How to get to a better brand? There’s a map.
I have a lot of experience working with brands, so it’s inevitable that I get asked to give my opinion on whether or not the brand is engaging with its prospects in the most optimal way.
There is danger in answering this. Even if I have deep knowledge of their industry. Even if I have intimate insights regarding offerings like theirs. I run the risk of making an assumption that sends the brand efforts off in a direction that will ultimately fail (or, more likely, result in ho-hum results).
No matter how well versed I am with the industry and offering, I sidestep the question. Because there is somebody way more valuable to the brand who we should turn to for help.
Ask your brand experts
The people most qualified to help you understand your prospects are the people who were once prospects themselves. That means digging in to understand why your customers became your customers. There are many ways to do this. Here are a few:
Don't forget that you can simply ask your prospects - sometimes we overlook the simple solution. I'm always amazed at how open people are to sharing why they do what they do. Create a survey to gather their thoughts. It can be a formal affair, or it can be a few questions across your social channels.
Look for signals from your prospects - do you have internal data you can mine? Look at their behavior. What are their browsing patterns? What are their buying tendencies? This is a valuable exercise because often humans will tell you one thing but do another. Looking at their patterns can reveal the truth about what they really seek.
Tap the insights of those at the frontline - the people who interact with your prospects can tell you a lot. Ask them what questions they get asked the most. Ask them the three biggest objections that they hear. Ask them what prospects love about your offering.
All of this insight will help you start to understand how your prospects go through the process of becoming your customer. Now that you have all that, let's put it to good use.
Map it out
We're going to take everything you learned and put it into a map. A customer journey map. This will help illustrate for us the journey your prospects take. This is important because once you understand the journey, you can identify ways you can help them end up at your doorstep.
The map follows them from the moment they have a problem or a need all the way through them becoming your customer and hopefully your advocate. Here are the stages:
Problem/need - at this point, they may not even be considering your offering. They have a problem or a need and they are trying to figure out how to address it. For example, they may not be happy with the state of their house. If you’re a house painting company, you may be thinking this is an easy sale. But at this stage, they haven’t even decided they want to do home improvements. They may be thinking about just selling the place. That means this person could be a great prospect for a realtor as well. At the problem/need stage, they’re trying to find the path they want to go down.
Discovery - in the discovery stage, your prospects begin digging deeper into the potential ways to address their problem or need. They’ll most likely do some internet research. Maybe they’ll talk with someone whose opinion they trust. They’re looking to home in on the solution that’s right for them.
Evaluation - at this stage, prospects have a shortlist of solutions and begin the process of deeper evaluation to select the best option for their situation.
Decision - the decision stage is just what it sounds like. This is the point that they commit to becoming your customer or client.
Review - at the review stage, your new customer is evaluating the decision and the process of becoming your customer. Do they have buyer's remorse? Would they do business with you again (repeat business - the low-hanging fruit)?
Advocate - getting your customer to the advocate stage is priceless. This is the point where they want to tell others about you and even recommend you. Not all customers get here. But when you do the things to help them get here, it becomes incredibly valuable to your brand.
Now, we're going to answer three questions at each stage of the journey. This is where all that insight you gathered is going to become incredibly useful. Here are those questions:
What are they thinking and feeling? This helps us understand their mindset and emotions at each stage. Are they anxious? Confused? Excited? Curious? Create a sentence or two that describes their state.
What question do they have? They have different questions at each stage. Using the insight, identify the crucial question they need answered in order for them to proceed. I like identifying their question because it shows me how the brand might help. If you know their questions, you can offer the answers – sometimes before they even ask. That kind of proactivity makes your brand feel special.
What are they doing? Lastly, how are they going about finding the answers to their questions? Are they talking to friends? Googling? Asking for help on a social channel? This is important to document because it will help you understand what form the help needs to take and how it should be delivered.
Create your map. Fill in each of the six stages with the three questions that your prospects/customers have. This process will help change the way you approach those you hope to serve. You'll notice I didn't say prospects or customers. With your map, you are building your brand empathy. You're not just attacking the market with what you want to say. You are answering real needs. You're focusing on helping. Serving. That's what a great customer journey map can do. It shows you the way to a better brand.