only. The relationship may end when they complete the purchase.
Customer Definition: What Is a Customer?
A person who buys goods and services from a business, either for personal or professional use.
Customer classification matters because priorities can affect customer values. For example, an end-user who is buying something for a business might have to consider more than their personal preferences. The buying journey is usually longer, involves more decision-makers, and the decision may affect the business as a whole.
Also, what the customer is buying can indicate how much information and how many touchpoints they need to make a decision. For example, choosing an oven for a home is a much costlier investment than choosing a new shelf. Customers will need plenty of information from the manufacturer to select their oven, will likely compare many options and brands, and read lots of reviews.
Tip: Read about the most common types of customers and learn how to approach them.
Consumer Definition: What Is a Consumer?
A person who purchases goods and services for personal use, usually in a repetitive cycle where items are continually consumed and replenished.
The consumer buying process looks and functions differently from the customer journey because items are usually low-cost and not intended to last forever. Examples of consumer purchases include toothpaste, food, household items, and clothing. The stakes for making a “right” decision are low and don’t often require a lot of research and comparison shopping before choosing to buy.
Client vs Consumer vs Customer in the User Journey Mapping Process
Knowing the difference between customer vs consumer matters when getting inside the customer journey. Knowing the type of customer you’re selling to can help you better understand their needs and priorities. Brands can anticipate shorter or longer buying journeys, provide enough helpful resources and conduct more effective, proactive outreach to send buyers to the next stage.
Types of Customer Journey Maps
Buyers begin their journeys in different places. Adding to the previous example, a buyer who has never had a set of headphones may have more research to do than a person who is trying to replace their favorite headphones that recently broke. Someone who found a set of headphones they love might already have brand loyalty, which can lead to a faster user journey.
So as there are different types of customers, there are also different types of customer journey maps.
Let’s look at four customer journey map examples:
1. Current-State Customer Journey Map
2. Day-in-the-Life Customer Journey Map
3. Future-State Customer Journey Map
4. Persona-Based Customer Journey Map
1. Current-State Customer Journey Map
The current-state user journey map is the most widely used, and for good reason. More organizations are aiming to become customer-centric, not just from an ethical standpoint but also because of the value it creates for the business. Data shows that 7 in 10 consumers have spent more with a business that delivers great customer service. Customers are willing to spend as much as 17% more if it means getting a better experience.
The current-state customer journey map helps businesses become more customer-centric by recognizing how customers currently think and feel when interacting with a brand. This map outlines the actions your customers currently take and how they interact with your brand to identify risks and opportunities for improvement.
2. Day-in-the-Life Customer Journey Map
Similar to a current-state map, a day-in-the-life map expands the user experience to all aspects of a person’s life, not just while interacting with a brand. This map gives you a much wider lens into your customers’ needs, habits, and pain points. For example, does your customer wake up and check Facebook in the morning? Do they work long hours and value convenience and time savings? Do they spend a lot of time watching TV, engaging online, or doing projects?
This type of map is most useful for brands that offer solutions before the customer realizes they have a problem to solve.
3. Future-State Customer Journey Map
The future-state customer journey map creates an ideal picture of what the ultimate customer journey should be. It takes into account the current journey, areas of friction, and other details to simplify, streamline, and improve their experience.
This type of map is helpful in anticipating your customers’ needs, especially when you’re launching new products and services. By being proactive, you might turn a tough customer into an easy sale.
4. Persona-Based Customer Journey Map
For a more granular approach, the persona-based customer journey map dives into individual personas. This option provides a more accurate picture because it takes into account the unique intricacies each type of customer might face.
How to Analyze and Optimize the Customer Journey
Each of these types of user journey maps offers valuable insight and should explain the importance of treating customers as individuals. Customer needs, pain points, and priorities can vary from one to another.
To optimize each journey, we recommend using Consumer Insights Tools like the Meltwater Consumer Insights Solution that illustrate every step. Also, learn more about consumer intelligence and customer intelligence.
Analyzing the Customer Journey by Personas
Optimizing Customer Journey Mapping Using Content and User Intent to Guide You
Optimizing Customer Journey Mapping by Stage
Analyzing the Customer Journey by Personas
Before you can really understand and map out journey insights, you need to have a strong knowledge of the target group as a collective. Customer analysis to create buyer personas is one way to learn more about your audience.
When creating your buyer persona(s), include demographics, behavior patterns, motivations, and the goals of your customers. The more detailed you are, the better you will be able to map out the customer journey. You should aim to answer the following questions:
- What is the average age of your customer?
- What does their education look like?
- What is their role and to whom do they report?
- What goals do they have?
- What challenges do they face?
- How is their work evaluated?
- Which information sources do they trust?
- Are they on social media? If yes, on which channels?
It’s best practice to use a mixture of secondary research (aka desk research or complementary research) (like Forrester reports), data from your internal business intelligence solutions (like your CRM) and social listening to collect consumer insights to find the answers to the above questions.
Tip: Learn more about the top secondary research companies, the top market research tools, and get consumer insights for fashion, and learn how Coca-Cola collects consumer insights.
Interested in getting a free tour of the Meltwater consumer insights solution?
To discover how to put together a persona map, read our blog on persona mapping techniques.
Once you’ve conducted a buyer persona analysis, you’ll have better social media insights into your audience’s needs, challenges, and responsibilities.
Now it’s time to get to grips with their intent and how it differs depending on their stage of the journey.
Optimizing Customer Journey Mapping by Stage
To be successful at customer journey mapping and creating brand touchpoints, you need to consider every communication channel and its effectiveness separately.
For example, users don’t look for transactional content on social media. Instead, you’ll find them in browsing mode, looking for new topics or entertaining content rather than the heavy content you often find on PPC pages.
That’s not to say that social media isn’t useful. Companies just need to position themselves within the realm of the user’s browsing mode. You can do this by providing content that matches the user’s expectations and intent while using that channel.
As complex as the B2B customer journey might be, by focusing on the user intent, you can figure out the content topics and channels that will perform and convert - let's look at this and focus on every stage of the customer journey.
Tip: Watch our free webinar and learn how to map your content to unpredictable customer journeys.
Awareness Stage User Intent and Content
Consideration Stage User Intent and Content
Purchase Stage User Intent and Content
Customer Experience and Engagement Stage User Intent and Content
Customer Loyalty Stage User Intent and Content
Awareness Stage User Intent and Content
Seventy-four percent of all B2B buying agents do their research online before deciding on a supplier. One way companies can optimize their visibility during the awareness stage of the customer journey is by practicing thought leadership.
Audiences often become aware of a company through content. It’s this awareness that leads to interaction and initiates the B2B online customer journey.
Since the person is looking for a solution regarding a certain issue, the content you create for this stage should focus on delivering a solution. This will help strengthen the perception of your company as a voice of authority and build trust.
Data-driven content strategies remove trial and error by telling you the topics your audience cares about most. Use tools such as Google keyword planner to understand search volume and social listening to gain insight into topic popularity, as well as your audience’s key challenges.
Content form and channel for the awareness stage of the customer journey
- Top-of-funnel material that explains the bigger picture and outlines the value for a specific solution is very effective during the awareness stage of the consumer journey.
- Long-form content like blogs, ebooks, guides, educational videos, infographics, slide shares, whitepapers, social media ads, and educational industry-focused webinars work best.
- In terms of channels, we recommend investing in search engine marketing and social media (particularly LinkedIn due to its targeting capabilities) during the awareness stage.
Consideration Stage User Intent and Content
When the user is researching solutions and alternatives, they’re expecting content that offers clear options and alternatives (for example, clarity on the pro and cons). Content for the consideration stage of the customer journey needs to project clear unique selling points (USPs) since USPs help differentiate one solution from the next.
Content form and channel for the consideration stage of the customer journey
- Content formats that work well during this stage include product-specific blogs, listicles (where options are tested and compared against each other) reports, fact sheets, and product-focused webinars that offer the audience the reassurance needed at this stage.
- Search engines are another channel to consider; in fact, they’re one of the most important channels to serve in terms of research. A company can easily connect the dots between its problem and your solution as search marketing delivers high-quality content that matches the request the user is searching for.
Experience has shown the first two levels of the customer journey – awareness and consideration – are significant. This is because web traffic volume generated during these two levels equal more than the traffic from the rest of the consumer journey stages combined.
The intent of your audience during the first two stages of the journey is classified by the informational needs of the user. Various studies have estimated that about 80% of all internet traffic occurs because of informational need.
Purchase Stage User Intent and Content
Here, the user is looking for a transactional landing page that focuses on the product or service they want to buy. The user expects a credible and trustworthy display of all benefits they’ll gain with a transaction, often in the form of user-generated content. It’s also useful to address purchasing barriers the user might have.
To ensure the "second moment of truth" is a positive one, it’s best practice to tell the audience what they can expect in terms of next steps once they’ve purchased (e.g., when they can expect to have a follow-up call or have an onboarding training session). This can be as simple as a ‘welcome’ email or a landing page that explains what to expect next once you fill in an online booking form. Simply taking their money and then running isn’t going to create a positive second moment of truth. Customer experience should always be at the forefront of your mind.
Content form and channel for the transaction stage of the customer journey
- Display retargeting and SEA (search engine advertisements) are the primary content types during the purchase stage.
- Avoid distractions or further content that the user has to navigate through on the transaction page. A user interface that is easy to understand and navigate, as well as trust signals like testimonials and seals of quality, make all the difference!
Customer Experience and Engagement Stage User Intent and Content
The consistency of quality content that adds value might just be what it takes to make a deal attractive again. The key is building an ongoing process through which the prospect continues to see the brand as the leading expert and best solution to their issue. At a certain point, the consideration of another brand wouldn’t make sense anymore.
Content form and channel for the customer experience and engagement stage of the customer journey
- Content that works well during this stage includes customer kick-starter kits, client success stories, ‘how-to’ video tutorials, user manuals, and FAQ sheets.
- Don’t overlook the human element, especially during the customer experience stage. Regular check-ins from your account management team and invitations to exclusive events such as award dinners can have a massive impact on the customer.
Customer Loyalty Stage User Intent and Content
What the customer needs in the customer loyalty stage is additional content that brings awareness to more of your solutions. This also helps brands strengthen the customer relationship as your brand becomes more ingrained in their working life.
Content form and channel for the loyalty stage of the customer journey
- During the loyalty stage, establishing direct interaction, either in-person or via LinkedIn, or email is wise. Client-facing newsletters are one form of content greatly adopted by brands.
- Exclusive access to content like product sneak peeks, asking for their participation in testing and trialing something new, and content collaboration such as joint PR efforts can also show your gratitude to loyal customers.
- Happy customers share their positive experiences and become brand advocates who fuel the digital customer journey for others.
What are the Benefits of Creating a Customer Experience Map?
The customer journey mapping process is a laborious one that’s filled with moving parts and considerations. You might be thinking, “Do I really need to create an experience map?”
Granted, you might already know a lot about your customers without the customer journey mapping process. You might be familiar with your buyers’ pain points, needs, and motivators. Most companies are – on a surface level, at least.
But beyond what you already know, there’s still lots you can discover about your buyers and prospects that you’ll only learn when you make it a priority.
Plus, you can use a ready-made user journey template or a user journey mapping tool to take the guesswork out of the process.
Here are a few other benefits you can expect with a customer experience map:
Shift from an Outbound Approach to an Inbound Approach
Tap Into New Audience Segments
Become More Proactive in Creating a Customer-Centric Brand
Continuously Improve the Customer Experience for Greater Retention
Shift from an Outbound Approach to an Inbound Approach
Outbound marketing hinges on constant outreach. You’re chasing down leads and customers who may or may not align with your target market. They might or might not be interested in your brand or product. Or, they might not have a need you can address (yet).
Inbound marketing takes an opposite approach on all of the above. Instead of chasing leads, the leads come to you. And because they come to you, they’re usually more qualified to receive your marketing message. They’ve shown an interest in your product because they have a need you might be able to fill. And instead of interrupting them with your marketing messages, they’re taking the time to explore your solutions because they want to.
Using a customer journey map template can help you better understand why customers come to you in the first place. Identify their needs, see what's been helpful to other customers, and know what turns them away from your brand. Build on this intel so you can attract more of the same type of customer that already loves you.
Tap Into New Audience Segments
Without a solid understanding of your customers and their journeys, you might not have a good understanding of the characteristics your customers share. Too often, this leads to broad audience targeting instead of focusing on the people who will actually need and be interested in your product.
With a customer journey template, you’ll know the right questions to ask to better know your audience. Follow the template and leave no stone unturned.
Reading Tips: The Market Segmentation Guide: Personas vs. Segments – What’s the Story? We also recommend you to take a look at our customer profiling guide and to learn more about customer segmentation, audience segmentation, audience segmentation tools, customer segmentation tools, customer segmentation models, and customer segmentation examples.
Become More Proactive in Creating a Customer-Centric Brand
Every organization wants to present itself as customer-centric. But the ones who prioritize the customer journey have a better chance of achieving this image.
A user journey template allows you to find risks and opportunities based on the customer experience. For example, if the majority of your leads don’t respond to a certain call to action or drop out of your marketing funnel at the same point, you can look closer at these areas to figure out why.
It might be there’s too much friction at this moment in the journey, such as a lack of live chat support. Or maybe the offer isn’t compelling enough. Or maybe your content doesn’t do a good job in explaining the benefits of your solution.
Whatever the reason, a customer journey map helps you look at these experiences through the eyes of your customers. From there, you can decide what a customer might need at these moments in the journey and adjust accordingly.
Continuously Improve the Customer Experience for Greater Retention
Improving the poor-performing parts of the customer journey gives you opportunities to make real progress in your marketing efforts. In turn, this allows you to earn more sales and retain more customers.
Remember, the customer journey doesn’t end with a transaction. Brands must be proactive in following up with users after the sale, encouraging repeat sales, and reminding customers to continue to use your service. The quality of this aftercare is incredibly important; 33% of customers say they will consider switching brands after just one bad experience.
When you continue to optimize your customers’ experiences, they’ll be more likely to stay with your company. Happy customers are also the best sources of referrals and can help drive sales at a very low acquisition cost.
What are Customer Journey Mistakes to Avoid?
Building and maintaining your customer journey maps is time-intensive, and there are countless ways that pros can lead their team astray with inaccurate customer journeys:
- Assuming Journeys Are Linear: Customer journeys are messy, and most don’t follow a straight path from awareness to purchase. Nearly 71% of companies say that the time between first customer engagement and purchase takes a month or longer, and 61% of companies have at least three pre-purchase touchpoints, with 32% reporting six or more. Adopting a multi-touch attribution strategy is essential to capture and track the intricacies of how your customers are interacting with your brand.
- Working with Siloed Data: Multi-touch attribution is a data-intensive strategy, and many companies simply don’t have the skills or foundation in place for a smooth process. One significant issue is that almost 47% of companies cite data silos as their biggest challenge. Address this by hiring data-driven talent and training your existing team to know how to access and analyze your company’s data. Assess your technology needs to find where you may need more integrations to make your data digestible.
- Relying on the “Easy” Data: If you don’t address the two points above, it’s likely you are going to rely on the “easy” data—whatever it is easiest to track through first and last touch attribution. The problem, as was illustrated with the complex customer journeys, is that the first and the last touch are often just a minor piece of the puzzle. There is a lot of activity that happens between those two points. If you can’t track those points through your technology, you can still get at it the old-fashioned way—by asking. In your lead form, ask how your prospects heard about you to get more insight since your website probably wasn’t their first stop.
How Do I Know if I’ve Been Successful at Optimizing the Online Customer Journey?
Insights from your buyer persona analysis will offer clarity around how your buyers search for information. This, in turn, helps you gain insight into where you should be focusing your KPIs, as well as the relevant metrics to track them.
Companies must be able to identify ROI holistically. There are certain indicators along the journey that will tell you whether or not each and every single step in the journey is working, as well as the touchpoints involved.
We explain how to analyze and measure the results of your customer journey mapping below:
Defining and Tracking the Right Metrics
For analyzing and evaluating digital actions, there are three layers to consider:
- User factors
- Traffic factors
- Sales factors
These three layers connect directly to each stage of the customer journey since they mirror what should happen in every step.
User factors
User factors refer to everything that is related to how the user responds and interacts with the content. These include:
- Click-through rate
- Time spent on site
- Subscriptions
- User comments
Each of these is an indicator for how relevant the content is. If there is no response, it’s probably because your content doesn’t strike a nerve.
Traffic factors
Traffic factors are everything that describes the quality of the generated traffic. These include:
- Referral traffic
- Lead quality
- Page views
- Unique website visitors
Each of these is an indicator for whether or not the content appeals to the right audience. User traffic and sales factors work in synergy. For example, there is a connection between traffic quality and converted leads.
Sales factors
Sales factors are everything that describes economic efficiency and outcome. These include:
- Converted leads
- Cost per lead
- Return on spend
These indicators describe the overall effectiveness of your customer journey from a revenue perspective. They ultimately tell you whether or not the strategy is profitable so you can dig deeper and find out why.
Gathering Relevant Data on Touchpoints
Gathering relevant performance data on touchpoints is simple with the support of the right tools. There are many different tools out there that can help you visualize your customer’s journey by collecting performance data.
Here are a few of them:
Paid Media
Every paid input needs to be monitored. If you’re running search ads, for example, Adwords for Google Ads provides in-depth analysis that you can use to optimize your campaigns. If you’re running a social media advert, you can find native analytic insights within the network’s website.
It makes sense to do an A/B-test campaign to find out which kind of ad works best for the target group. To start, try testing the wording, visuals, and message. Every tiny detail matters and can have an impact on the conversion rate. When A/B testing, only make small changes between each version so you’ll know which detail your audience favors. Too many changes at a time make it hard to know what’s really working and what’s not.
Earned Media
Earning organic placement in media is a cost-effective way for brands to drive awareness and ignite the customer journey. There are a few ways you can track and monitor your earned media.
First, use purpose-built tools that do the heavy lifting for you. Meltwater is an award-winning and industry-leading media intelligence tool. More than 30,000 brands leverage Meltwater’s online news and social media analytics to gain insight into the performance of their customer journey – in particular, brand awareness.
In addition, you can set up Google Alerts for your brand to know when other press and publications are mentioning you. Find out which outlets are sharing your content or talking about your brand, then try to build connections with those media outlets to continue earning media opportunities.
Email as a channel is still one of the most crucial vehicles when it comes to B2B communications. Every B2B company needs to understand how to make the most out of it. It’s one of the lowest costs per impression and generates as much as a 4400% ROI ($44 for every $1 spent).
There are several email marketing tools that brands can use to make repetitive processes (such as responses to downloads and subscriptions) automated, scalable, and effective. Investing in a solid marketing automation tool is the first step.
We recommend Marketo to drive your email marketing strategy.
Webinars
Hands down, webinars as a content format are one of the most effective ways to communicate during the B2B customer journey. Webinars drive high-quality leads because they are laser-focused on a single topic, problem, or idea. They also have the added benefit of generating useful and helpful data, such as engagement insights, including which topics appeal to your target group and who of your audience is ready to make the next step.
To start your search, look at ON24.
CRM
All communication and interaction with (potential) clients need to be documented and evaluated. A CRM tool like SalesForce empowers companies to identify patterns in client behavior so they can quickly capitalize on strengths and plug their weaknesses.
CRM tools collect and analyze data and turn it into useful insights for your sales team. These systems also get better with age. The more data you collect over time, the better the systems are at finding trends and patterns that can support any change you make to the customer journey.
Business Intelligence Tools
Business intelligence tools, as well as customer intelligence platforms and consumer insights tools, allow you to feed disparate data types from the tools mentioned above into one centralized hub that visualizes the digital customer journey. Journeys are not linear processes and touchpoints are heavily interlinked. Since channels don’t exist in silos, neither should data and teams.
How to Use a Customer Journey Map Template
The digital customer journey is a multidimensional road that never ends. The different layers, goals, user intents, content formats, and channels require a holistic approach.
By now, you should have a better understanding of customer journey mapping and the most useful content to leverage during certain phases. Use these new insights to help you optimize your customer’s journey and deliver timely, relevant, and helpful information that will earn you customers for life.
If you'd like to learn more about tracking, analyzing, and optimizing your buyer touchpoints with Meltwater, fill out the form on this page and we'll be in touch.
