If you ask anyone, even someone with no marketing background, they will most likely explain what advertising is. They would almost certainly tell you that online is where the action is and that social media is the place to be if you want efficient advertising.
Those statements would be 100% correct. Yes, the action is online, and people know that. So, what's the problem?
Seeing that that is common knowledge by now, that has turned the online space into a crowded, highly competitive and chaotic place to navigate, especially for a regular user.
Here is where journey-based advertising comes into play! Not just as a unique approach to differentiate yourself from your competitors but also as a helpful guide for your fellow online surfers.
This guide will help you understand journey-based advertising and how to create a comprehensive campaign.
In a nutshell, journey-based advertising involves mapping out the customer journey and creating a tailored, personalized campaign that addresses each stage of this journey. This approach accounts for the different channels, touchpoints, and interactions a person has with your brand.
For instance, if you are a clothing brand, your customer journey may start with a person seeing an advertisement for your brand on social media. They may then visit your website, browse through your products, add items to their cart, and finally make a purchase.
By mapping out this journey, you can identify all the different touchpoints and interactions someone has with your brand and create a campaign that addresses each touchpoint.
The aim is to create a comprehensive campaign focused on the entire customer journey rather than just one touchpoint. This way, you can understand the different stages a person goes through when interacting with your business.
Creating a successful journey-based advertising campaign may not be as easy as it sounds though. It generally requires some understanding of your target audience and how your customer journey works.
An effective journey-based advertising campaign is created by understanding the current customer journey.
A customer journey is the process by which a potential customer becomes aware of your brand. It's how they learn more about you, your products or services, and continue to engage with your brand after the purchase.
You should identify the touchpoints where you can engage and connect with your customers by mapping out their journey. Understanding the customer's pain points, motivations, and behaviours at each stage is the key to creating an optimal seamless journey down the funnel.
Begin by outlining each stage of the journey. Begin with awareness and progress to consideration, purchase, retention, and advocacy. Then, break each of them down into smaller steps, such as visiting your website, subscribing to your newsletter, or making a purchase.
Finally, identify any pain points, roadblocks, or opportunities for improvement at each step. These help improve the overall customer experience while increasing the likelihood of conversion and customer retention.
Once you're done mapping out your customer's journey, you should create your customer/buyer personas.
These personas are made-up depictions of your ideal customer. They should be based on demographic and psychographic data, as well as customer feedback and insights from customer research.
This way, you can better understand your audience's needs, motivations, and pain points. Doing so helps you create more targeted and personalized advertising campaigns. Speaking directly to their specific interests and preferences.
To begin, gather data on your customers, including demographic information such as age, gender, location, and income, as well as psychographic information such as interests, hobbies, and values.
Conducting surveys or interviews with your customers to gather additional insights can be a huge help.
Once you have all this data, use it to create a detailed profile of each persona, including their name, age, job title, interests, pain points, and motivations.
This way you can create targeted and personalized advertising campaigns.
Using personas as the foundation for your journey-based advertising campaigns helps you better connect with your customers and build long-lasting relationships.
Now that you have a clear understanding of your customer's journey and have created your personas, the next step is to identify the touchpoints in the journey.
Touchpoints are any interactions your customers have with your brand, everything from website visits to social media interactions, customer service interactions, and more.
Identifying these touchpoints is crucial for creating targeted and personalized advertising campaigns that speak to your customer's needs and interests at each stage of the journey.
Review your customer journey map and identify the steps where customers interact with your brand.
These should include both online and offline interactions.
For example, a customer may first become aware of your brand through a LinkedIn ad, then visit your website to learn more, sign up for your newsletter, make a purchase, and engage with your brand on other social media platforms.
Once you've identified these touchpoints, prioritize them based on their importance in the customer journey. Figure out the potential impact they might have on the customer's overall experience and revise appropriately.
These steps will help you to focus your advertising efforts on the touchpoints that matter most, allowing you to create targeted and personalized campaigns.
Now that you have identified all the touchpoints in the customer journey, the next step is to create compelling messages for each touchpoint.
Start by reviewing your personas and identifying possible pain points, motivations and interests of each persona created.
When targeting customers in the awareness stage of the buyer's journey, your messaging should be about increasing brand awareness and developing interest in your products or services.
You may use targeted social media ads, influencer collaborations, or even content marketing campaigns to promote the value of your firm.
When targeting buyers at the consideration stage of the buyer's journey, your messaging must emphasize trust and the unique value of your products or services. Customer testimonials, product demos, or free trials assist customers to make informed purchasing decisions.
Finally, if you're focusing on customers in the retention stage of their journey, your messaging should emphasize creating loyalty and encouraging repeat purchases. This could include personalized email campaigns, loyalty programs, or recommendations based on past purchases.
The final step is to track and measure the effectiveness of your campaigns.
One method is to define and monitor key performance indicators while taking into account metrics such as click-through rates, conversion rates, customer retention rates, and so on.
Tracking and measuring the performance of your campaign identifies areas for improvement. As a result, you can make data-driven decisions to optimize your campaigns and improve overall performance.
Concentrate on improving the campaign's performance by removing unnecessary or contradictory information. Create content that answers your audience's questions while remaining engaging.
Use analytics tools such as Google Analytics or social media insights to monitor performance and identify areas for improvement.
Journey-based advertising is a critical component of any successful marketing strategy. It is what makes a brand stand out from the crowd.
Understanding your customer's journey and creating targeted and personalized campaigns that speak to their specific needs and interests at each stage build stronger relationships.
Understanding the customer journey and creating personas that represent your target audience is essential. From there, you can identify the main touchpoints and create compelling messages that speak directly to their needs and interests.
Remember to track and measure success along the way, using analytics tools to monitor performance and identify areas for improvement.
