Decision Journey Basics
Importance of the decision journey
- Customer Experience Priority:
- 24% of marketers and ecommerce professionals see customer experience as the most exciting opportunity.
- 78% agree that it creates brand differentiation and competitive advantage.
- Customer Decision Journey:
- A visual representation of the customer’s mindset through various stages of the decision process.
- Reflects their point of view, needs, emotions, and thoughts from initial brand awareness to post-purchase.
- Micro Moments:
- Defined by Google as intent-rich moments when a customer wants to learn, go, do, or buy.
- Helps identify the right marketing touch points (e.g., search, website, online banners, magazine ads).
- Current vs. Future State:
- Current State: Based on known facts about how customers currently engage with your brand.
- Future State: Hypothetical, focusing on customers’ desires or wishes, useful for product/service innovations.
- Investment Worth:
- Companies integrating multiple data sources for the full customer journey generate up to 8.5 times higher shareholder value (Harvard Business Review).
- Benefits:
- Engages customers, differentiates the brand from competitors, and drives business growth.
How the decision journey has evolved
- Evolution of the Customer Decision Journey:
- The decision journey has become more complex and less linear.
- Customers now have access to extensive information online, influencing their decision-making process.
- Changes in Customer Behavior:
- Research and Buy: Customers can now research brands and products online, including corporate practices like sustainability and diversity.
- Example: Booking travel has shifted from visiting travel agents to online research and booking.
- Increase in Marketing Touch Points:
- Transition from traditional touch points (TV, magazines, newspapers, billboards, radio) to digital options (online banner ads, search, websites, social media).
- Customer Savviness:
- Customers are more discerning and informed, researching even small purchases online.
- Availability of information from companies and peer reviews/blogs.
- Shift from Macrosegmentation to Microsegmentation:
- Previously broad target audiences (e.g., women aged 18-49) are now more narrowly defined using digital targeting tools.
- Personalized and sometimes one-on-one individual messaging is now possible.
- Implications for Marketing:
- Understanding these changes allows for more relevant and engaging marketing efforts.
- Tailoring marketing strategies to fit the evolved decision journey is crucial for success.
Insights are the foundation
- Role of Customer Insights:
- Customer insights are crucial for creating an effective customer decision journey.
- Insights involve understanding the customer’s mindset, including their needs, objectives, perceptions, and motivations.
- Examples of Customer Mindsets:
- Routine Purchase: Customers want to get in and out quickly, knowing their preferred brand (e.g., buying eggs weekly).
- Immediate Need: Customers might seek recommendations or spend time evaluating options (e.g., buying cold medicine for a child).
- Specific Event: Customers may look for sales or budget-friendly options (e.g., buying barbecue products for a holiday event).
- Importance of Acting on Insights:
- Research shows that while many companies collect customer feedback, fewer act on it.
- 67% of large companies are good at soliciting feedback, but only 26% are good at making changes based on insights.
- Leveraging Insights:
- Use insights to connect with customers during their moments of truth, when it matters most.
- Example: For cold medicine, ensure pharmacists are visible and accessible.
- Example: For a holiday barbecue, create prominent signage or send promotional emails in advance.
- Differentiating from Competition:
- Addressing customer issues (e.g., unclear product directions or service speed) can make your brand stand out.
- Insights help understand decision journey stages and identify effective marketing touchpoints and messaging.
- Connecting with Customers:
- Insights enable marketers to engage customers throughout their decision journey, ensuring connections when it matters most.
Buyer Personas
Define buyer persona
- Definition of Buyer Persona:
- A buyer persona is a research-based representation of your customer.
- Includes demographics (age, gender, geography) and psychographics (attitudes, behaviors, motivations).
- Components of a Buyer Persona:
- Demographics: Age, gender, geography.
- Attitudes, Behaviors, Motivations: Goals, concerns, how they think.
- Decision Criteria: How they receive information, evaluate options, and decide to buy.
- Purpose of Buyer Personas:
- Helps understand who the customer is, their goals, and concerns.
- Describes how customers think and make decisions.
- Benefits of Using Buyer Personas:
- Relevance: Makes marketing messages more relevant, helping to break through the clutter of over 5,000 brand messages per day.
- Impact: Companies using buyer personas are 75% more likely to exceed annual revenue goals.
- Internal Alignment: Aligns business and marketing efforts across different teams, creating a common language about customers.
- Marketing Touch Points:
- Helps choose the right marketing touch points and messaging.
- Increases social shares and search engine rankings.
- Exercise File:
- The video includes an exercise file starter template to create a buyer persona.
Profile your buyers
- Describing Buyer Personas:
- Similar to describing someone you know well, a buyer persona needs detailed information beyond basic demographics.
- Types of Research:
- Qualitative Research:
- Directional insights through focus groups, interviews, online blogs, or customer-facing team members.
- Captures customer attitudes and how they speak about your brand.
- Quantitative Research:
- Provides statistics and data about a larger sample of customers.
- Conducted via phone or online surveys, website analytics, or social media listening reports.
- Internal customer relationship management data is also valuable.
- Qualitative Research:
- Benefits of Both Research Types:
- Qualitative: Captures thoughts and emotions.
- Quantitative: Tracks individual journeys of millions of prospects and customers.
- Including Both Customers and Prospects:
- Ensures relevance to current customers while engaging new prospects.
- Helps build business, maintain customer loyalty, and attract new customers.
- Research Components:
- Demographic Information: Age, education, geography.
- Business-to-Business (B2B): Industry, job level, business challenges, budget.
- Consumer Products: Household income, size, purchase behavior, seasonality.
- Understanding Previous Interactions:
- Brands customers have used before, their experiences, and needs to be met for choosing your brand over competitors.
- Example:
- In banking, if customers are frustrated with understanding checking products, marketing messaging should clarify product differences and relevant benefits.
- Research Questions:
- What, when, how, and where customers buy.
- For a clothing store: Type of clothing (formal/casual), buying time (new season/sale), buying method (online research/peer reviews), and buying location (store/online).
- Choosing the Right Research Methodologies:
- Select methodologies that provide insightful, meaningful buyer personas to inform marketing messaging.
Use your buyer personas
- Purpose of Buyer Personas:
- Helps in understanding detailed insights about potential customers.
- Provides information on who they are, where they live, their needs, preferences, and spending habits.
- Application in Marketing:
- Use buyer personas to inform the customer decision journey.
- Helps in choosing the right marketing touchpoints and customizing messaging to specific needs, behaviors, and concerns.
- Segmentation Strategies:
- Macro-Segmentation: Broader messages delivered through mass media like TV.
- Micro-Segmentation: Customized messages delivered through digital marketing, such as personalized online offers.
- Example – Disney MagicBands:
- Developed after five years of customer research.
- Allows customers to board rides, pay for meals, and unlock hotel rooms.
- Tailored messaging for specific buyer personas, such as those less price-sensitive and valuing convenience.
- Continuous Assessment:
- Regularly update buyer personas to ensure they remain current.
- Review research data, trends, and insights from customer interactions.
- Stay close to customer-facing team members for feedback and insights.
- Exclusion Criteria:
- Helps identify who is not a target, avoiding wasted resources on unqualified prospects.
- Practical Steps:
- Use buyer personas to tailor messaging in the decision journey map.
- Continuously monitor and update personas to align with evolving customer needs.
Decision Journey Stages
Define journey stages
- Definition of Decision Journey Stages:
- Represents each specific phase in a customer’s decision journey process.
- Requires a deep understanding of the customer’s point of view and decision-making approach.
- Variability by Product/Service:
- Different products/services have different decision journeys.
- Example: A car purchase journey differs significantly from a candy bar purchase journey.
- Importance of Clear Definition:
- Helps in deciding how best to connect and engage with customers.
- Understanding the customer’s mindset aids in choosing effective marketing touchpoints and creating relevant messaging.
- Customer Perspective:
- Always think from the customer’s perspective, not the company’s internal process.
- Stages should reflect the customer’s goals and needs, not what the business thinks they should be.
- Types of Stages:
- High-Level Stages: Broad stages like brand recognition.
- Specific Stages: Detailed stages like choosing a brand and type of car on a rental app.
- Capturing Customer Goals:
- Identify and capture the customer’s goals or needs in each stage.
- Example: Evaluating pros and cons between different brands or prices.
- Insight-Driven Stages:
- Insight-driven stages set the foundation for connecting with customers at the right time and place.
- Ensures a great brand experience and meets customer expectations.
Develop the journey map
- Analogy to Treasure Maps:
- Creating a customer decision journey map is likened to mapping out steps to find a treasure.
- The “treasure” for marketers is when a customer chooses their brand, makes a purchase, and becomes a loyal advocate.
- Customer Perspective:
- The journey map should be developed from the customer’s perspective.
- It should clearly articulate how the customer proceeds through their decision journey.
- Insight-Driven Maps:
- The maps should be based on research like surveys and analytics to understand customer mindset and behavior.
- Example: A major airline uses research to monitor heart rates to identify stress points in the travel experience.
- Capturing Experiences:
- The map should capture both positive and negative aspects of the customer’s experience with the brand.
- Identifying pain points helps focus efforts across various journey stages and tailor messaging.
- Cross-Functional Collaboration:
- While marketing typically leads the development, involving other teams (e.g., sales, call center) adds value.
- Ensures all departments understand their role in creating an integrated customer experience.
- Implementation and Alignment:
- Once finalized, ensure everyone in the company understands the journey map and aligns their efforts.
- Example: Show engineering how their tools aid customer checkout or train customer service reps on appropriate responses.
- Performance Objectives:
- Include delivering a customer-focused experience in performance objectives to ensure accountability and improvement.
- Dynamic Nature:
- The customer decision journey map is not static; it should evolve with changes in the business, competitors, or customers.
Common journey stages
- Decision Journey Frameworks:
- Various frameworks exist, each with unique stages.
- You can use existing frameworks, modify them, or create a custom one tailored to your brand, product, or service.
- Example of a Loyalty Journey with Six Stages:
- Consideration:
- Customer considers an initial set of brands based on perceptions and recent touchpoints.
- Evaluation:
- Customers add or subtract brands as they gather information and evaluate their options.
- Purchase:
- Customer selects a brand and makes a purchase.
- Post-Purchase Experience:
- After purchasing, the customer builds expectations for future decisions based on their experience.
- Advocate:
- Customers share positive experiences with their network, promoting the brand and influencing others.
- Bond:
- Customer establishes a close emotional relationship with the brand.
- Consideration:
- Managing the Decision Process:
- Companies that manage this process well can compress or eliminate the consideration and evaluation phases, leading customers directly to loyalty stages, creating a competitive advantage.
- Post-Purchase Importance:
- A common mistake is thinking the job is done after purchase.
- Example: Ritz-Carlton’s exceptional post-purchase service with “Joshie the giraffe” story, creating a memorable customer experience and fostering loyalty.
- Relevance and Customization:
- Ensure the framework is relevant to your customers and brand.
- Think through all stages from the beginning and beyond the purchase to maintain customer engagement and loyalty.
Think through the stages
- Using Existing vs. Customized Frameworks:
- Review your buyer personas and think from the customer’s perspective to understand their decision journey stages.
- Consider customer pain points and the questions you need to answer or problems to solve for them.
- Limit the stages to a maximum of seven or eight for clarity.
- Example: Hotel Brand Customer Journey:
- Evaluate Options:
- Customer looks to understand all available choices.
- Research Preferences:
- Customer narrows down to a few hotel brand options and seeks additional information.
- Book the Hotel:
- Customer chooses their top hotel brand and books the room.
- Before the Trip:
- Customer gets excited about the upcoming trip.
- During the Trip:
- Customer is at the hotel, experiencing all it has to offer.
- After the Trip:
- Customer reminisces about the experience and may become loyal and advocate for the hotel brand if it’s positive.
- Evaluate Options:
- Exercise File:
- An exercise file is included to help create a customer decision journey template, starting with the stages and later adding touchpoints and messaging.
- Key Takeaway:
- There is no right or wrong decision journey framework; it should be tailored to fit your brand, customers, industry, and competitive dynamics.
Map Across Touch Points
Define touch points
- Definition of Touch Points:
- Customer touch points are your brand’s points of customer contact from start to finish.
- A touch point occurs any time a prospect or customer interacts with your brand, before, during, or after a purchase.
- Examples of Touch Points:
- Before Purchase: Online search results, peer reviews, videos, in-store marketing, websites.
- During Purchase: Shopping at a retail store, online checkout process.
- After Purchase: Chatting with customer service, receiving an invoice.
- Importance of Post-Purchase Touch Points:
- Many marketers focus on touch points before or during the purchase, but post-purchase touch points are equally crucial.
- Example: Contacting customer service after a purchase with a question.
- Touch Points vs. Channels:
- A touch point is more than just a channel; it is the intersection of a customer’s actions with a specific tool or resource.
- Example: A customer visiting a brand’s website to conduct research. Marketers need to understand the customer’s goal and actions on the site.
- Customer Engagement:
- Think through the touch points that customers want to use to engage with your brand, starting before the purchase, through the purchase, and after the purchase.
- Ensure the customer decision journey includes an understanding of and specifics about the customer’s actions at each touch point.
Engage across touch points
- Strategic Choice of Touch Points:
- Focus on relevant touch points based on the customer’s mindset and stage in their decision journey.
- Avoid creating a lengthy list of touch points; not all are relevant in every journey.
- Customer-Centric Approach:
- Prioritize touch points where customers want to interact with your brand.
- Example: If customers seek product information on your website, invest in website content and interactive tools rather than print ads.
- Hotel Brand Example:
- Evaluate Options: Customers view aggregated travel sites to see available options.
- Research Preferences: Customers use search engines and brand sites to research preferred options and consult peer reviews.
- Book the Hotel: Customers visit the hotel’s website to check availability and book the room.
- Before the Trip: Customers revisit the hotel’s website to confirm amenities and dining options, and read customer reviews.
- During the Trip: Customers use the hotel’s website for activities and local tourist websites for ideas.
- After the Trip: Customers add reviews and advocate for the hotel if the experience was positive. They may join the loyalty program for future stays.
- Key Digital Touch Points:
- Search: 79% of brand discovery results are based on search. Customers often start their purchase journey with an online search.
- Referrals and Peer Reviews: 94% of people would buy a product after speaking with someone they know. Engage with customers where they seek referrals or read reviews.
- Digital Touch Points and Decision Stages:
- Digital touch points are increasingly important but vary based on the customer’s decision stage and mindset.
- Studies show that most of the sales process occurs before meeting a salesperson, with customers using multiple social media sources early in the decision journey.
- Resource Allocation:
- Focus resources on touch points that customers prefer to use for engaging with your brand.
- The importance of digital touch points varies by decision stage.
Determine touch points
- Relevance of Touch Points:
- Determine which touch points are most relevant for your brand across each stage of the customer’s decision journey.
- Use available data, buyer personas, and qualitative/quantitative research to understand customer preferences.
- Customer Preferences:
- Identify where customers prefer to find information about your product or service (e.g., website, peer blogs, peer reviews).
- Consider traditional media preferences like magazines for print ads or monthly invoices for post-purchase information.
- Timing of Messaging:
- Decide when your messaging should appear based on customer behavior.
- Example: If customers check social media at night, schedule posts accordingly. For night shift workers, consider daytime TV ads or social media posts.
- Engagement and Responsiveness:
- Ensure timely responses to customer interactions, whether compliments or complaints.
- Example: Surprise and delight customers by acknowledging their feedback, such as offering a free appetizer for a positive restaurant review.
- Touch Points by Purchase Stage:
- Before Purchase: Customers read reviews, ask trusted sources, or see advertising.
- During Purchase: Website experience is crucial for online purchases.
- After Purchase: Sending a thank you note can enhance customer satisfaction.
- Advertising Touch Points:
- TV Ads: Build brand awareness.
- Online Banner Ads: Provide seasonal reminders.
- Newspaper Ads: Share product or service details.
- In-Store Touch Points:
- Signage: Help customers find items within the store.
- Flyers: Highlight timely discounts.
- Best Practices:
- Tailor touch points to your business, brand, and customers.
- No one-size-fits-all approach; customize based on specific needs and stages in the customer journey.
Align Messaging And Content
Messaging versus content
- One-Way vs. Two-Way Communication:
- One-way communication: Brands only push their message out to customers without interaction.
- Two-way communication: Brands engage in dialogue with customers, listening and responding to their feedback.
- Importance of Two-Way Dialogue:
- Customers prefer brands that listen and engage in conversations.
- Example: Responding to customer compliments or complaints on social media.
- Evolution of Marketing Messaging:
- Traditional marketing was mostly outbound through paid media (TV, magazines, radio).
- Modern marketing includes both outbound and interactive, two-way communication.
- Choosing Messaging Based on Touchpoints and Stages:
- Early stages: Provide credible, accurate information on websites, thought leadership content, and blogs.
- Reviews: Customers often consult reviews early in their journey; positive reviews are crucial.
- Post-purchase: Engage in one-on-one, customized interactions to answer questions and build relationships.
- Statistics Highlighting the Importance of Peer Endorsements:
- 30% of people are more likely to buy a product endorsed by a non-celebrity blogger.
- 70% of 18 to 34-year-olds prefer peer endorsements.
- Word of mouth and peer reviews are powerful influences on purchasing decisions.
- Combining Messaging and Content:
- Use a mix of company-created messaging and customer-generated content to foster engagement and loyalty.
- Effective two-way dialogue drives customer loyalty and advocacy.
Align across touch points
- Seamless Integration:
- Seamless integration across touch points means ensuring all creative messaging feels connected but not identical.
- Avoid duplicating the exact same message across touch points to prevent customers from tuning out.
- Family Resemblance Analogy:
- Think of your messaging as having a family resemblance rather than being identical twins.
- Like a family photo wall with grandparents, cousins, siblings, and pets, each message should be unique yet recognizable as part of the same brand.
- Example: Landon Hotel:
- Website Homepage: Highlights the brand’s heritage and neighborhood diversity to establish credibility and appeal to diverse customers.
- Brochure: Aligns with the website by referencing community ties and tourist attractions.
- Email: Similar message but customized for the email touchpoint.
- Unified Brand Presentation:
- Present a unified, seamless brand through aligned or integrated messaging.
- Customize messages to be relevant to each touchpoint while maintaining a consistent brand feel.
Emotional versus rational
- Emotional vs. Rational Messaging:
- Emotional messaging can make or break customer engagement.
- People buy emotionally and justify rationally.
- Emotional benefits differentiate your brand from the competition and are more ownable.
- Importance of Emotional Messaging:
- Emotional messages are crucial early in the customer’s decision journey to establish a relationship.
- As customers progress in their journey, they seek more rational, detailed information.
- Great brands master rational factors to create an emotional connection.
- Examples:
- Samsung vs. iPhone:
- Key emotional factors for smartphones include brand identification and perceived innovation.
- Samsung: Value for money drives recommendations.
- iPhone: Emotional factors allow for premium pricing despite higher costs.
- Smartphone Purchase Journey:
- Early stage: Negative emotions like sadness due to attachment to old phones.
- Information search stage: Negativity turns to interest with new features.
- Post-purchase: Mixed emotions, including joy and frustration with new device usability.
- Solution: Educate new customers and connect them via social media for support.
- Samsung vs. iPhone:
- Key Takeaway:
- Use both emotional and rational messaging based on customer insights and the decision stage.
- Tailor messaging to create a strong emotional connection early and provide rational information as needed.
The journey continues
- Insight-Driven Decision Journey:
- An insight-driven decision journey is an excellent way to engage customers and convert them into loyal advocates.
- Continuous Evolution:
- Customers, brands, and businesses evolve, and so must your customer decision journey.
- Further Learning Recommendations:
- Sign up for email alerts from McKinsey, BCG, or Harvard Business Review for thought leadership.
- Research customer decision journey studies and articles from Microsoft and Google.
- Subscribe to Path to Purchase Institute newsletters for best practices and new content.
These notes are from the LinkedIn Learning course ‘Marketing Foundations: Customer Decision Journey‘ by Dina Shapiro. I highly recommend this course to anyone aspiring to become an Marketing Expert. To access this course and learn from industry experts, consider upgrading to LinkedIn Premium.
Please note that these notes were generated using LinkedIn’s AI tool, and I don’t claim ownership of the content. I’m sharing these notes solely for educational purposes and personal revision. If you have any concerns, please contact me at marketing@youthnet.in.