September 20, 2021 Content Chat Recap: How To Use Customer Journey Maps To Improve The Customer Experience
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September 20, 2021 Content Chat Recap: How To Use Customer Journey Maps To Improve The Customer Experience
September 22, 2021
by Alek Irvin Leave a Comment
Great content aims to help its ideal consumer learn new concepts, overcome challenges, and perform better in their day-to-day work. To fully serve your community through content marketing, it’s essential to map your customer journey to understand the challenges they face and ways you can help them at each stage of their journey.
In this #ContentChat , we’re joined by Jenny Magic ( @JennyLMagic ), content strategist at Convince & Convert , to discuss how marketers can use customer journey maps to improve the customer experience. Read the full recap below, where we explain what is included in the customer journey, our favorite tools to map the customer journey, ways to improve this journey through content marketing, and more.
Q1: What is the customer journey? What is or is not included in this journey?
The customer journey involves every touchpoint a customer has with your brand (whether direct or indirect). This includes everything starting from when the customer first becomes aware of your company through to their post-purchase experience(s) (if they get that far).
A1a The #customerjourney documents what buyers need at each stage of a decision process to keep momentum & get to the next stage #ContentChat https://t.co/U7RQB2oMHV
— Christian Lipp (@SEMgalore) September 20, 2021
And all part of your #contentstrategy , we hope! #ContentChat
— Erika Heald | Speaking at #CMworld + #MProfsB2B. (@SFerika) September 20, 2021
For successful customer journey mapping, departments have to align their strategy and KPIs.
This is why I am now so invested in breaking down silos – you can’t attribute multi-touch if systems don’t talk and metrics don’t match #contentchat https://t.co/0D4S7nigQ7
— Jenny Magic (@JennyLMagic) September 20, 2021
And the customer journey can differ based on each unique audience (let’s dive into this for Q2).
It is also defining your audience/customer. A customer could also be your own team member and what their journey is with the brand and how they are engaging and needing to know who the audience is etc. #ContentChat
— Bernie Fussenegger (@B2the7) September 20, 2021
Q2: How detailed should an audience persona be? What are the essential elements to include?
Per Jenny, less is more when it comes to audience personas. Adding too many details could invite unconscious bias or introduce unnecessary “considerations” for your team.
A2a IMHO Less is more – overdone personas can reflect unconscious bias (e.g. why are they in a suit?) Focus on mindset, motivations #ContentChat https://t.co/jSVDU5FBOY
— Jenny Magic (@JennyLMagic) September 20, 2021
I agree. Too often, I get personas that are full of average customer demographic information that doesn’t help me at all—as a B2B content marketer—understand what drives them to change or take action. #ContentChat
— Erika Heald | Speaking at #CMworld + #MProfsB2B. (@SFerika) September 20, 2021
Focus personas just on the must-haves. What influences each persona’s purchasing decisions, what value do they seek most, and what hurdles do they face in their day-to-day work.
A2b Persona must-haves: what triggers need to change, what influences them on decisions like this, which value prop resonates? #ContentChat https://t.co/jSVDU5FBOY
— Corynn Myers (@CorynnMyers) September 20, 2021
Be conscious of how many personas your team creates.
A2 I would rather see personas few and detailed than many and shallow. How many personas are really relevant, and how many can you realistically support? #contentchat
— Dan Goldberg (@Jonas419) September 20, 2021
Define personas with emotional drivers instead of gendered names.
A2c Persona pro tip: nickname w/ emotional drivers instead of gendered names e.g. “Ambitious Entrepreneur” vs. “Driven Debbie” #ContentChat https://t.co/jSVDU5FBOY
— Jenny Magic (@JennyLMagic) September 20, 2021
Christian advocates for thoroughly detailed personas, which could be helpful for some organizations. However, Jenny urges marketers to assess if each detail is relevant to purchase decisions.
A2.
As detailed as possible. Think about creating a avatar/character sheet. You include everything from a target audience + goals, needs, fears, motiviation, interests, activities, likes, dislikes,… #ContentChat pic.twitter.com/EG2Kog3DW2
— Christian Lipp (@SEMgalore) September 20, 2021
Q4: What should brands look for in their customer journeys to identify opportunities to improve the customer experience?
List all calls-to-action associated with your customer journey and the key touchpoints between stages. Assess where your funnel breaks down. Refine your messaging by asking “what can we do for the customer at this stage” instead of providing a brand-centric message.
A4a Having teams list all their CTAs is often a telling exercise – the value equation is really lopsided in favor of the brand. Correct by asking “what can we do for them” and align your CTA’s to their needs #ContentChat https://t.co/kqTyeVBDEb
— Jenny Magic (@JennyLMagic) September 20, 2021
If you can’t align on your journey maps, it’s unlikely you will be able to align on your funnel stages and attribution either. To me, journey mapping is a great place to start building the trust and cross-organizational relationships that are so critical. #ContentChat
— Erika Heald | Speaking at #CMworld + #MProfsB2B. (@SFerika) September 20, 2021
Consistently use and update your customer journey maps so all departments can effectively use them.
A4d Journey maps really are where sales/marketing/support align, so use the tool as a touchstone for all teams #ContentChat https://t.co/kqTyeVBDEb
— Jenny Magic (@JennyLMagic) September 20, 2021
Q5: How can marketers use a customer journey map to identify potential #contentmarketing opportunities?
Audit your content alongside your customer journey. List your top-performing content and group it by persona, stage, and CTA. Use this to identify gaps in your strategy.
A5a Audit content alongside your journeys. List top content and group by persona/stage/CTA. Gaps are immediately obvious #ContentChat https://t.co/9HrkThCd2d
— Jenny Magic (@JennyLMagic) September 20, 2021
That includes updating outdated but previously high-performing content, and creating new versions of top content adapted to reflect a different use case or persona’s needs. #ContentChat
— Erika Heald | Speaking at #CMworld + #MProfsB2B. (@SFerika) September 20, 2021
Ensure every persona at every stage has a core piece of content that is tailored to their needs.
A5c Ensure every persona at every stage has a core piece of valuable content that can be atomized and reused #ContentChat https://t.co/9HrkThCd2d
— Jenny Magic (@JennyLMagic) September 20, 2021
Reference frequently asked questions on social media or through various channels like your email newsletter or blog. Use these questions to create new content that addresses your customer needs.
Any questions asked online or comments on social media can be a great source of content for blog, podcast or social media #ContentChat
— Irina Graf (@themiceblog) September 20, 2021
After you cover the essentials for each persona at each stage, diversify your content and create multiple relevant CTAs and content assets to enrich the customer experience.
A5d Multiple relevant CTAs for a persona/stage means multiple content opportunities. Prioritize filling gaps and then enrich #ContentChat https://t.co/9HrkThCd2d
— Jenny Magic (@JennyLMagic) September 20, 2021
Q6: What challenges do marketers often face when mapping their customer journeys, and how do you recommend teams overcome these challenges?
Customer journey maps are often created and then forgotten. Make your maps easily accessible by all departments, and create a hub that links to all relevant documents.
A6a Journey maps often are a workshop doc that gets shelved and forgotten. Making them central to content creation is key. I link personas, CTAs, Journey Map & Content Audit in one sheet, forcing content ideas to be tagged to persona/stage & CTA #ContentChat https://t.co/3vZ5u1BuGU
— Christian Lipp (@SEMgalore) September 20, 2021
Ensure that all teams appropriately prioritize all personas (not just those with a high commission).
A6c Getting out of a content rut: Sales teams especially often prioritize their high-commission personas at the expense of others; fight for your other personas and their needs too #ContentChat https://t.co/3vZ5u1BuGU
— Jenny Magic (@JennyLMagic) September 20, 2021
Adopt technology that can aggregate your disparate data sources.
A6: One of the biggest struggles I see with journey mapping is piecing together the full journey across disparate technology platforms. But there are a number of platforms like @integrate (a former client) that can help with that. #ContentChat https://t.co/VXQ4As7adw
— Erika Heald | Speaking at #CMworld + #MProfsB2B. (@SFerika) September 20, 2021
Q7: What is the most interesting or unexpected outcome from a customer journey mapping project?
Through customer journey mapping, one of Jenny’s clients was able to cut their content creation in half! Also, another team was able to abandon personas that were no longer relevant (thus streamlining their resources).
@JennyLMagic what is the most interesting or unexpected outcome of one of your journey mapping projects that you can share? #ContentChat
— Erika Heald | Speaking at #CMworld + #MProfsB2B. (@SFerika) September 20, 2021
I had a higher ed client cut their content creation process in half with some cross-functional collaboration. Channel specialists were all independently considering audience needs, spending a LOT of time on each round of creative. Wonder Twins, activate! #ContentChat https://t.co/Qf2Ycuol0d
