A customer journey map is a valuable tool for identifying pitfalls along the customer journey. You can find out how to put it on using the following steps.

The checkout process offers only a few payment options, information about the desired product can hardly be found online, the shop design is confusing or the delivery of the package leaves a lot to be desired. On the customer journey – from the moment a customer becomes aware of a product or service through to the actual purchase – there are countless pitfalls that can cause them to jump out prematurely. The tougher the competition in the respective segment and the more sophisticated the competition’s customer journey, the more relentless consumers are when it comes to a bad customer experience (CX) – after all, the next offer is just a click away. A tried and tested tool for identifying potholes and growth opportunities along the customer journey is the customer journey map. On it, the customer journey is analyzed step by step and graphically displayed so that you can put yourself in the customer’s shoes as precisely as possible. The following points are intended to provide guidance on which aspects should be considered when setting up a customer journey map. On it, the customer journey is analyzed step by step and graphically displayed so that you can put yourself in the customer’s shoes as precisely as possible. The following points are intended to provide guidance on which aspects should be considered when setting up a customer journey map. On it, the customer journey is analyzed step by step and graphically displayed so that you can put yourself in the customer’s shoes as precisely as possible. The following points are intended to provide guidance on which aspects should be considered when setting up a customer journey map.

This is how you set up a customer journey map

Step 1: Data analysis
At the beginning of every customer journey mapping, marketers should view and analyze their data balance. The more detailed the data basis and analysis, the more meaningful the customer journey map is. Data sources that can be particularly informative here are Google Analytics, for example to measure length of stay, bounce or conversion rate, collected customer feedback and reports from customer service.

Step 2: Define buyer personas
Based on the data collected and analyzed in the previous step, it is now necessary to develop one or more buyer personas for the customer journey map (s). Ideally, a separate customer journey map should be set up for each buyer persona, as the individual needs sometimes differ significantly. If there is no time or resources for this, you can start with just one buyer persona. Relevant dimensions that should be reflected in the buyer persona are, for example, demographic characteristics (age, gender, marital status), socio-economic criteria (occupation, education), but also psychographic aspects (lifestyle, set of values, possibly political attitudes, …) .

Step 3: Define customer steps
This step is about defining the individual stages that a customer goes through on their journey. Customer journey maps can take different forms; In our example it should be a linear map, so the individual steps are noted on a timeline. Important: “Step” here is not the same as “Touchpoint”, since there are also steps on the customer journey that do not involve contact with your own company. This is the case, for example, in the early phase of the customer journey, when the desire to buy a specific product or service is only just being awakened. When we speak of “touchpoint”, we mean the explicit contact between customer and company.

Step 4: Identify relevant channels
In order to identify potential for improvement in the marketing mix, it is important to question at every step of the customer which relevant channels are already being served or not yet being served. The crucial question here is: Do I cover all the necessary channels? In the buyer persona, media consumption was ideally taken into account – so I have a standardized picture of which channels my customers reach. Comparing different channels with one another can provide interesting insights. For example, if a channel has a significantly lower conversion rate than others, this can be a sign that the CX needs to be improved.

Step 5: Evaluate the customer’s emotional world
Since every step on the customer journey causes a different kind of emotional impulse in customers, it is also advisable to take into account the emotionality in customer journey mapping. In order to distinguish and visualize negative and positive feelings as well as their intensity, it is advisable to work with a plus-minus scale, emoticons or the like. Steps that are perceived as negative should ideally be completely removed or adjusted so that they no longer trigger negative sensations. In particular, the end of the customer journey, i.e. the purchase or repurchase of a product or service, should always be positively charged. This step is crucial, as regular customers become repeat buyers and ideally brand advocates.

Step 6: Prioritize customer steps
Finally, it is important to prioritize the previously defined customer steps according to relevance. Depending on the buyer persona, there can be strong deviations in terms of which steps are perceived as particularly important. The aim here should also be to compare the steps with the emotional involvement of the customer at the respective point. Particularly relevant steps on the customer journey should by no means trigger a negative connotation in the buyer persona. If so, companies should consider how they can manage to redirect the focus to positive emotions.

Once these steps have been taken, the first version of the customer journey map is available. Before it is rolled out, it should be put through its paces within the organization to test whether it can withstand reality. It is important to never consider the customer journey mapping as complete. It is an ongoing process that should be iterated regularly in order to depict the most realistic picture of the customer journey.

As part of a study, Backlinko determined the importance of individual Google ranking factors. With some long-known, but also with surprising results.

Backlinko, run by SEO expert Brian Dean, analyzed 11.8 million Google search results in a study. The aim of the study was to find out which factors are related in which way to the Google rankings of the analyzed pages. In cooperation with Ahrefs, a list of twelve findings has come out that provides some SEO optimization approaches.

Backlink profile at domain level

The link authority of the analyzed websites is said to have correlated with better Google rankings. The more quantitative and qualitative the backlinks that linked to a domain, the higher all rankings for the entire domain were. In the study, the link authority was determined using the Ahrefs domain rating.

Number of backlinks

Websites with a lot of backlinks are said to have achieved higher rankings. On average, the pages in Google’s pole position had 3.8 times more backlinks than the pages following in the rankings in positions two to ten.

Holistic content

Websites with extensive and in-depth content are said to have achieved higher rankings than pages that only touched on topics. In the study, the content grade of the SEO optimization tool Clearscope was used to determine the content depth and quality .

Page load time

Surprisingly, according to the study, the loading time of a website is not an important ranking factor. There was no clear correlation between the speed and the rankings, so that even websites with long loading times should have achieved high rankings.

Diversified backlinks

The number of backlinks from as many different websites as possible should be relevant for the rankings in Google. Many backlinks from external sites have a positive effect on the rankings.

Keywords and title tags

In the vast majority of the analyzed search results, the given title tags are said to have matched the keywords for which the websites appeared in the search results. However, the use of keywords in title tags should not have played a role for the level of the rankings.

Authority of individual subpages

The authority of individual URLs on a website has a weak correlation with the rankings. This was determined in the study of Ahrefs’ URL rating. This shows the strength of the link profile of a URL on a 100-point scale. The larger the number, the stronger the link profile. The rating takes into account both internal and external links.

Length of the content

Websites in the first position of the organic Google search results are said to have an average length of 1,447 words. The number of words is said to have been evenly distributed over the first ten search results.

Amount of data in the HTML codes

The amount of data in the HTML code should not be relevant for the Google search results, so that websites with data-intensive HTML codes can also rank high.

Length of the URL

There is little correlation between the URL length and the rankings. According to the Backlinko study, short URLs only have a slight ranking advantage over longer URLs.

Structured data

Even if websites with schema markup help the Google bot, are usually more present and noticeable in Google search results and are consequently clicked more often: Structured data should not be relevant for high Google rankings.

Length of stay

The length of stay should affect the level of the rankings. According to this, websites whose visitors stay long tend to have higher rankings. A length of stay that was three seconds longer is said to have correlated with higher rankings in the study.

Check optimizations carefully before implementation

The results of the study provide website operators with useful optimization approaches, but should nevertheless be viewed with caution. According to the study, loading times, for example, should not be related to high rankings. Nevertheless, long loading times would most likely lead to high bounce rates and short dwell times – which, according to the study, should in turn be relevant for high rankings.

The British association ISBA has examined the distribution of advertising budgets – and called for more transparency. In online advertising, for example, only half of the expenditure goes to publishers.

The auditors at Price water house coopers have examined the distribution of advertising budgets on behalf of the British association ISBA and have come across quite a mess. Specifically, the study dealt with so-called programmatic advertising. Advertising spaces on websites are auctioned on large marketplaces. One of the most important results: only 51 percent of the expenditure on online advertising ultimately reached the publishers.

Online advertising: part of the budget “disappears”

Also interesting: for 15 percent of the advertising expenditure, despite intensive research, it was not possible to determine where the money was going, as heise.de reports . Advertising budgets with a total volume of 100 million pounds from clients such as Shell, Walt Disney and Vodafone were analyzed. The auditors were also able to view the relevant documents from publishers, advertising agencies and adtech service providers such as Google or Amazon.

In addition to the 51 percent for the publisher, according to the study, seven percent of the budget went to advertising agencies. A further ten percent of the total expenditure will therefore go into the technical processing and operation of the ad server. Another 18 percent go in the form of fees from advertisers and eight percent from publishers to service providers, including the operators of the marketplaces on which publishers offer their advertising space. One percent of the total advertising budget makes up a technology fee, as the auditors have calculated.

ISBA criticizes “hole in the value chain”

According to the study, the fact that it was not possible to determine the whereabouts of the remaining 15 percent is due to incompatible data formats. The definition of what size should be considered an advertising call also made the research more difficult. Moving advertising campaigns between platforms also makes tracking virtually impossible. Because of this “hole in the value chain”, the ISBA association called for more transparency in advertising trade.

Brands need to attract attention in a highly competitive environment. Offering a good product is no longer enough today. A comprehensive staging with the greatest possible quality of experience helps. How far do brands have to go?

The market is saturated with high-quality products, all conceivable designs and models are permanently available. Customers can find out more about products, manufacturers and brands than ever before and make their own personal choices. Where products no longer differ significantly in terms of quality or function, the choice falls on the product that appeals to you most emotionally.

Companies have recognized this and are therefore increasingly relying on combining product and brand with an experience. A whole lifestyle is built up with which the customers identify and to which they want to feel they belong. Decisive reasons for a purchase are increasingly hedonistic. The product alone no longer makes you happy, it is the associated experience and the experience around it. As Goldsmith University and Adobe found out in a 2017 study , 61 percent of consumers buy products and services that reflect their personal values; and 43 percent value having a connection with the company. That means: only those who, as customers, can identify with the brand experience remain loyal.

Attention, please!

For companies this means – in addition to developing the best possible product – to attract the attention of customers and to keep it through the special brand promise and the experience associated with it. Experience is the magic word – whether brand experience or customer experience, a whole experience economy is formed.

The coffee company Starbucks, for example, does not want to make people happy with a coffee alone, but rather focuses on the well-being of its customers. A visit to the coffee shop is a great personalized welcome in a convincing atmosphere. Customers like to share this experience on their personal social media channels and thus become multipliers for the brand. But brands like Pampers, Apple and Adidas also manage to offer their customers an experience instead of just shopping.

Find the balance

How do companies and brands manage to find and build such an authentic aura around them? How far do brands have to go without appearing implausible? Would we relieve the automobile manufacturer of a family vehicle from expertise in matters of parenting and childcare and also buy baby food or parenting guides?

And where do brands not go far enough and fail to keep their promising promise? After the diesel scandal, a car manufacturer has great difficulties in positioning itself as a fuel-efficient and resource-efficient brand. This is where the dreaded experience gap arises. Almost every fifth customer punishes this with switching to a different brand, at least according to the Experience Gap study by Clear Strategy.

If companies put themselves in the shoes of their customers and ask the questions of what could arouse interest and what would tend to be boring or even put off, this is a good start. The key is to build an emotional bond. Here, the entire company, the entire corporate culture must be involved and lived. Unfortunately, there is no one silver bullet for all industries. Every company, every brand has to find a suitable strategy for itself.

Roadmap for walking the tightrope

One possibility can be to enrich the product itself with properties that no comparable product on the market has and that contribute to the brand message. Another possibility is to combine the product with a unique service or a service that does not yet exist. It is important that the utility value is reconciled with the brand promise and the experience and that the defined customer needs are not only satisfied, but also fulfilled over and over again. The greater the competition for a product, the more important an outstanding presentation and the link with a positive quality of experience become.

It can’t stop with a good story about the product or brand. The brand experience goes well beyond that! Of course, quality and product properties are the first points of contact for a customer, but a holistic experience arises in so many more places. All touchpoints are crucial! Starting with the visual representation through to uniform communication both externally and internally: It is important to create a corporate culture that the customer perceives consistently. Customer service, for example, plays a very important role. For example, if a product promises simple, intuitive and hurdle-free usability, a complicated registration process, an opaque license agreement or limited customer support can completely destroy this product promise. The comprehensive experience has to be thought through down to the last detail: If a customer is always addressed by you, there is a break when he is literally answered on the hotline. All processes must be integrated into the culture.

When asked how far brands have to go, the answer can only be: further than expected! Namely through the entire company, through all levels, through all customer touchpoints and through every employee who works for the brand, because every employee is also a brand ambassador. Then the brand experience becomes the heart of the company, then it helps the brand to have a long life.