10. CUSTOMER JOURNEY MAPPING OVERVIEW
At this point you are probably thinking that this sounds great but how do you make it a reality as
non-linear, personalised journeys sound extremely complex to deliver in their own right let alone con-
sidering the complexity that already exists in our organisation. However, the reality is that
customer journeys can be broken down into bite-sized chunks that will enable you to slowly bring on
board each of your channels and communications silos. It begins, as you might expect,
with the audience…
PERSONAS
The most important part of any customer journey is your audience. Personas are
ways of understanding your audience based on key behaviours and preferences.
Unlike segments which focus solely on demographics, personas focus on behaviour
CATALYSTS
Every journey has to start somewhere and we call these starting points the
catalysts. In other words, what are the events/reasons that start our
customer on their journey
INTENT
Understanding the intent of our customer ensures that we are providing a
journey that resonates with their actual decision-making process instead of
being aligned with your sales process
MARKETING ENGAGEMENT
All act one elements of the journey consist of all forms of marketing engagement
with your audience, which includes PR, Above the Line, Print, Social Media,
Websites, Blogs, SEO, Display/Digital avertising and outbound email campaigns
ACT 1
SALES ENGAGEMENT
Engagment Mapping allows us to join our marketing engagement with our sales.
Most businesses do a great job at the awareness piece in marketing and do very
well in refining their sales process either in person or via their website. Customer
Journey Mapping allows you to join your marketing engagement with your sales
ACT 2
CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT
Once customers have purchased something from a business they typically start
a customer journey that is completely detached from the journey that got them
there in the first place. Customer Journey Mapping ensures that the customer’s
journey is connected, increasing satisfaction and upsell opportunities
ACT 3
13. THE CUSTOMERS JOURNEY
Marketing
Engagement
ACT 1
ACT 2
ACT 3
Sales
Engagement
Customer
Engagement
Ordinary World: Our car buyer has recently expanded his family
and now has three children. His current car is getting a little old
and tired and things are getting a bit cramped when they all go
out for a trip together. Thoughts start to turn to replacement and
so the online research begins.
Call to Action: As his research progresses, he starts to drill down
on people carriers.
Resistance (fear, uncertainty and doubt): As the implications of
the cost and losing his saloon car become real he experiences
fear, uncertainty and doubt (the FUD factor).
Proof: If you want him to continue on his journey then proof
that the people carrier is a good driver’s car is also needed
while also convincing him that it is the only logical solution to his
cramped car issue.
Threshold (buying threshold): Our man is persuaded to consider
taking a test drive in a people carrier.
Consider: Now it is time for a full on investigation and considera-
tion of what/why and how a people carrier would suit their needs
as a family better.
Compare: He now reviews the different makes and models to de-
termine which the best one for his family is.
Receive: Delivery day, that new car smell!
Experience: Time for a day trip with the whole family, bikes on the
back and big picnic all packed. What a great day out! Loads of
room for everyone and everything. But how are you going to keep
him engaged with your brand? This is more than just checking to
make sure the car is OK but making sure that it is meeting the reason
he bought the car in the first place – is it suiting his family needs?
Acknowledge: As time progresses you cannot just leave it to your
customer to acknowledge the wisdom of his buying decision. If you
want to retain his loyalty or, depending on your product or service,
set him up for cross-sell or up-sell, then you need to be continuing
that content engagement. But whatever content you provide must
not lose sight of what you know about his purchasing journey or you
risk losing your relevancy.
Advocate: Do you have a loyalty scheme you need to get him in-
volved in? Can he proactively advocate around your product,
service or brand? When you are looking at advocacy it is more than
just retaining the customer or selling more, it is about making a
customer for life who can also help you commercially.