How to Create a Customer Journey Map: 7 Steps to Help People Go From Strangers to Loyal Fans

A customer journey map, also known as the buyer journey, is a path that a person takes from knowing nothing about you to being a loyal fan who shares your stuff with their friends.

It outlines the buying process and creates the visualization that a real human person will take to become a customer and to be an evangelist for your brand.

The first step of creating any customer journey map is to create a buyer persona, also known as a customer persona, using the demographics and customer data of your ideal client.

What Is the Importance of Customer Journey Mapping?

Making a customer journey map can help you make more money.

Period.

The end.

Consider the alternative.

Either you plan out the process by which someone becomes a customer and fan or you just let people become customers without any thought of where they are coming from and how to get more of them.

Also, you have no data or understanding behind why some folks stick around and others leave.

Here is what the numbers tell us:

124% increase in sales leads.
55% increase in organic search traffic.
97% increase in online leads.
210% increase in North American site traffic.

If you don't target who you are talking to, then you will spend a lot of wasted time and money talking to the wrong people.

1. Know the Different Stages of a Customer Journey Map.

From here we need to map out each step along a customer’s journey so that we can create content and touchpoints that meet their wants and needs.

There are four main stages in the buyer's journey:

Awareness: This person doesn't know you exist yet. They have no idea who you are. How will they get to know you? What will be their first impression?
Will they find you from your blog or podcast? Will they need a webinar or an e-course?
Consideration: This person is looking for a product or service like yours. How are you different? How do you meet their particular needs? How do you compare to the others? This person will need to be convinced that you are the right fit for them.
Customer: Congratulations, you got the sale. Now what? Keep them on board! How do you get them to stay or buy again? Do you give them email discounts? Do you give them helpful how-to content to ensure they know how to use your platform?
Fan: They have decided to stick around, how do you help them share the love? How do they give referrals, do you give them a code? Do you have a networking webinar? What kind of status boosting swag can you create that incentivizes them to share your product or service with their friends?

2. Determine Questions to Answer From Each Stage of the Customer's Experience

For the awareness stage, this is easy. It's going to be connected to the pain points the customer is going through.

However, as we get farther along with each stage, you'll see that their feelings and thoughts change dramatically.

Below are the basic questions each person will feel, but the actual questions will be more connected to your product or service. It's usually something like:

How can I solve my problem? (Awareness.)
What is X and how does it compare to Y? (Consideration.)
How do I use this product or service to be more successful? (Customer.)
How can I share this product or service with my friends to help them out? (Sharing.)

3. Determine Which Content to Show At Each Stage

A Facebook ad is not for your loyal fans. They won't share that. A demo video showcasing a feature of your platform is not for people who don't even know what you do yet. An effective customer journey map knows that each group needs certain types of content to be successful.

It anticipates a customer's needs and has an end goal.

Helpful content for the awareness stage

We get it, you are a video production company that uses tons of expensive equipment to make epic videos.

Great.

But, what if I am not ready for that yet?

What if I am still wondering if video is right for me?

What if I can do it myself?

You can either keep talking about how amazing your videos are, or you can help me create my own for free.

How to film using just your phone. The best microphones to use. Best editing software and tutorials. This is all content that gives you a great introduction to a related field, even if it is not exactly what you do.

You can bring me one step closer to my goal.

Chances are I will figure out how much time and effort it takes to learn this new skill and not want to do it myself. Then, guess who I will look to hire?

You.

You need to create content that doesn't just help people know what your product or service is.

Chances are there are tons of connected problems that you can actually solve right for free. Do that.

If you can solve one of my problems, I'll be much more likely to give you my money to solve more complicated problems in the future.

20% of this content is about the exact product or service you sell and 80% of this content is about related things that will solve people's problems.

The most helpful business wins.

A word about ads...

How do you know when a buyer has gotten enough value to move from awareness to consideration? There is one simple way. Create a trigger, transaction, or goal.

For example, a free guide will have a higher conversion rate than a paid offer. Most people will not give their money after seeing your 20-second Facebook ad. You are asking for too much too soon.

This is like asking someone to marry you before you have even introduced yourself.

Instead, an awareness ad campaign will give something for free and give something else for free... with some contact information.

If you are a social media marketing agency you should have a video ad that gives really helpful advice on building up your social media following. You should also have a call to action where folks can download your free guide or get access to a mini e-course by giving their name and email.

Boom, they have moved from awareness to consideration.

Now that you have added some value it's okay to explain the problem that you solve. It's okay if your next ad asks them to schedule a call or sign up.

You have built up some goodwill.

You have some trust.

They know who you are.

Create at least two ads:

One ad is helpful and gives something even more helpful for contact information.
One ad explains the problem that you solve and how you make their life better.

You can also set triggers for your videos for re-targeting. For example, if someone watches 50% of your helpful video, THEN show the other ad explaining what you do.

Comparative content for the consideration phase

This content IS all about you and how you stack up against the competition.

What makes you unique?

There are probably a lot of other companies who also say they are "the best." What makes you so different?

Is it time, expertise, quality, results, ease-of-use, or helpfulness? What do you have that your competitors don't have?

This type of content needs to explain a few things really well:

The problem that you solve and the main benefit that you bring.
The simple steps that someone takes to do business with you. Keep it to three or less.
How you stack up to the competition.
The results that someone can expect, with testimonials of satisfied customers.
A clear call to action.

This is usually the content that people will see on the core pages of your website. This is the explainer video for your business. This is the one-pager you hand out to interested customers.

Explanatory content for the customer phase

Imagine you saw an advertisement for a digital service that teaches public speaking.

You thought, "this would have a positive impact on my business."

You learned about them on a social media ad, you went to their website. You checked out their competitors and you decided and then came back to your first crush and thought, "let’s do this!"

You signed up and gave your money only to find out the learning portal looks very different than the ad. There are no explainer videos, no warm welcome. There are all kinds of things you have to pay extra to unlock.

You are confused.

You try to take one of the courses but you can't find the downloadable workbook they keep mentioning.

"This sucks," you say and then you cancel the renewal of your membership.

Sadly, this is THE case for many businesses.

You hustle to get the customer, but you struggle to keep the customer. You need content that helps the customer confirm they made the right choice. It is 5 to 25 times more expensive to get a new customer than to keep a customer. (source)

Here is an example of an internal explanatory video I did for WriterAccess.

If you gave a promise, this product needs to keep it.

If you say you make things simple and easy, then your content needs to back it up.

When creating content for this stage, consider the Amazon axiom, "never answer the same question twice."

If a customer has a question, and you plan on staying in business, you have just discovered the topic idea for your next piece of content.

This is your step-by-step help desk pages with screenshots and walkthroughs.

This is your quick tutorial videos on how to use a feature of your platform or how to use your product.

You should have a link with a video, text walk-through, and images for every issue that comes up. If this sounds like overkill remember that everyone consumes information differently. Some would rather watch a video, some like things to be broken down in text.

Both are important.

Share-worthy content for the sharing phase

Let's be clear. People share content for only a few reasons:

It cements their belonging to a group.
They want to help someone out.
They want to elevate their status to someone by being the person with helpful answers. (Sound familiar?)

Great content for the sharing stage has all three.

When someone:

Places a certain amount of orders with you...
Stays for a certain amount of time...
Takes a certain amount of classes...

How do you celebrate?

Do you give them swag? Do you give them something you know they want? How do you reward someone for sticking with you?

This content should feel like a real gift. Something you didn't need to do but did anyway. Sure, your product is great and solving a need, but this is more than that.

Affinity and belonging go beyond the transaction. We belong to the places that we feel seen. How will you make your customers feel seen?

Is it a handwritten note, a personalized video message, a credit on their next order, or a discount code they can share with a friend?

Creating content for this stage helps to increase the customer lifetime value or the length that someone stays with your brand. This is so important that it is now a focus of Google Analytics tracking even though it can be difficult to measure.

If you focus all your efforts on acquisition but don't spend time on retention, it’s like trying to fill up a bucket that has big holes in it. Your customer satisfaction will go down and your churn rate will go up.

Notice that there are four stages in the customer journey; half of your content should be about getting new customers and half of it should be about keeping and making your current customers happy.

4. Set a Budget

Now that you have an understanding of what each customer is feeling at each stage, and the content that will meet their needs, you need to actually make that content. This will take time and money. Identify both and record them in your customer journey map.

This process will probably reveal gaps in your marketing. Maybe your website is awesome, but you have no content to help customers find you in search.

Perhaps you have tons of amazing videos that drive people to your website, but once they land there the copy is unclear and complicated.

5. Create a Visual Representation With a Customer Journey Map Template

Everyone learns things differently. As a former teacher, I would make every lesson incorporate the different learning styles:

Auditory.
Visual.
Kinesthetic (learn by movement).
Logical (mathematical).
Social (interpersonal).
Solitary (intrapersonal).

In order for your team to truly understand your buyer personas and customer journey map, create and explain it using multiple styles.

Create an infographic with arrows and bullet points (visual). If you want to up your game, use a free tool like Uxpressia to build a fun little map that you'll love to show off. They have tons of templates and customer journey map examples from different industries, too.

Do a voiceover on a slide presentation (auditory).

Give a few employees a script and film them acting out different personas along the customer journey (kinesthetic).

Give a creative brief of the project you are completing ahead of time because some people prefer to prepare content ahead of time (intrapersonal).

Give your stakeholders and customer support team a chance to talk about, discuss, and collaborate when making these maps. Let them debate on the common different customer examples they talk with in their day-to-day. Remember, these are real customers so talk to the people who know them best (interpersonal).

When you employ different learning styles in creating a project that will also be used with people of different learning styles, you create a better result.

Diversity creates a healthier product. Consulting a wide variety of people will turn you on to ideas or types of content for the customer journey that you had not thought of. Even better, they will buy into the map and use it with fidelity because they had a hand in making it.

6. Keep a Tally of How Much Content You Create for Each Customer Experience

Remember that 50% of your content will be to get new customers and 50% should be to keep and love on current customers. You will want to create top-of-the-funnel content more as a marketer. But, a healthy business needs content for people inside just as much.

Create a tab on a Google Sheet or even just a document that tallies the amount of content you are creating for each journey stage.

10 Types of Insider Content You Can Create for Current Customers

I get it. Maybe you have already done product explainer videos. Maybe you have an in-depth help desk center with screenshots and step-by-step instructions for folks to get the most out of your product or service. What other types of insider content can you create?

Here is a great list to help you out:

Opinion videos or posts about a topic: This doesn't have to be about politics in religion, but could be great when talking about trends in the industry. This also begins to position your brand as a thought leader.
Respond to an opinion: Who doesn't like a good ol' controversy? Have a strong opinion that is contrary to someone else's. Share it.
Have a Q&A session: This could be live or you could field questions from email or social media ahead of time. This might also turn you on to issues you didn't know existed.
Review a book: Save your customers time by giving them a summary of insights you learned from a book.
React to a trending video: This is just fun and humanizes your team. People buy from people, and they will keep buying from people. Make your customers feel like they are part of the party by having fun with them.
Create a parody video or post: This may not get you new customers, but it will be funny. Make fun of yourself or a popular song. Again, be human.
A day in the life: This shows people exactly what you do and makes you more of an approachable personality. I am much more likely to interact and share content when I feel like I know the person.
Staff profile: Highlight a member of your team. Show that you love your employees. '
Give an office tour: Even if your office is just your desk at your kitchen table, this could be super funny and also relatable to your audience and current customer base.
Bloopers: Personally, I love bloopers. There is something freeing about personally displaying mistakes. Vulnerability breeds vulnerability and it's up to you to take the first step.

Check out some of my bloopers at the end of this video.

7. Become a Spy of Your Competition to See the Content They Create for Each Journey Stage

Do not be too proud to become a customer of your competitors, especially if they are doing better than you. By this I mean sign up. If this means giving money, do it. Imagine you are a customer. Go through their process:

Click on their social ads and look at their landing page.
Check out the welcome and onboarding emails they send to new customers.
Explore the user experience inside of their membership portal.
Schedule a demo with someone from their sales team and ask a million questions, especially about what they do for long-time customers.

You will learn:

What they do well that you could emulate with your own personal spin.
What they suck at that you could do better at and promote. (Remember to be nice.)
What they are not doing at all. This is great because it's another opportunity for betterment.

Perhaps the biggest benefit is being turned on to new tools and SaaS solutions that your competitors use and that will save you a ton of time.

You might have a problem that you could automate, or a tool could make obsolete.

This is a detective game.

Be realistic with the current state of your marketing efforts compared to the outside world. Knowing is better than not knowing.

Yes, I have looked at the code of a website to see what web hosting platform and scheduling software someone was using.

I am not ashamed.

Maybe I would have come to these solutions on my own, but it would have taken a ton of time. When spending money with your competitors, look at it the same way you would an e-course or a conference. You are learning something specific for your industry.

Summing It Up

Customers need different content depending on where they are at on the buyer journey.

You need to know WHO your buyer is and WHERE they are at on their journey BEFORE you make content.

Most businesses just make content to get new customers, but it's important to make content to keep your current customers happy, too.

Spy on your competition to see their best practices, gaps in content, and ways you can do things better or differently.