User Journey Mapping: Is It Necessary?

Running a business would be a lot easier if your customers cared about what you are selling as much as you do. Unfortunately, consumers don’t automatically have the depth of knowledge you do about the benefits and unique selling points that you can attribute to your products or services. In fact, it’s always an uphill struggle to turn a latent audience into a warmed up lead that is ready to convert and willing to put their money where it matters.

If we take products specifically, consumers typically want to know as much about items as possible before they invest. According to recent figures, 51% of shoppers use Google to research a purchase before they complete a transaction, according to Think With Google.

Of course, drawing consumers to your website or sales platform can be done in a number of different ways: whether it is display advertising, search ads, SEO or perhaps even a good old fashioned print advert. But once that initial interest and curiosity has been piqued, what next?

With so much other online noise to distract the modern web user, your time to convince them to add to the basket is genuinely limited. In fact, every second counts.

That’s why user journey mapping can be hugely important if you have aspirations to improve your conversion rates and squeeze more value from your marketing efforts. By making necessary tweaks to your site, you can create a smoother, faster and ultimately more rewarding experience for your customers.

What actually is it?

A user or customer journey is the timeline of how users interact with your products or services from their point of view. By mapping this journey, you can create a timeline of all the touchpoints between your customer and your business.

Mapping the user journey can show you where your site or app is successful in the experience it offers, and where it could be improved. You might find that you need to remove a step from your onboarding or that you have too many avenues and options from your homepage, causing customers to feel overwhelmed. It’s a customer-centric approach to product and site-building which can help you create personalised experienced tailored to your customers’ needs.

The benefits of user journey mapping

By implementing user journey mapping into your digital presence, you can help to get your entire sales funnel on the same page. Understanding which version of getting customers from A to B works best can inform your activities from top of the funnel marketing right through to till-point upsells and post-purchase customer service.

It’s important not to simply discard anything that isn’t found to be working in its current guise, however. Gaining knowledge about which elements of your business are being ignored can help you to redefine them or reintegrate them into your range in a different way.

From tracking session length to onboarding journeys, mapping out user experiences is a key step in improving your Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), which can help you keep your customers on side. According to the Institute of Customer Service, 14.9% of customers experienced a problem with an organisation between July 2020 and July 2021, the highest figure since 2009 – which is perhaps a sign that online users aren’t enjoying an entirely smooth user journey.

Incorporating user journey mapping into your business

Understanding your customers is the first step to effective user mapping. You need to know who your clients are and what makes them tick, at least to a level at which you can create an educated hypothesis. With user personas in place, you can use user mapping to either confirm or deny the accuracy of these personas, ultimately getting to know your customers better.

Product analysis, user surveys and market research can all help you create the foundations for effective user mapping. You can then map out the routes taken with timelines that include user touchpoints, benchmark actions and accomplishments, and scheduled notifications.

And remember, user mapping is never ‘complete’. The actions and habits of your customers will constantly be changing, and regular mapping will help you maintain an accurate idea of how your business and customers are working together. Customer feedback and behavioural analytics can help you achieve this.

Once you are in a position to refine your user journey, the rewards and increased return on investment can be quite dramatic. Not only can you generate a much-improved conversion rate through your website, you may also find it possible to optimise your marketing efforts. After all, understanding how and where your PPC campaigns, SEO efforts or social media marketing should be driving traffic into your website can significantly improve the cost-effectiveness of your marketing strategy.

As a Newcastle based digital agency, ROAR Digital Marketing specialise in offering transparent marketing services with tangible results. So if you’re looking for a North East digital marketing agency to help you understand your customers better, don’t hesitate to reach out.

Get in touch with our team today by calling 0191 259 4737 or by dropping us an email at [email protected].