Customer Journey Map is one of the key and underlying discussions in content marketing ; Of course, travel maps are used in sales and advertising in a more or less similar way.
The term journey map is based on the premise that a very small portion of any business’s potential customers will reach the point of purchase quickly, directly, and completely instantaneously.
The path of a potential customer becoming a real customer and then a loyal customer is usually a long and multi-stage path; A path that can be compared to a journey.
The term customer journey has been popularized based on this metaphor: the journey from the point of unfamiliarity to purchase and the formation of a deep relationship. Most customers and audiences of a brand have gone through a long, complex and multi-stage journey; The journey was not the same for all of them.
Defining the customer journey map
A customer journey map is a visual representation of every experience your customers have with you.
This map tells the story of the customer’s experience with your brand , from the first encounter to when a long-term relationship is formed.
A customer journey map has a simple idea: a diagram that shows step-by-step the way customers engage with a company, physical product, online experience, retail experience, service, or a combination of these.
The more the contact points or the number of steps, the more complex and necessary such a map will be.
Customer journey map path
Think for yourself and see, as someone who is reading this article, from which paths you could have reached this point.
Let’s review some possible routes.
Search on Google
One of the first ways that comes to mind is through searching on Google or other search engines .
In this hypothetical path, the audience’s journey starts from internet search and after reaching one of the content, if he finds the content interesting or useful, he continues to read the content as a user.
Recommendation of friends
Of course, this is not the only possible trip from the search engine. Those who visit our site with the recommendation of their friends, follow a different path.
One of the conceivable paths for those who visit Digi Ding on the recommendation of others is to reach the first page by typing the site address or searching it in Google.
Then they may decide to see some content and maybe register in the next steps.
The discussion of drawing a customer journey map and beyond that, the design of a customer journey map is much more serious and complex than a few simple paths that were mentioned here.
But these simple explanations should have clarified to some extent what we are looking for in the discussion of the Customer Journey Map, and that is nothing but examining the customer’s familiarity with the product or business; From the first communication and contact to the moment when the relationship is established in a serious and deep way.
The importance of customer journey mapping
When we accept that different people come to our business from different paths; And also during the period of connection with our business, they experience different journeys, we take the difference of their needs and concerns more seriously.
The use of the journey map is useful in various branches of management, marketing and sales , and it cannot be limited to a specific field. For example, paying attention to the customer journey map in the design and implementation of the customer relationship management system can definitely increase its effectiveness. Pricing strategy can also be influenced by where each customer is in their journey.
But what we specifically address here is paying attention to the stages of the customer journey when creating content and applying content marketing .
Therefore, we should try to make the channel of communication with the audience or customer as well as the type of content that we present to him different in each part of the customer’s journey and take into account the characteristics of that part of the journey.
Using a customer journey map reminds us that each of our audiences or customers have different needs and concerns compared to others, and even at different points in their journey.
Ignoring the customer journey map can increase our costs and reduce the effectiveness of communication, ultimately leading to customer confusion.
In the way of familiarizing customers with businesses, products and brands, you can find many examples where the customer got confused in the middle of the journey and ultimately did not reach the destination of the journey, which is the formation of a deep and stable relationship.
Mapping the customer journey
Before we get into the specialized discussions of customer journey map design and its optimization, perhaps referring to a case that many of us have experienced will make the importance of customer journey map more clear to you.
Maybe you have come across those who sell a product on their site and are active on social networks to support that product.
They constantly direct the audience from Telegram to Instagram post and from Instagram to Story and from Story to their personal account and from their personal account to business account and in the meantime, from time to time, congratulations on various occasions and events of the country. And they also say condolences and sometimes encourage the audience to visit the site and buy the product in the story or in the Bio section on Instagram.
At first glance, this may seem very logical and common. But if these same people draw their customer journey map more accurately and analyze the path of their current customers and audience, they may reach a different conclusion.
For example, a large part of their potential customers have been caught in the circle of live, post, story, channel, etc. and they have not been able to benefit from their efforts as much as they should. It’s like a car traveling around the square and there are so many attractions around the square that it forgets to choose one of the exits and continue on its way.
So keep in mind that if you build more roads and paths every day, you won’t necessarily make the customer’s journey easier and more pleasant. The wandering of many customers on their journey is caused by businesses not paying attention to customer roadmap design.
Methods of drawing a customer journey map
There is not one or more limited ways to map the customer journey, and each business can find and apply its own suitable method, depending on its conditions and needs.
Here, I will introduce you to two of the well-known methods for drawing a customer journey map, and I also emphasize that after that, based on your understanding of this concept and the knowledge you have of your business, the appropriate method of drawing a map for Design your customers:
- Drawing a step-by-step journey map based on customer contact points (Stage-based Method)
- Drawing a travel map according to the audience’s or customer’s feelings (Affect-based Method)
Step-by-step drawing method based on contact points
In this method, two components are considered to draw the customer’s road map. One is the steps of the purchase process and the second is customer communication channels.
But before going to the map drawing method, I must once again emphasize the importance of paying attention to the persona of the audience.
First of all, define the role of the different personas. Because different personas have different desires, expectations and concerns, and they may even use different tools to search and review products and get to know businesses.
Attention to customer persona is the basis of most businesses. Regardless of the type of product and the way you communicate with the customer, mapping the customer journey starts with defining their personas.
Familiarizing yourself with the concept of persona and paying attention to the types of personas you deal with is one of the important prerequisites for success in drawing a customer journey map.
If you have well-known and compiled customer personas, you may decide to draw a dedicated journey map for some of them, separate from others.
Steps and contact points
Naturally, here we use the customer in its general sense. If you only care about increasing the number of followers on your social network or the number of viewers is important for TV, we consider the same followers and viewers as customers.
If we are talking about tomato paste, the person who pays to buy it is assumed to be a customer.
Content delivery channels and tools
Communication channels and tools can be very diverse depending on your creativity and budget.
For example, leaflets distributed on the street, advertisements pasted on the wall, billboards, TV teasers, advertising reports , stands installed in stores, promotional SMS , social networks , websites and face-to-face meetings are just a few examples of tools that you may use. Use them to deliver content to customers at different parts of their journey.
Even the same message, in different platforms, is not necessarily presented and sent in a single form. Whenever we talk about communication with a customer or audience, we must immediately say which platform and communication channel we mean.
Draw the matrix of stages and channels
After you have defined the different steps and your communication channels and platforms are listed, you can put them in a matrix.
After drawing this matrix, you can look at individual horizontal and public intersections and see which ones have the potential to have proprietary content.
Among the various stages of the customer journey, we use one of the most common models here:
- The customer is not aware of his needs
- The customer gets to know his need or this need is induced to him
- It looks for different ways to meet its needs
- He decides to buy
- He takes action and makes the purchase
Be sure to note that due to the multiple personas of your audience, you may have to produce several types of content or a mixed content at each intersection.
a business might prefer to include the following steps in its customer journey:
- Basic awareness
- Persuasion to action
- Search and discover more information about competitors
- The final choice
- first use
- Permanent use
- Product replacement by competitors’ offers
The above steps can be the selection of a mobile application development team . Because in installing and using the application, the first use, which is the so-called activation, is different in nature from the subsequent uses, and the transition from the first use to the permanent use is considered an important step, if, for example, for someone who sells refrigerators, such a separation has no meaning at all. does not have.
So never assume the customer journey is clear and smooth. At different stages, the customer experiences many fears, doubts and worries. Designing, analyzing and optimizing the travel plan can reduce the psychological pressure on the customer.
The method of drawing a travel map according to feeling
A valuable feature of the customer journey map we drew was that it actually looked like a journey map. That is, on each arrow, you could display and observe the movement of your potential customer or contact step by step.
But in purchases and relationships where there is mental involvement and high complexity, another form of customer journey map may be more useful to you. This map is also a kind of visual representation of the customer’s path; But it is more of a puzzle in the form of a table than a simple graphic work. A riddle with the help of which you want to get closer to the mind of your audience or customer.
But in any case, when you have put everything in your mind into this table and classified it, you will reach the last line, what kind of content should I produce at each stage and which channels and by which tools should I produce them? deliver to the customer?
In the end, we will be happy if you describe your path to this article in the form of a travel map.
