Transcription
What's up? It's Jamal, and welcome back to the channel. In this video, we're gonna show you how to turn your leads from a complete stranger to a loyal customer using a proven process called customer journey mapping. 'Cause if they're not willing to take a journey with you, they're not willing to pay you anything, and your business is gonna fail, all right. We don't want that to happen.
To follow along, go download HubSpot's free customer journey templates from our description below, before we start. And, while you're down there, take a moment to subscribe to our channel and ring the notification bell so you never miss a video.
HubSpot defines the customer journey map as a visual representation of a customer's experience with a company that provides an understanding into the needs and concerns of customers, which directly motivate or inhibit their actions. In other words, you can almost picture it, like HubSpot's famous flywheel model, but laid out flat, like a step-by-step map. From there, you can predict each step a customer takes, spotting moments that drive them towards the goal, as well as obstacles that will get in the way. This customer-centric approach applies to marketing, sales and service. The good news, is that you don't have to do all of them at once.
To reach the top of the customer journey, the first thing you need to do is assemble the right stakeholders who can map out each phase. Depending on which segment of your business you're mapping, this can mean people from your marketing, sales, or service teams. In some cases, you'll wanna align folks from all departments by including them in the mapping process. In fact, this is pretty essential, since the transitions from one department to the next is often where customers lose their way.
The other critical step at the start of any customer journey, is to choose your player. This is done by identifying a buyer persona to focus on for each map. If you're not certain of your company's buyer personas, start by checking any existing business plans or marketing documents that may already identify them. If no buyer personas exist, you can quickly generate them using HubSpot's free online persona generator tool. Now you're ready to press start.
- This data is wrong every freaking time.
- Have you heard of HubSpot? HubSpot is a CRM platform where everything is fully integrated.
- [Man In Plaid Shirt] Whoa, I can see the client's whole history. Calls, support tickets, emails. And here's a task from three days ago I totally missed.
- [Narrator] HubSpot, grow better.
Let's begin with a customer journey map, which is the first template included in the free customer journey kit I mentioned earlier. If you haven't already downloaded it? Now is a good time. You'll see that the journey has three major steps; awareness stage, consideration stage, and decision stage. These are the basic stages that every prospect goes through on their way to becoming a buyer. For each stage, you'll wanna define the following: what is the customer thinking or feeling? What is the customer's action? What or where is the buyer researching? How will we move the buyer along in his or her journey?
So, now you can see how mapping works, but let's continue with a simple example. Imagine your business offers soccer classes for young kids. And let's assume that our buyer persona is the parent of two elementary school kids. In the awareness stage of the customer journey, the buyer may be feeling overwhelmed because they don't have anything planned to entertain the kids during an upcoming school break. To come up with ideas, the parent will likely turn to the internet. Google is the obvious first stop, but they could also go to parenting groups on Facebook. To move the buyer along at the stage, you could create a blog post titled, "What to do with kids during school breaks?" You could also run targeted ads on Facebook.
Next comes the consideration stage where the customer is thinking about signing their kids up for soccer, but needs more information. We answer the same questions as the awareness stage, but further down the customer journey path. Parents might be feeling concerned that their kids don't like athletics, or perhaps classes don't fit into their work schedule. The customer is now searching for more info, and is hopefully doing it on your site. Your homepage should answer the customer's questions. In this case, by explaining how soccer helps kids develop physical and social skills. You might also consider adding a pencil banner that calls out multiple locations and class times available. The consideration stage is also where tools and FAQs, or live chat features come into play.
And last, comes the all important decision stage, where the shopper will hopefully make a purchase. But that's far from guaranteed. In fact, research shows that a vast majority of shoppers decided not to purchase at this stage. One study found a 70% cart abandonment rate across dozens of e-commerce reports. That doesn't even count shoppers who never start a cart. So how can we turn shoppers into buyers for our kids soccer classes? Let's use the journey map template to lead the way.
By now, the customer is invested, having spent time in the consideration stage. They're probably feeling eager to solve the problem and move on with their day. They're also probably wondering about things like price. Which is why you want to get them to your shopping page with prices easily visible, and sign-up just one click away. To close the deal, you might wanna offer discounts, or create urgency by letting the customers see how many open slots are left in the class, or a countdown timer showing how many days until school vacation starts. You'll know what works best for your market. What's important, is having a structured process that you can follow to make sure all of these possibilities come to light. That's the magic of customer journey mapping. I wish I had a little magic wand, boop, magical.
You can also use a delight stage which encompasses any post-sale service you can offer to exceed customer expectations. Maybe you keep getting emails from their kids, asking if their kids need to bring their own soccer ball? You can start sending a preemptive email a week before class begins. And if the answer is yes, use this as an upsell opportunity for parents to buy the ball directly from you, saving them the effort of going to the store or having to shop online. If you really want to drill down on the customer service element of the delight stage, we have a map template that focuses on just that portion of the customer journey. There's also a map dedicated to lead generation for businesses with a long cycle, and one for customer churn to help you hold onto existing customers. Plus, four more templates that will help you optimize your business to attract, engage, and delight customers. It's all free and available for download in the description. So click that link now before the next video plays. You can also sign up for our free HubSpot Academy Course on customer journey mapping to learn more about this process. And remember to subscribe to our channel so you never miss a tool or tutorial.
Now if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna turn myself into a cartographer, all right? I'm gonna map every single possible customer journey. That way, no one ever has to do this work ever again. Businesses, it'll be solved for ya. You're welcome. Until then, I'll see ya next time. I'll tell you what to do with kids during school break. Get 'em outta the house. 'Cause mommy and daddy want to take a nap for once. Jesus Christ, we're overworked.