Mapping the customer journey: Customization in 2020

In your hands you hold the most valuable card of your life, with a drawing of a person on one side and a giant X on the other.

That's where the treasure is, exactly at that point. But it does not consist of gold or jewelry: your product is the treasure!

This card is not intended for you by the way (even though you will certainly find it very useful). It is intended for your customers and it is up to you to fill in the rest of the card.

A good understanding of the customer journey is crucial if you want to help your customers actually arrive at your product.

To map out the customer journey, and to find out everything about the purchase and customer journey, you must be thorough and  flexible.

With the help of customer-focused customer journey maps based on the customer experience and leaving enough room for personalization, companies in the SME segment can increase their conversion rate,   serve their current customers and leads and develop business strategies for the future to improve that X to make it even more tempting on the map.

Differences between customer journey maps and the sales funnel
Customer journey maps are generally more often associated with B2C marketing than with B2B marketing. But don't forget that more and more B2B customers are looking for a B2C marketing experience.

Customer journey mapping is a tool that is also easy to apply to B2B marketing. But instead of consumers, the focus is more on business IT decision makers.

This table not only clearly shows the differences between customer journey maps and the sales funnel, but also the interconnections.

Use the customer journey map to get to know your leads and customers better, and then to make a better approach to your sales tunnel possible.

Mapping the customer journey: the right approach
Before you get started, there is one thing that you need to be well aware of: the way you approach the preparation of your customer journey map determines the end result to a large extent.

If you do not go beyond how you can help specific parts of your company (such as your content writers, designers or your front-end developers), you will only see small parts of the customer journey and you will miss out on a lot of useful information.

Read more: Brand Automation australia 

If, on the other hand, you look for ways to serve your leads and customers, you not only put your entire team on the right track, but you can also maximize the impact on both your company and your customers' trajectory.

Combine quantitative and qualitative information to get a complete picture of your customers
There are two general ways of thinking about gaining insight into customers.

The first is based on the use of data and focuses on quantifiable information such as demographic data, conversions, when more purchases are made and how large your customers are.

The second is based on the person and focuses on the experience of the individual customer. Although this information is more difficult to analyze, it can nevertheless give a powerful picture of what your leads and customers have experienced before they came to you. It provides context.

The best approach? Use both ways.

If you only use the analytical approach, you run the risk of misinterpreting the data.

If you only assume anecdotal thinking, you cannot accurately predict the reasoning behind certain missteps.

But by combining both types of information, you get a complete picture of the customer journey.

4 ways to collect customer information
There are a few ways to collect both analytical and anecdotal data to determine your customer journey planning:

Collecting reviews : When you collect feedback from your customers, make sure you get information about who they are  and  about their experiences. This can vary from problems they have experienced during the course of the process to the choice of your software. Keep digging on!
Nurture your leads: Keep accurate track of the problems your leads report or the obstacles they discuss during their customer journey.
Involve customers in your mapping: If you are going to shape your customer journey map, it may be useful to take the opinion of your customers into account. Collect that information as much as possible directly from the source.
Experts in the field of customer experience : Although that is not always cheap, these experts can give an unbiased look at what your users experience and how you can improve your customer contact moments.
Recognize the most important steps your leads take before they make a purchase
The easiest way to dissect the steps of your customers is to take the same steps in your sales funnel as a starting point.

Let us give each step a name from the point of view of your leads so that the focus is on  their  actions and not on yours:
https://mix.com/myadbox
https://weheartit.com/myadbox
http://ttlink.com/myadbox
https://www.artfire.com/ext/people/myadbox
https://itsmyurls.com/myadbox
https://www.mobypicture.com/user/myadbox
https://creativemarket.com/myadbox
https://lookbook.nu/myadbox
https://www.play.fm/myadbox
https://www.voxmedia.com/user/myadbox

What is marketing automation and why do you need it?

Marketing Brand Automation in Melbourne is technology or software that enables companies to leverage the capabilities of smart and automated workflows to improve productivity and provide a better prospect and customer experience. In addition, using state-of-the-art marketing automation software, you can get an idea of ​​prospect activities (by integrating them with your CRM), recognize and prioritize the most promising leads, offer a personalized customer experience and generate useful insights to make informed business decisions.

The foregoing is precisely why about 49% of companies use marketing automation and the numbers are increasing every day. Unlike e-mail automation systems that only offer basic / bulk mail functions, marketing automation tools offer a wide range of advanced functions. Let's take a look at some of the most popular ones:

Advanced or automated email marketing campaigns, also known as drip marketing: this type of email marketing goes one step further than traditional email marketing. With this technique you can send emails according to a schedule; for example, the first email is sent as soon as a user signs up for a newsletter, the second is sent two days later, another goes out the door after two weeks and so on. In addition, you can also automate workflows that allow you to send emails depending on certain triggers, such as when a user subscribes to a service or performs a specific action.

Create landing pages : With modern marketing brand automation tools you can create continuous, customizable and aesthetically appealing landing pages.

Forms for Lead Capture: creates forms for you with which you can record the contact details of prospects and leads.

Segmentation: create dynamic customer segments instead of static for improved customer engagement.

Lead Scoring: links lead scores to prospects and offers the possibility to prioritize the most promising prospects (high lead scores).

Emails with triggers: Set up efficient auto responders to connect with customers as soon as they participate.

Dynamic content: show different content in your e-mails, depending on the person viewing it.

Run A / B tests: Optimize your e-mail campaigns by periodically performing A / B tests for your target groups.

Social media integration: use your marketing brand automation tool to plan your messages on social media and / or post them automatically.

Above some of the features of a modern marketing automation tool that can help companies increase the level of customer engagement and customer satisfaction. In addition, these marketing automation functions offer (alongside many other) companies the following benefits:

a) Use in combination with Act! CRM and take advantage of the benefits:

Modern CRM and marketing brand automation software offer you the luxury of integrating them. By placing your contact details and all your marketing data in one central hub, you can get an even more comprehensive picture of customer relationships and engagement levels. For example, if your marketing automation tool has access to all your contacts, you can send multiple emails with a few clicks instead of uploading all contacts to the marketing automation system.

b) Know your marketing KPIs and increase the ROI:

With a marketing automation tool you can not only set up automated workflows, but also measure their performance and generate KPIs. You can, for example, see the speed of generating a lead or measure the average expenditure of leads that you have achieved. By knowing your performance and effectiveness levels, you can find the best performing areas and those areas that need serious renewal.

c) Improve the customer experience:

With automation software for marketing purposes you can personalize the contact with your customers. By creating personas and adapting emails to specific customer characteristics, you improve the experience. In addition, you can follow the customer journey and consolidate all the different channels through which a customer interacts with the company. By doing all of the aforementioned, you can improve your overall customer experience with these advanced tools.

d) Increasing customer retention:

By personalizing your customer contact moments and thus improving customer experience, marketing automation tools can also help you optimize customer retention.

e) Increased sales efficiency:

To say that a marketing automation tool can boost sales is an understatement. There are many ways in which a sales team can benefit from the wonders of automated marketing; here are a few:

Spend time on the right leads: one of the biggest reasons why sales and marketing always hit each other's brains is poor lead quality. When marketing continues to send bad leads, sales waste their precious time fighting lost things. By keeping track of lead scores and only passing on “hot” leads, a marketing team gives a sales team the luxury of only spending time on the right leads.

Lead Segmentation: By segmenting leads based on various factors such as purchase stages , purchase preferences and locations etc., your sales team can generate targeted strategies that can ultimately lead to higher conversion rates.

Witness the activities of prospects: a sales team would like to know when a prospect is taking a certain action. For example, if a sales team is notified immediately when a prospect fills out a specific form or subscribe to a newsletter, they can take appropriate action.

Marketing automation can help eliminate the differences and bridge the metaphorical gap between the sales and marketing teams within a company. Marketing automation can also make it easier for you to collect and use customer data by creating an image of your prospects, leads and customers. As we noted in this article, a marketing brand automation tool, if used correctly, can enable a company to increase its revenue and achieve business growth.