October 30, 2019
So you developed a series of customer personas. Gave them clever names like Hopeless Tweens, Vegan Hipsters and Tech Savvy Starter-Uppers. Next, you mapped out their customer journey. Because who knows what type of content they want at the consideration stage? You do! That’s who.
All of this is excellent, hard work that deserves a pat on the back. But unfortunately, it’s not enough.
The problem is, more often than not we tend to run around in our customers’ shoes for a while – just long enough to launch an insightful campaign – and then we kick those shoes off and forget about them.
If you want to become truly relevant to your audience, and curate your communications to each and every customer, you need to observe EVERY interaction that your customer has with your brand. With every campaign and new initiative, you should be walking through your customer’s journey to better understand how you can enhance their experience.
When you measure interactions, you want to go beyond looking at tactics in a vacuum. Instead, you should be striving to gain visibility into the entire customer’s journey. If your back-end technology isn’t integrated to support this type of data collection and reporting, start simple – talking and sharing will go a long way!
Reach out to different teams and roles that interact with your customer along their journey. Imagine what the Customer Support and Product departments could tell you about the pain points your target typically has with your solution category, or the common questions they have about a specific benefit.
In short, don’t let your personas and journey maps gather dust on the server. Continuously assess them, make edits, and always keep your customers’ needs in mind. Tie those shoes on tight and never take them off.