It is important to not only understand how the customer journey works but also to be able to analyze and optimize this customer journey for your own business. Understanding and improving the customer journey will ensure that customers convert faster and return more often. Moreover, this data gives you insight into real “conversion killers”: events that cause potential customers to drop out.
Once you understand how the customer journey works and when customers can engage with your business, you can create your customer journey map. With customer journey mapping you create an overview of the phases of the customer journey and which touchpoints apply to your business.
This guide shows you how to create the customer journey map in 5 easy steps!
1. Centralize your brand message
Before you get started with customer journey mapping, you need to get a good handle on who you are as a company. Who are you as a brand? Why should customers choose you? What makes your company better than the competition? By having a clear picture of your brand message, you also know which tone of voice you want to use to talk to your customers, and which Unique Selling Points (USPs) are important to you…
This is really about the basic questions, ”Who am I as a company?” and ”How do I want to come across to my customers?”
A good move to help you is to create a corporate identity book. In this book, you put practical things like what color codes you use, what illustrations should look like, what font you use on the website and in newsletters, and what your logo looks like. You can also make agreements about how you want to talk to your customers, what your USPs are, and the mission and vision of the company. This makes it clear to everyone in your company who you are as a brand and how to express this. In addition, a corporate identity book is also useful to have when you start working with an external marketing agency, for example - so that they too are aligned with your brand.
2. Create a persona based on your target audience
The second step for creating a customer journey map is to create a persona based on your target audience. Creating a persona is simplifying your target audience to one person. What does your general customer look like? What needs, emotions, and behavior patterns do they have?
You then use your persona to create your (website) texts and advertisements. It is always easier to imagine one person who needs to understand the information than a whole group! Do you have different target groups? Then you can (and should) create different personas.
3. Identify all the touchpoints in the customer journey
Now the touchpoints of the customer journey come into play. During step 3, you think about the touchpoints within the customer journey. Where will my customer come into contact with me? Write all these down. Don’t forget to take a look at the reviews on customer review websites! These reviews provide valuable information about what goes well and what could be improved. Other touchpoints include your Facebook page and ads, Google searches, and word-of-mouth.
A good method is to brainstorm within your company about your visibility. Have everyone write down customer journey touchpoints on a memo sheet. That way you have a visual overview.
Once you have all the touchpoints on paper, you can start grouping them. Which touchpoints belong to which phases of the customer journey? Don’t forget: some touchpoints are related to more than one phase.
Take for example our basic touchpoints: