Understanding your ideal customer’s behavior is more than just analyzing data points, but integrates psychological and motivational insights which provide a predictive roadmap towards conversion optimization. Marketing to your ideal audience means developing resources that crystallize those insights into workable assets. Customer personas and customer journey maps integrate qualitative insights and key data points that summarize and predict ideal behavior.
What is a Customer Persona?
A customer (or buyer) persona is a detailed profile of an ideal (yet fictional) customer created from existing data that highlights their motivations, challenges, problems, values, and buying criteria. Unlike customer segments, this persona focuses on individual motivations, qualities, and psychographics that form a personality type which is more likely to drive purchase decisions.
Creating the ideal customer persona consists of several steps:
- Conducting Research to understand the desires and issues of your ideal customers, competitor research to locate ideal engagement opportunities, surveying current customers, and using online tools,including web-based software, email, and online forums;
- Social media engagement data can provide insight into content trends and performance, highlighting potential marketing messaging needs; and
- Leveraging data analytics from websites, email, social media, and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems to understand how customers interact with your organization online.
Many marketing professionals use customer persona templates to organize their information and insights into a solid structure. Once these ideal customers are identified, the next step is documenting the process of how those customers make purchasing decisions.
Mapping the Customer Journey
Customer journeys (also known as customer lifecycles) highlight the various touchpoints between a customer and a company that (ideally) result in purchasing and further interactions with a brand. The customer journey consists of several distinct stages:
- Awareness, or how a customer gains knowledge of a particular product/service;
- Consideration and exploration of various options for purchase;
- Decision to purchase a product/service;
- Adoption/Retention when a customer starts/continues to use the purchased product; and
- Advocacy of a particular product/service to others in order to drive word of mouth.
Crafting a formal customer journey map can not only formalize the process, but also serve as part of a conversion optimization strategy. Integrating a user experience (UX) approach, marketing professionals can identify key knowledge gaps and take measures to address those gaps through further research, interviews, and other activities.
Developing a customer journey map results in two primary objectives: defining customer goals and understanding how to map an abstract, nonlinear process. Although there are customer journey mapping templates, the process has tangible benefits which include
- Insights into the overall customer experience (CX) providing insights into the ideal customer;
- Improving overall return on investment (ROI);
- Identify gaps and unmet needs;
- Creating more personalized customer experiences; and
- Enhancing cross-departmental collaboration.
All good customer journey maps start with an ideal customer persona, but there are other elements that are required, including
- Understanding the phases of the customer experience;
- Touchpoints, including social media messaging and search intent;
- Customer thoughts, actions, and emotions; and
- Opportunities for further engagement.
Moving through the process may seem daunting, but it serves to reinforce current marketing principles. Understanding how users become customers can influence how marketers engage users to become potential customers.
The Journey Is the Destination
Converting online users to customers is a complex process across multiple marketing channels and takes a nonlinear path. Documenting the traits and characteristics of an ideal customer facilitates the marketing process through a thorough understanding of their thoughts, needs, and motivations. Mapping their journey throughout the conversion process allows marketing professionals to tailor their efforts in engaging users and moving them towards purchasing decisions.
Customer personas and customer journey maps are primary tools for marketers to engage users more effectively. Understanding overall customer experience provides insights into strengthening brand presence and engagement, reinforcing the idea that in this case, the journey is the destination.
Author: Gordon Dymowski
B2B Social Media Marketing Consultant/Copywriter
Gordon Dymowski is a B2B social media consultant and copywriter working with small to medium-sized businesses around audience engagement, lead generation, and driving revenues. Gordon has assisted various organizations in social media strategy, engagement, and analytics with a specific focus on healthcare, technology, and mission-driven ventures. He is also a fiction writer who has written for various independent publishers.
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