How to Map and Build the Customer Journey [1 Template]
Learn how to map the customers' journey, to help you focus your marketing efforts on people most likely to take action on your offer.
Let’s assume that you have an eCommerce website selling natural beauty products and cosmetics for women.
You’re eager to find more customers who want to buy your products. But, you also want to make sure that you invest your marketing efforts and money wisely.
How to build the customer journey
You’re trying to work out when to start your marketing efforts to make the most of the current season; spring is just around the corner.
People will start going out more, and women will want to look gorgeous.
Mapping the customer journey will help you make the most of the current season.
Why map the customer journey?
If you understand the different stages of the customers’ journey, you will know when to begin your marketing efforts for the upcoming season and how to approach your marketing messages.
The 3 stages of the customer journey
The customer journey (also called the buyer’s journey) refers to the touch points and experiences that people have with your brand before deciding to purchase a product or service.
Generally speaking, you can roughly divide this journey into three stages:
- Awareness: Potential customers first learn about a brand or product; also known as TOF: Top of Funnel stage.
- Consideration: Potential customers become interested in a brand or product; also known as MOF: Middle of Funnel stage.
- Conversion: Potential customers decide to buy a product or service from a brand; also known as BOF: Bottom of Funnel stage.
Remember, your marketing efforts are meant to help move your target audience along this journey.
Marketers often refer to this process as a funnel. The term “funnel” is used because you have many more people in the awareness stage (top of funnel) as opposed to the conversion stage (bottom of funnel).
And this is completely normal.
Even if you selected your target audience super well, not everyone will become your customer. Not everyone who’s aware of your product will consider buying it, and not everyone who considers buying it will.
Maybe they noticed your brand, like your product, but they bought something similar from a competitor recently.
Types of marketing messages
When you understand the typical journey that your target audience takes before making a purchase, you can better understand when and how to reach them.
Different types of marketing messages will be more effective at different stages of the customer journey.
- Awareness: You want to reach as many people in your target audience as possible -> Use imagery of your products, services or business that will prompt people to pause and learn more.
- Consideration: The target audience may be comparing brands at this stage -> You want to focus more on the specific benefits of your products and services.
- Conversion: You want messages that remove the final obstacle to purchase for potential customers -> Promotions and special offers that prompt your customers to act now usually work well here.
The customer journey template
Given what you’ve seen so far, you will now build your Customer Journey Template.
Let’s take a closer look at how you might use this information to plan your marketing efforts with an example.
You are planning to launch a Spring Sale promotion at your eCommerce brand. You’ll offer free delivery to get purchases for the first day of spring, which is March 20th.
You know that it can take up to 30 days for a typical customer to make a purchase, so your template may look like this:
Download the customer journey template as a PDF.
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