Buyer Persona and Customer Mapping Journey: Helping the Digital Marketeer
Written by Ananthanarayanan Venkateswaran, Faculty of Digital Marketing & Metrics at SP Jain School of Global Management.
Today’s buyers have many more ways to interact with the businesses and have incredible options for similar products. However, despite the increase in reaching out to businesses all over the world through various channels and platforms, there is one key factor that has not really changed – a positive Customer Experience.
It is said that only 22 percent of the consumers feel the average retailer understands them as an individual, and only 21 percent feel the communications they receive from the average retailer are “usually relevant.” The availability of various touch points across multiple channels and devices can make the experience of customers more taxing.
To make a better customer experience, one must understand the Buyer Persona and their journey. What is Buyer Persona? It is learning about who your customer(s) really are. This will include your customer demographics, interests, goals, etc. This insight will help you segment your customer and understand the traits of each customer based on their behaviour. And this behaviour of you customer on your channel is called customer journey. Customer journey understands how your user drives through your website/blog/channel.
For example, if you own an e-commerce website, the insights you must look for is – Buyer Persona (who your target audience is) and Customer Journey (how does the user react, how much time do they spend on each page, what stands out for them, etc.). Once you understand your buyer persona and their journey, you can create personalised content for them. Understanding their journey and mapping it will add on to the customer experience.
For example, your current technology might not allow you to communicate with your customers on mobile. But once you understand the customer journey, you realise that a majority of your personas are mobile-savvy. This will help you absorb mobile-first into your current technology.
However, Customer Journey Mapping is not a one-time investment. One must regularly keep a track on their customer journey because, with the fast-paced change in trends, customer buying behaviour and journey also changes which can affect their experience on your channel/platform. These insights will help you create a better user experience and provide a seamless experience for your customers. You will also learn how to think about these areas from a strategic perspective and discover new tactics you can inculcate to help design a customer experience that increases engagement and revenue.
For example, understand what a prospective customer would be looking for online. This will help you create relevant content, adding value to the end users. It will help you understand where you should infuse the gamification, loyalty points, after purchase services, etc., in turn helping you earn great returns.
Users Flow under Google Analytics page will help you understand the digital touch points better of how your audience/users/visitors online are browsing across content. One of the leading companies that come to my mind when I say Best user experience is Amazon. The experience a customer has on Amazon and the strategies they use for a seamless customer experience is something one must take into consideration.
Quick Tip: Always have a customer-centric approach and try to provide the best customer experience possible.
It doesn’t matter which industry are you from or what audience do you cater to, if you are digital, buyer persona and customer journey mapping is something you must take into consideration. This will always help you increase your revenue and sales.
About the Author:
Ananth V is a Global Award Winning Digital Marketing Professional and a renowned international speaker in the field of Digital Marketing, Social Media, Marketing Research, Marketing Management, Technology and Entrepreneurship across industries and countries. An IIM graduate with over 14 years of work experience, he has worked with varied advertising agencies and corporate diversified across divisions of Sales, Marketing, Product Branding, Training and IT, for leading global brands. Over the years, Ananth has received a series of global awards for his expertise. From being the “Most influential Digital Marketing Leaders 2016” by CMO Asia and World Marketing Congress to winning first place in the Global Peter Drucker Challenge Award in Entrepreneurs category and being interviewed by BBC Business Worldwide News Money & Finance, at GPDF14 in Vienna, Austria “Global Business: Young Horizons”, Ananth also serves as a speaker, influencer, panelist and corporate trainer on Digital Marketing discussions.
