Shortening attention spans in an increasingly digital world means that a brand’s customer journey needs to be more considered than it’s ever been before. Still reading? Good.
Your customer journey is all the touchpoints your customer has with your brand as they go from prospect to purchase to post-purchase. Everyone has their own definitions when it comes to the stages of a customer journey but I like to keep things simple and roughly it can be broken down into
1. Awareness
Discovering your brand.
2. Consideration
Comparing your offering with alternative options.
3. Conversion
Committing to a purchase.
4. Loyalty
Converting without considering alternatives.
A big mistake many brands make, particularly in the B2B sector, is overwhelming the customer in the awareness stage. They try and communicate everything they do, and everything about them all at once. Instead, brands need to curate their communications around these stages so that the customer is taken on a journey that pushes them along a decision making process.
Most of us have probably been on holiday, wandering the streets looking for a place to eat. Lined up outside are the eager restaurateurs all looking to usher you inside their particular establishment. An over-eager sales like approach where you’re bombarded with offers, dishes you’ve never heard of etc. is only going to leave you feeling bewildered and pressured, you’re likely to just offer a polite no and move on. It’s much more effective to have a simple menu outside, an amazing aroma from the kitchen, an approachable maître d’ etc. this allows a steady flow of information to potential customers that moves them along a decision making process. This is how your communications need to work for your brand.
It’s time to find a wall or table and grab some sticky notes. First, create some big headers for each stage of the customer journey. Next, write down the three key bits of information that should be communicated at that stage. For example, brand awareness might be a name, logo, and URL. Consideration phase will likely be key product features and benefits, or something about your approach, or your values if you’re particularly sustainable, it’s all about which of your strengths matter most to your audiences. Conversion might be driven by something unique about your brand that competitors can’t offer, a discount for first-time buyers or a low price point. Loyalty normally comes down to lifestyle value reinforcement, the emotional impact of how your products and services make your customers feel, referral campaigns and or loyalty reward schemes. Think about how you want your audience to feel at each stage and how you’re going to get them there. A rough guide to follow for what your content should be aiming to do at each stage is
Awareness — Pique interest
Consideration — Inform and excite
Conversion — Instil confidence
Loyalty — Reward
Now you’ve got what needs communicating and when it’s time to explore the how. Start placing touchpoints down where they appear on your customer journey, some like your website might appear more than once.
You should now be able to see how you can create a flow of information that takes your audience on a decision making process.
Where touchpoints occur across the customer journey, like your website or social media, break this content down into easily manageable, bitesize bits. Your website should be a mini journey in itself, whether it’s via a scroll or a click, not everything has to be “above the line”. Not every social media post has to be pushing sales, it might just be about drip-feeding some “consideration content”. Always think of communications within the context of your customer journey, consider what they’ve seen before and what they need to know next.
It can seem like a daunting task but once you start it will all become clear, but if you do need help with your customer journey, or you want some ideas about what you can do next. Then get in touch to discuss how Plan B can help — https://www.thisisorb.com/contact-us/
