Build the Perfect Email Marketing Drip Campaigns With a Customer Journey Mapping Strategy
In order to create effective email marketing drip campaigns, begin with a customer journey mapping strategy to structure the drip email campaign workflow. But if you’re wondering, “what is a customer journey map,” you’re not alone. A customer journey map typically outlines the processes and touchpoints a customer goes through with a brand, from the initial awareness/browsing stage to post-purchase. These phases of the customer journey will help form email marketing drip campaigns so you can set up an effective workflow.
To create a customer journey map and effective email marketing drip campaigns, you must understand your ideal customers, how they communicate, and what they value — this information should be in your brand personas. If your business hasn’t created brand personas—learn more about building customer personas here. And if you haven’t refreshed your brand personas recently, now is the time to do it, as it can really support your long-term marketing efforts, business growth, and profitability.
“Companies that have adopted different approaches to customer journey and experience practices have seen more than six times greater growth in year-on-year profitability.” Harvard Business Review
How to Create a Customer Journey Map
- Outline the process and consumer need points for the initial stages of attracting prospects.
- Identify the process and need points for engaging with new prospects and existing customers with the right messaging at the right time.
- Add the process and need points for satisfying and delighting consumers at the purchase decision stage and beyond.
- Determine the stages and identify the specific outcomes and goals for you—such as customer acquisition, retention, loyalty, upsells, etc.
Consider what each consumer wants in order to identify ways your product or brand can meet their needs—the nurturing process and messaging will vary depending on how far along they are in their journey. Then you can begin the different email marketing drip campaign workflows to plug into your email marketing automation platform. You can use marketing automation platforms such as HubSpot, Constant Contact, MailChimp, or other systems to create email marketing drip campaigns to automatically nurture prospects and customers, no matter what phase of the customer journey they’re in. But that’s just one angle of the customer journey angle.
Email marketing drip campaigns are a core tactic, but the best and most effective customer journey marketing campaigns will be deployed in a variety of media. Focus more on meeting people at their need points and less on the touchpoints. Remember, customer journeys are rarely linear. People are all over the map at any given time, and they’ll use whatever platform makes sense to them at the time of need, so they may engage with your brand through any number of channels online and off. Just be consistent and relevant with messaging that relates to their phase of the journey.
“Influence can be more effective when journeys and experiences are customer-centric, designed not as a path to purchase, but as a path to purpose.” Harvard Business Review
Revising the Customer Journey Mapping Strategy for 2021 & Beyond
It’s 2021, and everything has changed in recent years to become more consumer-centric. At Serendipit, we’ve seen firsthand how our own clients’ customer journeys have evolved dramatically over the past year and a half of the pandemic and increased social unrest. It should be no surprise that people’s priorities have shifted, which means their brand alliances and loyalties may be tested. Trends show this is especially true when core values are at stake. Customer journey maps are shifting towards customer experience maps, and the difference in results, as stated in the Harvard Business Review article we quoted above, only enhance business growth.
Consumers expect the brands to clearly state—and live up to—their core values, and they’re not shy about demanding it. (See more on #Brandstanding here.) It’s wise to reexamine your brand’s existing email marketing drip campaigns and other marketing tactics to see if they’re on target for the wants and needs of consumers post-pandemic. The time to question everything in your marketing toolbox is NOW.
Need help with automating your email marketing effectively or retooling your brand for a post-pandemic world? We’re up for the challenge.
Learn more about high-performing email marketing drip campaigns at HubSpot.
