You most likely have a great journey for patrons in thoughts—they see your model, love what it’s important to provide, make a purchase order, and maintain coming again for extra. However the actuality isn’t normally that linear.
That’s the place the shopper journey might help. It tracks the trail your prospects truly take as they work together with your online business, from encountering your model for the primary time to changing and past.
Giphy
The client journey is a key advertising and marketing framework that makes use of knowledge from all of your channels to grasp the shopper’s expertise. Mapping this journey helps you enhance that have, which extends your relationship with the shopper.
E mail is likely one of the most necessary advertising and marketing channels for shifting prospects by way of every stage of the shopper journey. That’s as a result of e-mail is likely one of the most direct methods to nurture prospects with customized communications linked to their actions.
This publish will cowl how you should use the shopper journey to tell your e-mail advertising and marketing technique.
Why is the shopper journey necessary?
The client journey helps you perceive prospects’ behavioral patterns as they transfer towards a conversion and the touchpoints alongside the best way. A touchpoint is any interplay together with your model, corresponding to visiting your web site, following your social media channels, signing up in your e-mail record, and fascinating with advertising and marketing emails.
However maybe extra importantly, mapping the shopper journey helps you perceive any roadblocks that deter a possible buyer from taking the specified motion. As soon as you recognize what’s stopping them, you’ll be able to clear the best way for a extra constructive buyer expertise—that hopefully results in conversion.
Mapping the shopper journey for e-mail advertising and marketing
Mapping your prospects’ journey takes a whole lot of knowledge throughout channels, as your prospects sometimes encounter your model on quite a lot of platforms.
For this publish, we’ll deal with one in all these channels—e-mail—and how one can align your technique to the shopper journey map. Utilizing e-mail automation, you’ll be able to make sure the recipient will get the precise message on the proper time to assist them transition to the subsequent stage.
As you map the shopper journey to tell your e-mail advertising and marketing technique, listed below are some key elements to contemplate and inquiries to ask your self.
Shopping for course of
Begin with probably the most available knowledge—your gross sales, sign-ups, or whichever conversion metrics you measure. Ask your self, how are prospects buying your services or products? Do they go to a retailer or buy from social media advertisements?
Understanding this course of might help you tailor your advertising and marketing emails. For instance, if a buyer makes a purchase order from an Instagram advert, you’ll be able to goal them with related e-mail messaging, corresponding to an influencer marketing campaign, that’s prone to resonate. If, alternatively, a buyer sometimes purchases in particular person, ship them a coupon to redeem at their most popular location.
Actions
Subsequent, look past conversions and dig into the actions prospects take at every touchpoint. Do they comply with you on social media, peruse your merchandise in your web site, or search on-line critiques?
The higher you perceive the person’s actions, the extra related emails you’ll be able to ship. For instance, if customers sometimes seek for critiques earlier than making a purchase order, you’ll be able to embrace buyer critiques in your advertising and marketing emails.
Ache factors and obstacles
After discovering what actions your prospects take, you’ll have to go a step additional to handle their ache factors.
Ache factors are the moments when prospects expertise damaging feelings (e.g., anger, frustration, and so on.) that derail them from the motion you need them to take. Certain, feelings might be more durable to deduce from the shopper’s actions, however feelings are additionally essential to understanding the journey—particularly the damaging ones.
Whereas it’s nice to know when prospects have expertise with your online business, it’s extra necessary to grasp the place they encounter obstacles. On-line critiques and customer support interactions are nice locations to gauge customers’ feelings and discover the ache factors alongside their journey.
For instance, are you getting a whole lot of complaints concerning the checkout course of? Are prospects saying that they had a damaging expertise with customer support? Do orders take too lengthy to ship? These are the sorts of obstacles that may reduce your relationship with the shopper quick.
Options
Don’t cease at understanding prospects’ ache factors. When you’ve gathered this knowledge, work to resolve the commonest points and clearly talk your options to prospects.
For instance, say you obtained a whole lot of complaints concerning the sophisticated checkout course of in your web site, so that you employed an online developer to revamp your web site and make the shopping for course of extra streamlined. There could also be some previous prospects who haven’t returned to your web site since their final unhealthy expertise, so allow them to know that you just fastened the problem.
You are able to do this by selling your new web site in a advertising and marketing e-mail and giving recipients an incentive to test it out, corresponding to a reduction on their subsequent buy.
Aligning your e-mail advertising and marketing technique to the shopper journey
After getting a transparent understanding of how prospects uncover and have interaction together with your model, you’ll be able to tailor your e-mail communications to fulfill them alongside the totally different phases of the journey. Let’s have a look at how one can align your e-mail advertising and marketing technique to the shopper journey.
Model consciousness
That is when the person first encounters your model, whether or not they discover you thru a Google search, see an advert on social media, or hear about your model elsewhere.
The model consciousness stage is a chance to seize a person’s e-mail deal with to attach with them extra straight. To do that, promote your e-mail program on the touchpoints the place customers sometimes first study your model. For instance, if a whole lot of customers uncover your online business by way of your weblog posts, make sure to embrace an e-mail sign-up type or hyperlink in your weblog.
You may also sponsor different newsletters in your business, promote your e-mail program on social media, and extra. And don’t neglect so as to add a sign-up hyperlink inside your publication in order that if a subscriber forwards it to a good friend, they will enroll as nicely.
Consideration
At this stage, customers take into account whether or not they need to do enterprise with you. They could learn critiques, examine your product to a competitor’s providing, and do extra analysis to make their resolution.
If a buyer indicators up in your e-mail record within the earlier stage, you should use a welcome collection to get them on top of things on what it’s important to provide. Do that by sharing buyer testimonials, showcasing the options that differentiate your online business from the competitors, and providing incentives like a free trial in your service.
Some prospects at this stage may get shut to creating a purchase order however again out on the final second. However you haven’t misplaced them but—a well-timed deserted cart e-mail nudging the recipient to finalize the acquisition can get them again on observe.
Buy
A purchase order or conversion is a win value celebrating, however it’s not the tip aim. That is your alternative to show a one-time purchaser right into a loyal buyer and advocate.
However first, ensure that the acquisition course of is a constructive expertise for the shopper utilizing the next e-mail ways:
- Ship prospects efficient transactional emails with all the knowledge they want and a method to observe their buy.
- Ship a thanks e-mail and take into account together with an incentive to change into a repeat buyer, corresponding to a reduction on their subsequent buy.
Retention
As soon as a buyer has achieved enterprise with you, flip your efforts to maintain them engaged together with your model. You need to use e-mail in a number of methods to do that:
- Ship them an e-mail with a tutorial on the best way to use or look after the product after a buyer makes a purchase order. This will also be alternative to cross-sell different gadgets or upsell a subscription (however don’t overdo it—the first focus ought to be to supply worth to the recipient).
- Ship customized advertising and marketing emails with product suggestions based mostly on their earlier purchases.
Advocacy
Clients within the advocacy stage are such large followers of your online business that they willingly suggest it to others. However one of many largest obstacles at this stage is that, more often than not, glad prospects don’t exit of their method to go away a evaluation. So make it simpler for them to change into your advocates with these e-mail advertising and marketing ways:
- Ship prospects an e-mail requesting a evaluation after they make a purchase order. Make this as handy as attainable by together with a evaluation type proper within the e-mail or a button that takes them to the precise web page. Many manufacturers additionally embrace an incentive for leaving a evaluation, corresponding to a promo code, factors towards a loyalty program, or entrance right into a giveaway.
- Ship prospects a referral program promotion to encourage recipients to share your model with their associates. These sometimes embrace a profit for each the recipient and their referred good friend, corresponding to a reduction or credit score.
- Ship prospects an invitation to comply with you on social media and publish about your product utilizing a specific hashtag. This will additionally assist you collect user-generated content material to make use of in future campaigns.
Buyer journey e-mail examples
Let’s check out a number of examples from my inbox of brand name emails that aligned to my stage within the buyer journey.
A heat welcome from Brooklinen
Whereas searching for a gown (consideration stage), I noticed Brooklinen talked about in an article concerning the coziest robes of the 12 months. So after I landed on the Brooklinen web site, I signed up for its e-mail program by way of a pop-up, and I obtained this well-timed welcome e-mail with a reduction to nudge me towards finalizing a purchase order.
Retention incentive from Denver Botanic Gardens
I just lately attended an occasion on the Denver Botanic Gardens (buy stage). A couple of days later, the enterprise adopted up with this e-mail that features a low cost for its annual membership. Since I’ve bought tickets earlier than, the Denver Botanic Gardens already know I’m excited about what it gives, which makes me a certified lead for the subsequent stage, retention.
Simple advocacy from Girlfriend Collective
A couple of weeks after I obtained an order from Girlfriend Collective, the enterprise despatched me an e-mail requesting a evaluation (advocacy stage). The evaluation type is embedded proper within the e-mail, eradicating the impediment of me considering, “I don’t need to go to a different web site to go away a evaluation.” Moreover, it included an incentive on the backside of the e-mail, telling me what number of rewards factors I’ll obtain for my suggestions.
Comply with the shopper journey with Twilio SendGrid
When aligning your e-mail advertising and marketing technique with the shopper journey, knowledge and automation are your finest associates. We might help with each.
Twilio Phase helps you gather the info you might want to map the shopper journey. And Twilio SendGrid helps you ship customized emails utilizing time-saving automation that means that you can meet the shopper wherever they’re of their journey.
Join free right now to begin sending emails for every stage of the shopper journey.
