Wouldn't it be lovely to feel like you'd created a customer journey that not only your customers loved and flowed through happily but that felt manageable to create too?
Customer journey building doesn't really have a destination because things always need a tweak, we need to stay responsive to our customers and platforms change all the time. However, we can create frameworks and continue to evolve our customer journey so that we're in the best position to delight our customers & make life easier for ourselves along the way.
Some quick background.
A customer journey is the digital (or physical) path you want your customers to take so that they end up exactly where you want them. This might be a sales page, a sign up form, a video or special offer etc. Along the way, you will put in place elements of your marketing that will either nudge them along to the next part of the journey or find ways to keep your customers on the journey to go around again or maybe hand around a while until they're ready to take the plunge.
So what tips are there to make this journey both lovely to follow and easy to manage?
Start with a basic plan. Identify, in the simplest of terms, what the destination is based on your current business goals. Then identify who your dream customer is. Finally think about what 'value' you're bringing to them (over and above just the 'stuff' that you're selling. TIP - head to the 'New Beginnings' course to see how you can do some of these in more detail.
Avoid one size fits all. When thinking about your ideal customers, you'll probably have a few different types (or segments). Choose your top 3 types and create a customer journey for each of them. It seems like triple the work but there will be crossover & the benefit will outway the work!
Split your journey. There are lots of different versions of this type of framework, but essentially, each journey has a beginning and an end with some fairly generic steps along the way. Think about what you have on offer in terms of your platforms and marketing elements at the moment.
Awareness or need - your potential customer will have a need, a dream, an idea or a question.
Consideration or research - when your potential customer is finding out more information from you and others and weighing up their options.
Decision or buying - when all barriers have been removed and a the end of the journey is achieved.
Experience or delivery - when your customer experiences your destination and makes an judgement that you hope they will share positively with others.
List your touch points - you will already have some idea about what you have to offer at each stage of the journey but also think about how you might nudge a customer along that. Typical elements might include:
Awareness - Google search, social media exposure, word of mouth (digital and physical), 3rd party listing, blog, podcast, affiliate marketing etc.
Consideration - website, social media platforms (& bios), email sign up, special offer, 3rd part platform etc
Decision - website, e-commerse basket, email sign up, free taster session, reviews, pricing structure, a conversation with you (DM, msg, email etc)
Experience - follow up email, 'extra', personal note, invitation to review, share contest, email subscription, VIP club etc.
Create some delight - we now want to make this journey really come alive! Based on your insights on social media and your own customer knowledge, what really delights your customers? Is it your show round videos, stunning imagery, funny stories, great offers, extra special delivery or your 'extra' attention for example. Start to build a wish list of delightful elements (pieces of content, an extra touchpoint or other mechanism) that you could start to add into your basic framework. Examples could be:
more videos with paper 'calls to action' (CTAs) at the end.
content that removes each and every barrier to getting to the end of your journey (reviews, faqs, Insta lives, Q&A, show rounds etc etc)
make your email subscription extra special - is actually a VIP space, what special treatment do subscribers enjoy, can you welcome them to your list with a treat (offer code, special video, workbook etc).
upgrade your content - is all your content talking about the delights of your magic business or just listing the 'stuff'? Are you telling people the price and size or are you telling them about how it makes their life better?
more of you! Micro businesses are special for many reasons but one of them is you! Tell your story more, be more visible, come from behind the shadows, build relationships with your viewers, help people get to know you to build trust.
stay on brand - too often our customer journeys can get scattered or some elements are less consistent than others. Make sure every image, key phrases, colour ways, tone, voice & images are all tip top to help with trust, recognition and relationship building.
Build in consistency - as mentioned above, we don't want to accidentally just focus on one part of our journey and leave potential customers feeling ignored elsewhere. Here are some ways to make this easier:
Build a content plan with content pillar (check out previous How To Guides) so that you can stay on track with all types of content for all parts of the journey.
Batch create your content so that you're ahead of the game e.g. Summer is perfect for plotting out your Christmas journey!
Automate what you can. Embed a sign up form for your email on your website & social bios. Automate a special thank you when folks subscribe. Add 'call to actions' everywhere so it's easy for people to take themselves along your journey.
Implement an FAQs page to remove final barriers.
Share your good feedback often - yes it's ok to share reviews, great feedback and video previous customers.
Review often - all our journeys need attention, tweaking and developing. Build paper time into each month to see how things are going. Are people using all the elements in your journey? Are there elements that people don't find? Are you noticing more enquiries but still no more sales? This type of data will help you uncover issues and glitches quickly and easily, allowing you to adjust and try again.
I hope that this How To Guide has got you thinking about how your customer journey planning is doing. Hop over to the Member Hub forum and share your thoughts in the How To Guide thread so that we can all help each other.
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