With the very world at our fingertips, accessing information has never been easier. Type in a word and you’ve got millions of results offering you potential answers. As a marketer, your prime concern involves guaranteeing that your offer stands out and is potentially answering a consumer’s concern.

To do so, you’ve got to understand your customers and more importantly, understand HOW they’re shopping. Building a user persona greatly aids in understanding your customer but digging deeper into their habits helps establish a rapport. Using this persona, you begin to see the world from your customer’s shoes. It’s how you learn that YouTube is the better platform to target them on, especially in the evening when they’re relaxing or unwinding on their way home from work instead of a misdirected advertisement on the radio, mid-afternoon.

You need to think of a customer journey map as your key to figuring out consumer behaviour. Being able to predict consumer decisions is a skill, especially if it leads to the ultimate result i.e. consumer satisfaction.

Why is consumer behaviour mapping important?

At Newpath Web, we serve clients that come from very different industries. One of our key strategies before planning our content is to talk to our clients and get a good look at who their consumers are. Learning what customers expect is a great way to start your research process.

Secondary research as well as competitor research helps understand how the market is panning out and what a vague customer journey looks like. Primary research can really help lock down insights gathered from your secondary research, especially when it comes to grasping at how customers interact with your product or service.

The best way to find out if your new insights are on the right track is to give your new strategy a little test drive. Tracking and comparing new campaign insights with old campaigns are a great way to spot differences and engagement patterns.

If there’s a positive difference, continue digging down that path! If you’re experiencing negative feedback, try coming at your campaign from a different angle. Relook at your consumer journey map — does it accurately represent your consumer when they’re searching for information or shopping online? Is that really how their buying decisions play out? Review your primary research — talking to real people always helps uncover insights you may have missed.

Steps to consider when building a customer journey map

When you’re new to the construct of building a customer journey map, a good way to visualize it is by thinking of the good ol’ marketing funnel. This will help you give shape to the ideal customer experience and flesh out a rough journey.

Awareness

The first step in the funnel is building awareness towards your product.

To do so, think of your customer persona. What platform would be best to reach out to them on? What time would be best? How often? If you’ve tried multiple platforms, which of them is most likely to lead into your next step of the funnel?

Consideration

The second step is getting your consumer to consider a trial.

Now that they’re aware of your product, how do you push them over the edge to give your product a try? Offering consumers incentive or even something as basic as having a noticeable call-to-action button is a good strategy. Remember, make it easy for a consumer to gain access to your products. Do not lose them in the process of consideration.

Conversion & Retention

Ensure your consumers stay interested.

An existing customer has been proven to be statistically more profitable than a new customer. Attracting new customers, while vital for your business, is not easy on your cash flow. It requires more expenditure than retaining an existing customer. Do a survey, stay engaged and ensure your current consumers are not feeling ignored. Once you attract new consumers, keep them in the loop and make them feel heard.

In conclusion, building a consumer behaviour map for your content marketing strategy ensures you’re targeting consumers on the right platform, at the right time. It helps minimize the risk of missing your target segment, and allows for your business to present itself as the ideal solution.