Most of us, at one time or another, have seen a marketing funnel or sales funnel. It’s a representation of your company’s marketing/sales process from their point of view, starting from the top (leads) and ending at the bottom (a purchase). Of course, there are several steps between those two points, and customers “journey” from one to the next as they move through your company’s funnel. This basic business concept has been used for more than a century, and even though it may look a little different today than it did initially, the idea is almost entirely the same.
The AIDA Funnel
One common form of the sales funnel is called the AIDA funnel. In this version, the top of the funnel (leads) are represented as “Attention.” They move from there to Interest, and then to Desire, followed by Action.
In the Attention phase, your prospects have no idea what problem your business could solve. They may not even know they have a problem worth solving. The goal here is to make them aware of their problem and aware that your company, who could fix the problem, exists. Display advertising and social media advertising are both great ways to do this.
Once the prospect knows you exist, they move on to the Interest phase. Now, you want to intrigue them—but how? eBooks, newsletters, and blogs are effective ways to educate them and make them start really thinking about what your company has to offer.
Now, hopefully, the prospect is firmly in the Desire phase. They know who you are, they are interested in what you can do for them, and they want you to solve the problem that they now know they have. Sales landing pages and email drip campaigns are great ways to remind them that they want to buy from you (because they may forget, otherwise).
Of course, the ultimate goal is to get the prospect to the Action phase. How can you convince them to take the leap? Free consultations, a button that says “Buy Now!” – anything to make them feel good about trusting you with their purchase.
Understanding the Customer Journey Map
At its core, a customer journey map is the same idea as a sales funnel—it just looks a little different on the surface. Unlike a traditional funnel (which can be a bit rigid), customer journey maps may show a more circuitous route from attention to action.
Additionally, customer journey maps are more concerned with tracking touchpoints than about identifying a prospect’s stage of interest in your company. Every interaction a prospect has with your brand is considered a touchpoint—visiting your website, seeing an online ad, or engaging with a social media post, among others. In fact, many people will go back to a touchpoint they experienced earlier when they are considering action, which makes the journey loop back on itself instead of progressing in a linear fashion.
Tracking this kind of customer journey can be tricky because it takes a lot of digging to find out where your prospects are going and what they’re doing before they buy from you. However, if you can gather a good amount of data, it can be very helpful in determining which of your marketing efforts are actually resonating with people and which aren’t.
So, What Does Uptick’s Customer Journey Map Look Like?
As you can see, our process is fairly straightforward.
People who are interested in what we do start with awareness: What problem do they have that needs solving? Could Uptick be the solution to that problem? They move into the Consideration phase next. Who is Uptick? What do they do? This leads into the Evaluation phase, where they consider our services and whether or not we might be a good fit for their goals. If they decide to work with us, they move into the Purchase phase.
Normally, that’s where it ends. But we have added a fifth stop on our customer journey map: Post-Purchase Thoughts / Review. What did they think of our process? How did we help their business? Would they recommend Uptick to someone else? We believe this is an essential component of the customer journey, as so many people read online reviews and ask for recommendations from people they trust.
Where Are You in Your Customer Journey?
No matter where you land on the map, Uptick is ready to start a conversation about how we could help your business. Drop us a line and see how we could support your company’s marketing efforts by utilizing the power of digital.
