It’s Time to Revisit the Customer Journey
With traditional media (radio, tv, & print), marketers assumed that customers had to be lead to physical stores. Each touchpoint was determined to be equally critical in all stages of engagement: awareness, consideration, buying, and repeat action. Today, media (and by extension advertising) have been democratized. It’s easier to reach people than ever before, and the perception of the Customer Journey is ready for change.
What is the Customer Journey in 2019 (& Beyond)?
For today’s marketers, the customer journey is a better understanding of what steps lead to conversions. Attribution technology and modeling allow us to better understand what matters to engaged customers. The relationship between business and customers has shifted. Marketers no longer shepherd users through a set marketing regimen: Customers now declare which advertisements matter to them. Each company and industry is different, but fully understanding how each marketing touchpoint influences customer engagement (or disengagement) is critical.
It can now be argued that the Customer Journey is more collaborative than ever before, and as marketers, we should embrace this change. It’s our charge to fully understand how our BI tools really work, to see how many touchpoints it takes a visitor to convert (guaranteed, it's more than one) and to test how incremental changes influence this relationship.
Welcome To The Era of Dynamic Customer Journeys!
Tips to maximize your Dynamic Customer Journey investment:
Double-check your audience segmentation across all programs
For email
- Test audience-specific templates and messages to increase relevance
- Balance your efforts between engaging new customers, and winning back previous clients
For PPC & social, be sure to check for overlap and uniqueness. Does PPC or Social lead the conversion path for most customers? Do you have a content strategy for cross-platform/network steps?
Create and audit your brand dictionary
Be sure your company has a clear voice across every platform. Codify your language and tone as an internal resource. Be sure this documentation includes accurate value props.
Humanize your testing
Run relevant A/B tests across multiple marketing verticals. Check to see how these read to a new customer to avoid fracturing your brand voice into incoherent segments.
Adapt and Evolve
Create a plan, but be prepared to adapt to an ever-evolving digital landscape. Strategic flexibility with your customer journey will help you provide the best experience for your audience and allow you to get the most out of your digital marketing efforts.
