Mapping twists and turns in the digital customer journey

Customer journey mapping in a dispersed, digital landscape is now an ongoing process, not an annual event. The days of mapping customer journeys once a year (or every two years at a push) resulting in a final presentation are numbered.

Digital continues to heavily disrupt both the sales process and where and how people consume information. Brands across all sectors are reacting more nimbly to create marketing and communications campaigns to create multiple touchpoints.

So, it should come as no surprise that customer journey mapping and audience segmentation has become equally dynamic and fluid… where the process is never truly complete.

Companies and brands working in the B2B and industrial space are just as disrupted as those in the B2C, if not more. We recently conducted an extensive mapping exercise for one of our network and cabling clients and while we found that B2B customer journeys are still for the most part linear – in terms of traditional awareness through the re/purchase - we discovered that certain customer personas are taking increasingly complex journeys and diversions. In our device-agnostic world behaviours are becoming harder to track.

Those twists and turns in the journey are keeping marketers and agencies on their toes.

At a strategic planning level, customer mapping and segmentation should now be regarded as a live, circular dynamic process rather than a one off, annual or bi-annual chore.

This disruption is only going to accelerate and provide an opportunity for brands who ride this wave to engage with their customers, differentiate from their competition and reinvigorate their marketing, communications and content strategy.

Four things to consider;

If you’re not mapping customer journeys at all or infrequently, then start.
Taking time to define and describe personas is also crucial for development of your content marketing plan.
Commit to content and working the content hard. Whatever, the complexity of your customers’ journey and their stop off points, it is usually content and lots of it that is needed. We can help you find the right balance between new, fresh material and evergreen content.
Do you have the CX Factor? Improving the customer experience to drive a sale and a repeat sale should be front of mind. Content, campaigns and communications should be rich and exciting, but always accrue to business objectives.

We’re happy to help with your customer journey mapping; from identifying personas, handling the research and interviews through to creating content and strategies in line with the findings.

Get in touch to find out more.