Editorial
The Gist
- Agile teams excel. Embrace agility over size in your marketing team to foster innovation and overcome the limitations of corporate bureaucracy.
- Personalize your content. Regularly evaluate and adapt your content to align with customer feedback and market trends, ensuring a dynamic and responsive online presence.
- Balance communication. Find the right frequency for customer communication to maintain engagement without overwhelming your audience.
I've had the good fortune in my 20-year marketing and public relations career to work with the titans of industry as well as the scrappy underdogs of the business world. It's given me a unique perspective — and turns out, customer journeys really have the same bones for all size companies.
I’ve distilled my best customer journey insights into five hot tips that I believe are foundational for creating or even revamping a marketing customer journey.
5 Hot Tips for Marketing Customer Journey Success
1. Size Doesn’t Matter, It’s What You Do With It…
This is the moment Michael Scott of "The Office" pops up and says, “That’s what she said … about your marketing team!”
Fact (said with a Dwight voice): Agility trumps size.
Corporations often get snagged in their own red tape, stalling innovation. Contrast that with the caffeinated, focused energy of a small squad within a midsize business … and it’s clear that finding a way to implement a structure that embraces dynamism over bureaucracy can be clutch.
Real Talk: The development of the Ford Maverick by Ford Motor Co. serves as a prime example of how embracing agility and a cross-functional team approach can lead to groundbreaking innovations. By adopting agile methodologies and focusing on human-centered design, Ford was able to bring the Maverick to market 20 months faster than traditional methods would allow. This approach underscores the power of small, focused teams within even the largest organizations to drive success and innovation.
Beware: However, nimbleness can lead to overly centralized power. Case in point: an owner or CEO blind to modern marketing, causing a high turnover within the marketing team. Lesson learned? Empower your experts. You’re paying them for a reason, so avoid micromanaging your experts.
Actionable Insight: Craft your team's motto around focus and collaboration — with each other and other departments. Let each member drive, with just enough oversight to keep the ship steady. This balance is your secret weapon against the issues big businesses traditionally face and allows project ownership and creative energy to better flow.
Related Article: Customer Journey Mapping: A How-To Guide
2. What Works TODAY, Might Not Won’t Stick the Landing LATER
Content on autopilot? That's a fast track to losing touch with your audience.
I've seen firsthand the power of personalized content better keeping pace with customer feedback and market trends, transforming a brand's online presence from static to magnetic.
Real Talk: A case study from my own work involves innovating a startup's content approach that we treated as an ever-evolving entity. This adaptability not only spiked their visibility but also solidified the brand as a market-responsive leader. Similarly, Salesloft's work with Georgia Tech Athletics, by restructuring their sales process and implementing targeted communications, achieved an 80% increase in season ticket sales. Adaptive content strategies really are key to bridging marketing engagement and sales.
Beware: Constant change can leave a brand feeling foundation-less, like trying to pin down Jell-O. Sure, AI can turbocharge content creation and produce personalized content faster than a marketing team jacked up on Red Bull, but overuse might 100% ABSOLUTELY WILL strip away your brand's voice. Don’t think AI can replace YOUR job as a marketer — otherwise you really might be demoted for bad content.
Actionable Insight: Implement regular content evaluations — both internal and customer facing — aligned with the marketing customer journey stages and potentially after a touchpoint. This feedback and tweaking keeps your narrative fresh and relatable, ensuring your brand remains a lively participant in your audience's journey — not a relic of the past.
Related Article: Is Your Customer Journey Map Inside Out?
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3. Do You Really Want to Be THAT Brand Flooding Inboxes Daily?
Striking the right balance between too much and too little communication is more art than science. Remember, as a consumer yourself, you know the feeling when overwhelming incessant messages force you to opt-out. Fail to find this threshold, and your brand will fall victim to an unusual amount of unsubscribes.
Real Talk: I once saw a tech company's email blitz crash and burn, only to be saved by dialing back the frequency and amping up the consumer relevance, turning their campaign from a dumpster fire into prime engagement. If you are in this cycle of too much outreach — it’s time to 1-800-DIAL-A-MARKETER asap. (Not a real number … yet)
Beware: On the flip side, a client once told me that they thought even monthly emails were too much for their consumer. The key lesson? Disappearing isn't the solution either.
Actionable Insight: It's all about sending the right message, not spamming your way into someone's heart. Imagine tailoring each message so well it fits like that favorite pair of jeans — snug but not too tight. Time to whip out those lab coats and give your A/B testing a turbo boost with AI insights. Remember, blending tech with humanity is like adding the perfect amount of spice to your grandma's recipe — it can make everything better if you get the measurements right.
Related Article: How AI Is Revolutionizing the Customer Journey in 2024
4. Missing: Human Connection. Last Seen Before the Automation Overload
In an automation-heavy world, for the sake of all that is holy, don't forget the human element. I will die on this hill, peeps! A firm I worked with leaned too much on automation, making their service feel cold. They found a balance by reintegrating the human touch, improving customer satisfaction.
Real Talk: It’s easier said than done to find the threshold for tech integration with customer touchpoints. This is like balancing a martini on your nose (impossible? You try first!) if you have limited experience in this field. Don’t make a mess of this task!
Beware: Automation saves time but can't replace genuine connections. My advice is to find areas to automate internal workflows, keeping customer-facing interactions as personal as possible, unless you find the automation benefits the marketing customer journey.
Actionable Insight: Consult with an automation expert and see where you can save time and resources, but keep your marketing team close to ensure customer interactions remain genuine.
Related Article: Unveiling the Power of Customer Journey Orchestration
5. Can We Keep Customer Break-Ups Classy, Please?
Oh, breaking up is so hard to do, right? Ask any divorce attorney for those stats. Similar to their strategy, the secret of customer departures is ensuring customers feel in control. Sure, we strive to retain those who can stay with “miss us” emails and follow-up surveys, but remember, there's a limit. A notable example? The Comcast debacle that went viral. A customer sought to cancel, and the rep turned it into an epic saga of persistence. Check out the Comcast call — it's a masterclass in what not to do.
Real Talk: Marketing customer journeys aren’t complete without an exit plan, but knowing how to let go is an art form in fusing customer service and marketing messaging. Team communication with collaborative training for consistency is the secret sauce.
Beware: I’m not saying to delete the follow-up emails, but seriously, do YOU like a hard breakup? Let’s not set this situation up for a five-alarm fire doing damage control of a super snarky Google review. A strong customer win-back program is essential, but tempering is key. Bottom line: Don’t entrust the win-back customer journey strategy and messaging to the intern! This program development requires your senior marketing strategist.
Actionable Insight: Ensure internal training emphasizes respect for customer decisions across ALL channels. If they decide to leave, part on good terms. It's like saying, "It's not you, it's me," and actually meaning it.
Related Article: Customer Journey Orchestration for Powering Connectivity
Wrap-Up on Marketing Customer Journey Optimization
Wrapping this up, I hope these insights serve as your compass in the ever-twisting journey of customer engagement. Remember, agility, innovation and a touch of humanity can turn even the dullest marketing customer journey into an adventure.
And for the grand finale, always part on good terms with your customers. Because like that ex-client who keeps viewing your LinkedIn profile, it’s better to leave them thinking, “What if?” rather than, “Thank goodness that’s over.”
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