Daydreaming the Journey

This is the first of 3 posts where we are going to build a Marketing Framework based on a Customer Journey. N.B. You might well have created up to 5 customer personas at this stage and hopefully a Value Proposition for each but we do one framework per persona.

Step 1

Sit down with a cup of coffee and a blank piece of paper

At the top of the page right down the name of the persona you are going to use and beside it, the relevant Value Proposition.

Step 2

Imagine that person in your mind’s eye and then think of when they are going to realise that they are going to need your product e.g. if you are selling car exhausts, it might be when they start the car engine or if you are selling bagless vacuum cleaners it might be when they are emptying the bag on their old Hoover etc.

If you are selling something that it is a non-essential item (jewellery for example), then imaging where they will be when you know they will be receptive to the idea – on the sofa relaxing etc.

Write these situations down underneath the VP.

Step 3

What is that person going to do next? In this exercise, assume it is not a repeat purchase, they will want to do some research. This will usually be about their general options to fill their need i.e. Google Searching ‘Car Exhausts in Manchester’ or go to Facebook and ask “does anybody have a recommendation for …” etc.

Now let’s assume that they do hear about you, what else are they going to do in this research phase. One thing you can be pretty sure of is that they are going to visit your website … and your competitors … they might Google your name and so on.

Write these down under the results from Step 2

Step 4

What do I want them to do next that will confirm that they are genuinely interested in doing business with me? Book online, call me, download a brochure, visit my shop on the high street ...

Write this down under the previous answer.

Step 5

Assuming they have made contact by whatever means, or have even bought something off you, now we have to look at the experience they had.

Have a serious think about what your customer has to do next. Do they have to wait for the post to arrive or give you their email details or even defrost the product and cook it etc. Do this for everything you can think of that they have to do in the aftermath of them taking action after the purchase and write them down as before.

Step 6

What are they going to say about it if they talk or communicate with their friends. Be brutally honest and write it down.

With all of the above you have now actually described the selected Persona’s typical Customer Journey. Just going through the mental process may have opened your eyes to difficult areas for them and maybe even for you.

Step 7

Now we have to get some structure in to the whole thing. Remember the Google Moment of Truth theory? Now you need to draw a line separating each of your comments into each of the phases. They are:

Stimulus / Awareness …………….When they become aware of the need

Zero Moment of Truth …………… When they do their research

First Moment of Truth …………… When they make a commitment to you (usually a purchase)

Second Moment of Truth ………. Their experience of your business and the product itself

Ultimate Moment of Truth ……. What they really thought and thus tell their friends

You should have a page that looks something a bit like this:

That should be enough for one exercise. Keep the sheet, we are going to work it up more yet in the next post.