April 3, 2020 •Cole Geitner
A consumer journey map is a visual representation of your consumers’ experiences with your brand. Whether it’s understanding what keywords are mapped to each part of the marketing funnel, from awareness to decision, or understanding what content is resonating with your consumers, consumer Journey Maps are a great way to gauge the strength of your marketing strategy from a holistic point of view.
Why Is a Consumer Journey Map Important?
Companies will spend great amounts of their marketing budgets to build out Consumer Journey Maps, using market research teams or their internal marketing teams’ time and resources. Without a solid understanding of your consumers’ journey before they reach your site, and the research they conduct visiting, it is impossible to know what your target market wants and what marketing materials they’re most likely to engage with. Marketers have been flying blind for a long time and it is partially due to not taking the time needed to create these consumer guides.
What Are the Stages of a Consumer Journey Map?
The Stages of a Consumer Journey Map can very a bit from company to company, but the typical layout of a Journey Map is the following:
Awareness
The first impression of your brand and the first time they are realizing they want a solution to a problem/need they have.
Consideration
Your consumer has done their initial research of options, and is now weighing the benefits of each option/competitor. This is the stage where you should provide detailed documentation, FAQs, etc. about your product/service.
Decision
The consumer is now ready to make a decision. This is the stage where you should provide customer reviews, coupon codes, or free trials.
Retention
Once a consumer has decided to purchase from your business/website, it is important to maintain constant marketing touches to help with customer retention. This can be accomplished effectively through re-marketing and robust email cadences.
Advocacy
The last stage of the Consumer Journey is often the hardest to achieve effectively. When a consumer has used your product/service for an extended period, some will want to spread the message through social media channels and by leaving reviews on your site. It is important to nurture and recommend they do this through these channels.
How Do You Create a Consumer Journey Map?
Companies will spend great amounts of their marketing budgets to build out Consumer Journey Maps, using market research teams or their internal marketing teams’ time and resources. It typically involves doing extensive research from your different data sets to sort the different keywords people are searching that led to them clicking on your website. However, there are much easier and more accurate ways to accomplish this.
With DemandJump’s Consumer Insight reports, marketing teams can fully automate their Consumer Journey Maps. This saves teams hours every time they want a report, since it can be created with a click of a button. Let’s look at an example from a DemandJump user in the home brewing industry:
As seen above, DemandJump has been saving marketers substantial time by splitting up the top keywords and questions asked across the internet into the different stages of the Consumer Journey. With this information, you can align your marketing strategy to ensure people are seeing the right content in the right stage of your customer’s journey.
What Should You Do Next?
If you or your business are interested in learning how we can automate your creation of Consumer Journey Maps, don't wait - try it free today! DemandJump can help you save time and show you great insights into your consumer’s journey with your brand. See just how easy it is.
