How To Map A Customer Journey
Your audience moves through 5 key phases as they go from never having heard of you to being loyal, raving fans — also known as the customer journey! Learning how to map your customer journey will help you fully understand that journey.
When you understand how your audience is interacting with you and, more importantly, what they need from you when, you can optimize and leverage the journey, increasing everything from leads to sales!
Your mission, should you choose to accept it: use this blog post to map out your customers’ journey.
Tips to fine-tune your strategy today
Get data-driven marketing insights and exclusive resources right to your inbox.
Don’t just market more. Market better. Get exclusive access to resources and insights that introduce you to the once-confusing world of data-backed marketing.
What Is A Customer Journey?
The customer journey is a series of phases that each potential customer goes through, from awareness (learning about you) to retention (being a loyal, repeat customer).
Clearly outlining your customer’s journey will help you when implementing new marketing efforts. You’ll be able to see exactly which phases are working in your favour, and which ones potential customers are getting hung up on.
The 5 Phases Of A Customer Journey
The customer journey breaks down into 5 phases, which your audience moves through as they go from never having heard of you to being a loyal, repeat customer. The journey looks like this:
1. Awareness
“Oh yeah, I’ve heard of them.”
The first stage of the customer journey is awareness. At this point, your potential customer has stumbled upon your brand, and it caught their eye. They’re learning about what you can do, who you are, and how it can help them. They’re new in your space, and want to size you up!
Example: Someone stumbled upon your content on Instagram!
2. Engagement
“This is great!”
Now, they know who you are and (great news!) they’re starting to take little baby steps towards engaging with you.
This might look like:
- Liking an Instagram post
- Checking out your social profiles
- Read a blog post (you are here!)
- Signing up for your email list
Bottom line: They’re picking up what you’re putting down. They’re into you. They’re interested!
Example: They click the link in your Instagram bio and read your blog post.
3. Consideration
“I’m thinking this might be for me.”
During the consideration phase of the customer journey, your potential customers are pretty sure they want what you have — but they have questions. It’s kind of like going shopping. They have a few shirts in their card (including yours), and now they’re deciding which one they want to buy it.
Consideration sounds like:
- Will this fit me?
- Does it come in other colors?
- How do I wash this?
- What will this look good with?
- Are there other, better shirts?
Example: They DM or email you with questions about your offering.
4. Conversion
“Okay, let’s do this!”
The conversion phase is definitely one of our favorites. It’s the money, the gold, the sale!
At this point, you’re on the shortlist — but your customer is still choosing between you and someone else. This is your chance to do any final convincing and sway them to your side. Bring out the big guns!
Example: They’re reading your sales page and reading reviews.
5. Retention
“Best decision I ever made!”
Okay, great. They bought once! Now, will they buy again? If it’s a course or service, will they follow through?
Retention is all about creating loyal, repeat customers, buyers, or clients. This is last phase of the customer journey — your last chance to hook them! — so you want to be intentional. Make sure they get the most of what they’ve bought, and they get the full value you want them to get.
Example: They write you a Google review and recommend you to their friends!
How To Map A Customer Journey
At this point in your journey of learning the customer journey, you might be wondering why this matters. I mean, it’s interesting and everything, but how do you use this info? Will taking the time to think about this really impact on your business?
Honest answer? Yes. It will. Understanding and mapping your customer journey lets you optimize your customer journey. It lets you triple-check that your customers get exactly what they need from you, exactly when they need it.
We want you to ask yourself:
- What does your customer’s journey look like?
- Are you meeting them at every stage of their journey?
- Are you meeting their needs at every stage of their journey?
- How are you doing it?
Think about where your audience hanging out when they’re in each phase, and what when they need from you when they’re in that phase. Then, deliver exactly that!
Optimizing The Journey
Let’s go through an example!
Say you’re a Registered Dietitian offering an online group coaching program on Instagram. Your customer journey might look like this:
- Awareness: They stumble across your content through a hashtag.
- Engagement: They like your post, click your handle, and check out your profile. They give you a follow. (Woohoo!)
- Consideration: They’ve been thinking about a program like yours for a while. Now yours is on their list! You identify that they’re wondering how your program is different from others’, what they get for their money, and what will happen if they don’t see results from the program.
- Conversion: They click the link in your bio to read your program sales page. They’re interested!
- Retention: They finish the program and they love it!
Now that you know all this, you can make sure that you’re creating content that serves each phase really well, like this:
- Awareness: Create IG content targeted towards someone who is new to your page.
- Engagement: Optimize your bio and your highlights.
- Consideration: Create a Program highlight and a program FAQ highlight.
- Conversion: Optimize your sales page and put a link in your bio.
- Retention: Take great care of them during the program, follow up after, and ask for reviews.
Your Turn!
Have you tried mapping a customer journey before? How did it go? If not, give it a go using the steps we’ve outlined here. And either way, let us know! We’re over here cheering you on.
Want us to map your customer journey for you? You’re in luck! Mapping the customer journey is one of the fundamental first steps we take with each of our clients. It helps us figure out who we’re talking to, what they need when, and how we can best serve them.
If you’d love our eyes on your customer journey, get in touch with us!
Get data-driven marketing insights and exclusive resources right to your inbox.
Don’t just market more. Market better. Get exclusive access to resources and insights that introduce you to the once-confusing world of data-backed marketing.
