The Digital Customer Journey

I know we seem to say this in every Komo blog post... But it holds true each and every time. The marketing world is constantly shifting. Understanding a consumer's needs and wants has gone from being the lifeblood of us marketers to being the absolute bare minimum. It is our job, not only to know how people view our product, but also how they feel about it, and to predict how they might act. This is where mapping out a customer journey can be incredibly useful.

So what is a customer journey?

A customer journey is a path consumers take, from awareness of your product or service, all the way to the retention of your offering and gaining customer loyalty. This journey features every single touchpoint you provide for consumers to help them along this path.

The steps are, for the most part, a little like this:

1. Awareness of your brand and offering

2. Consideration of purchase

3. Purchase

4. Experience

5. Loyalty

This month, we want to take you through all that we've learned about these steps, and why they're all of equal importance to creating a journey (specifically a digital one) that is as informative and affirmative as it is enjoyable for consumers.

Brand awareness is a key objective of many of our clients here at Komo, mainly because we help brands to create memorable brand experiences that help their consumers reach this stage of the customer journey and continue along the path.

Here are some key considerations about the awareness stage to ponder:

• Are you being realistic about where your customers are in the buying process? There is no use in selling something to a consumer who has no understanding of what it is you're trying to offer or who you are as a brand.

• Brand awareness is about more than just getting your brand's message out there to the masses. Use this stage to revisit your buyer personas and get a firm grip on who exactly it is that you're wanting to reach. Doing this will be crucial to your success.

• Off the back of the point above, consider how you're going about generating awareness. Think outside the box here.

• Are there third-party relationships you can take advantage of to amplify your message? Like publishers or people from your network who are thought leaders? What online communities or spaces are out there that comprise your target audience?

Ok, so now that your consumers actually know your brand, what solution it offers and the problem it helps them solve (the key!), they're considering a purchase. They're likely shaping your offering up against that of your competitors, so you want to consider the touchpoints you have in place to make the decision easier and more obvious.

Here are some ideas about the consideration stage to ponder:

• Now is the time to sell, but we still want to avoid the hard sell. Consider what you can provide to the consumer that would lead them to consider your brand the 'irresistible' option.

  • Is it possible to offer a free trial of your service? Can you create a new digital touchpoint on your website that shows consumers how to use your product or service? 

• Thought leadership comes into the consideration stage significantly. Remember that not everything you share in your digital spaces should be promotional. Balance out your promotions with content that positions your brand as the leader in its space.

• Personalise, personalise, personalise. Marketing technology has created a variety of digital touchpoints that make it incredibly easy to personalise how you speak to a consumer.

  • This idea works for B2C brands too! Ensure you have touchpoints that target the needs and wants of groups of your consumers - this makes the consideration stage more seamless for them.

So you've got your consumer to the other side of the consideration stage and they've chosen to purchase! This is great news. But there are things to consider in this stage and beyond, so don't slow down yet.

Here are some considerations about the purchase stage to ponder:

• How can you make this step as easy and seamless as possible for your new customer? Digital touchpoints are crucial here, from FAQ pages to chatbots, to having your sales team on stand-by to guide the consumer through the process.

• How can you gather market research about your customer's purchase and brand experience so far? The Komo Platform allows you to add data capture to any game concept, making it easy to do this, but consider sending a survey or setting up another way to gather this zero-party data.

This stage is a great place to make changes. Gauge the seamlessness of your onboarding experience, or your shipping process, or identify customer pain points as your new consumer continues along their digital journey.

Here are some considerations about the experience stage to ponder:

• It's vital here to design a memorable onboarding process.

• Think beyond just educating your new customer - how can you entertain them?

• This is another stage where customer feedback is super helpful. Think about a way to capture this that's as easy for your customer as possible.

• Consider how you can make your customer's initial experience with your product as good as it can possibly be.

• What touchpoints can you provide that assist them in learning how to use your product or service? Could you set up a series of emails to be sent to new customers that provide tutorials and steps on how to use your product in different scenarios or how to get the most out of it?

• Align with your team and decide who is responsible for managing this new customer and their experience, providing help along their journey.

We've made it to the end. Your customer has almost finished their initial journey with your brand. So what's left to do? Now is the time to cement your relationship with this customer, and ensure they remain a customer for as long as possible!

Here are some considerations about the loyalty stage to ponder:

• Consider how you can nurture loyalty here. Can you offer your customers discounts or coupons, or develop a points system for purchases?

• Ensure your customer has all the support they need - these digital touchpoints, like knowledge bases, chatbots, subscription services, etc. should be easy for the customer to locate and easy to use.
  
  
• It's easy to forget about your existing customers when you release something new, but retaining these customers is far less costly than acquiring new ones. So keep them in the loop on everything exciting that they may be interested in.

So we've reached the end of the journey! One last consideration for you - Once you've established the digital touchpoints in each stage of the customer journey, consider mapping it out visually. This makes it easy to see where problems or pain points might lie, and how they can be fixed quickly and easily.

Komo Technologies is a self-service platform that's built for marketers. No matter what stage of the journey your customers are in, there are endless solutions to nurture them along the way! You can read more about Komo here, or book a personalised demo by clicking the button below.