Create a Buyer Journey Map utilizing RACE

Uncover the way to use our buyer journey mapping template to create actionable insights to enhance your advertising

In right now’s digitally linked world, clients have a myriad of decisions in relation to connecting with manufacturers and companies. There are various advantages to this, reminiscent of better attain and extra touchpoints to attach with clients, however there are additionally some drawbacks.  When buyer journeys, there may be hardly ever just one route obtainable, making understanding how your clients discover and work together with you more difficult. 

Think about the London tube map. Let’s say you wish to get to Oxford Circus. you possibly can all the time get the Central (crimson) line, however you could possibly additionally get the Bakerloo (brown) line or the Victoria (blue) line, relying on the place you might be coming from. Every journey is barely completely different, and will provide you with a selected sort of expertise.

We are able to apply this pondering when analyzing digital buyer journeys. One buyer could discover you thru Google search, whereas one other might even see an advert on social media, or by an internet occasion. And the factor is, because the variety of channels that clients can discover us on will increase, so too does the quantity of touchpoints wanted to make a sale.

In line with analysis by EmailToolTester, in 2025 there could possibly be as much as 50 touchpoints in a purchaser journey earlier than a sale is made:

“Whereas it’s broadly accepted that it takes 8 touchpoints to make a sale, our analysis means that in 2025, the precise variety of touchpoints earlier than a sale varies between 1 and 50, relying on the prospect’s shopping for stage:

• Inactive clients solely want 1–3 touches on common
• A heat inbound lead will want 5–12 touches
• A chilly prospect can require 20–50 touches”

This would possibly really feel fairly overwhelming. How will you presumably handle all these completely different touchpoints and complexities? That’s the place buyer journey maps come to save lots of the day.

What’s a buyer journey map?

A buyer journey map is a visible mannequin that exhibits you ways your clients behave at every touchpoint with your corporation. This system, often known as “touchpoint mapping”, is geared toward reviewing how digital experiences and content material help buyer decision-making throughout a multi-channel journey.

As clients navigate touchpoints in numerous methods, enhancing your omnichannel expertise throughout completely different platforms is crucial for bettering the success of your advertising. Omnichannel technique and buyer journey mapping go hand in hand. To be able to have cohesion in messaging and id throughout your touchpoints, you want a powerful understanding of your total digital id.

“A seamless buyer journey is essential for omnichannel success. By making a unified expertise throughout channels—on-line, in-store or on social media—manufacturers cut back friction and make it straightforward for patrons to interact. This easy journey fosters deeper interplay, will increase satisfaction, builds belief and drives conversions and loyalty.” [Annie Austin, Forbes]

Nonetheless, and not using a correct plan in place it is laborious to trace all of the completely different parts of your buyer journey. If you do not have a devoted plan in place, you should utilize our free digital advertising plan template to get began.

What are the advantages of making a buyer journey map?

Put merely, buyer journey maps aid you perceive your patrons’ behaviour. You should utilize them to rapidly establish any potential snags in your digital journey, and any obstacles to sale. They will additionally present you what areas of your advertising funnel are robust or want creating.

Buyer journey mapping helps you get into the thoughts of your clients and take into account their wants at every touchpoint, and consequently higher predict future behaviour, desires and desires. You possibly can then use this data to unravel their ache factors along with your product/model by implementing strategic advertising techniques.

However how do you get began?

Figuring out your personas

Earlier than you can begin buyer journey mapping, it’s useful to know your key clients and the way they function throughout your digital touchpoints. One of the simplest ways to do that is to make use of your key buyer personas as the premise in your buyer journey maps.

New to personas? Here’s a helpful definition from our co-founder Dr. Dave Chaffey:

“A persona is a fictional character that communicates the first traits of a gaggle of customers, recognized and chosen as a key goal by use of segmentation information, throughout the corporate in a usable and efficient method”.

Should you need assistance figuring out the important thing personas for your corporation, obtain our helpful persona information and template. You’ll wish to use a variety of information sources and actual buyer suggestions to create probably the most correct personas for your corporation.

After getting your buyer personas recognized, you possibly can start creating your buyer journey maps.

Prime tip: We advocate creating one buyer journey map per persona, so that you might be clear in your completely different patrons’ behaviours.

Buyer journey mapping with RACE

As buyer behaviour differs at completely different phases of the shopper journey, we created a set of helpful buyer journey mapping templates that can assist you map out buyer interactions at every stage of Sensible Insights’ RACE funnel.

Utilizing our unique buyer journey mapping template and your corporation’ persona information, share what actions, touchpoints, ideas and feelings are concerned at every stage of the shopper journey, and plot this throughout every RACE stage: Consciousness, Analysis, Choice, and Retention.

You possibly can entry and create your individual editable RACE buyer journey map by downloading our buyer journey mapping template bundle. Included is a helpful video which explains the way to full every stage of the map. 

Prime tip: When finishing your RACE desk, you’re looking at how your persona navigates throughout touchpoints presently, not how you’ll ideally like them to! This is a crucial distinction as we’re utilizing the map to search for areas we are able to optimize and enhance the shopper journey.

Probably the most actionable aspect of this template is the underside two rows for every column. That is the place we establish the ache factors and resolutions for every stage of RACE.

B2C persona instance: ‘Wendy’

Let’s say our firm is an internet retailer specializing in feminine clothes and accessories. Our persona is Wendy, and on this instance Wendy is in search of a brand new outfit to put on to a buddy’s marriage ceremony. Within the Attain section, she searches for ‘marriage ceremony visitor outfits’ on Google. The ache level for our instance B2C model right here could possibly be that we’re not rating organically on Google for ‘marriage ceremony visitor outfits’, so it’s seemingly that Wendy will go to a competitor’s website that’s increased up in her search outcomes. That’s unhealthy information for us because it means we miss out on buying a brand new lead. 

Beneath the Ache Factors field now we have a Decision field, so you possibly can simply take into account the way to remedy this downside to enhance the shopper journey for Wendy (and your model!) For this downside, our instance firm may assess and implement higher key phrase concentrating on in new content material/weblog articles to spotlight key marriage ceremony visitor outfit phrases to enhance rating over-time. Lengthy-term, it will assist increase the model’s place and visibility in Google for key search phrases that their persona makes use of.

You should utilize these packing containers to spotlight blockers that cease your persona shifting alongside the RACE funnel, and what actionable steps you possibly can take to resolve them. In flip you’ll additionally get a greater understanding of key choice factors in your buyer. 

To see the total, accomplished instance of ‘Wendy’s’ buyer journey map and the way to use the template, obtain our buyer journey mapping template bundle.

Turning insights into motion

It’s straightforward to eagerly full a buyer journey map with each intention to implement it, just for it to finish up within the ‘to-do’ pile that by no means surfaces once more. Buyer journey mapping provides you an opportunity to establish snags in your present buyer journeys and area to create resolutions to resolve them. Nonetheless if this data will not be built-in along with your advertising technique, it received’t find yourself getting actioned and your enhancements won’t ever absolutely come to fruition. Which might suck!

It’s important that you just combine the resolutions you devise with the RACE template into your general digital advertising technique, so you possibly can work on bettering your clients’ journeys at every essential level of the funnel. Think about your persona’s objectives alongside your advertising goals – what are you trying to obtain? Then you possibly can flip these insights into motion by planning what advertising techniques you’ll use to enhance consumer expertise and elevate the omnichannel expertise in your clients.