mapping content to the entire customer journey (cmw 2016)

@pacecomm • #CMWorld

Mapping Content to the Entire Customer Journey

Kevin BriodySVP, Chief Strategy Officer, Pace @kevinbriody


Heather Keets Wright SVP, Executive Creative Director, Pace @hkeetswright

@TwitterHandle • #CMWorld

AGENDA


1 Great content can solve all sorts of business problems, but all too often it gets stuck in narrow silos.


THE CHALLENGE

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It starts with a customer journey…


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That helps us identify marketing challenges.


AWARENESS

“Our customers aren’t finding us online. We just can’t seem to stand out from the competitive noise.”


Which we naturally solve with amazing content!


AWARENESS

“Our customers aren’t finding us online - we just can’t seem to stand out from the competitive noise.”

SOLUTION?A thought leadership content microsite, optimized for search and syndicated out through social and influencers. DONE.


AGENDA

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Great, right?What’s not so great,

is that too often, we stop right there.


Why the standstill?

① Staff Roles② Budgets③ Politics④ Expertise⑤ Comfort Level⑥ Insights (Or lack thereof)


AGENDA


Why does this matter?Because great content can solve problems across the

entire customer journey, If only we expand our point of view.


Because that journey is often far more complex.


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VALIDATION & PURCHASE

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ENGAGEMENT

LOYALTY & ADVOCACY

DETACHED UTILIZATION

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DEFECTION


With multiple challenges begging for attention.



AGENDA


2 Let’s embrace content across allstages in the customer journey.

THE OPPORTUNITY


Purchase

Advocacy

Engagement

Don’t limit content to one challenge (or silo).


Awareness

Practical guidance content layered into product detail pages, optimized to lift conversion.

Depth support content that drives customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Social media and user generated content to inspire social advocacy.

A thought leadership content microsite, optimized for search and syndicated out through social and influencers

You could certainly start here… …but also experiment with so many more.


AGENDA


3 Lovely. How should we go about doing that?

THE DETAILS


The short version…

① Think content experiences not hubs

② Find the points of friction

③ Identify the content opportunities

④ Visualize the journey

⑤ Construct your experiments

By thinking of your customer journey as content experience journey.


1) Think content experiences not hubs

Let the hub-and-spoke model die. Banish mention of blogs and microsites. Create omni-channel content experiences that flow across all stages of the journey.


What exactly is a content experience?Today’s customer lives in an omni-channel world, awash in content competing for ever scarcer moments of attention–moments divided across a fluid array of devices, channels and encounters.

It’s a world where content is increasingly consumed in-channel at the point of discovery, not publication; where hub-and-spoke (publish and distribute) models are rigid to the point of irrelevancy.

A content experience rethinks all that. It’s about crafting content that engages customers at the point of discovery; that flows seamlessly across channels; that influences and shapes the customer’s journey with your brand.


AGENDA


Friction is the problem. It’s anything that gets in the way of a positive customer experience

with your brand.


2) Find the points of friction in the journey

Excess friction is a fast path to failure: Hard to find content, broken site UX, bad customer service, confusing pricing, onerous legal terms, poor products, etc.

Friction points are simply those places where you lose business due to poor customer experience.


How do we find friction? Start with the data.

Look to your analytics and audience insights–friction points are often identifiable as anomalously poor performance data.

Where are your customers signaling dissatisfaction with their experience?

• Cart abandonment

• Email unsubscribes

• Page exits/bounce

• Subscriber churn

• Poor search & social traffic

• Soft metrics (survey data, focus groups)


Check friction points against a true audience audit.

What are the stages of our customer’s journey?

(purchase, brand, etc.)

Are they finding what they need? From us or elsewhere?

MAP THE JOURNEY

What is the customer trying to accomplish?

What does customer success look like from our perspective?

Who are our customers? What motivates them, and why?

BUILD THE PERSONAS

What are they seeking? Why?

Where are they seeking it?

DIG FOR FRICTION

Are they exiting their journey with us? If so, why?


Place in it context – look through their eyes.




EXPERIENCE

ENGAGEMENT

LOYALTY & ADVOCACY


RE-PURCHASE

DEFECTION

“Customers simply can’t

find our products

through all the noise.”

“They don’t understand

how our products

apply to their lives.”

“They are stuck in

indecision, abandoning their carts.”

“They simply aren’t getting the most out

of the product.”

“They only think of us

when things break…or the

bill is due.”“Oooh, a cheaper

offer! I’m out!”


3) Identify the content opportunities.

Will prospective customers discover us faster if we provided search-optimized helpful original content targeting top product questions?

Would they be more likely to purchase from us if we shared curated 3rd-party reviews that help them validate their decision?

If we share genuine customer success and usage stories (by persona), could we help our customers get more out of our products–boosting satisfaction and reducing churn?

What could we try– what’s quick, testable, and measureable?

How can content, in all flavors from original brand to curated to UGC, help reduce friction at each stage of the customer journey?


Map those opportunities back to your customer.


Keyword-Rich

Original Storytelling

Content

Practical Guidance Articles &

Videos

Curated Reviews &

Guided Selling Content

Depth Support & Customer

Story Content

Inspiring Original +

UGC Social Media

Content

Customer Success Stories

Paired with Targeted Offers



EXPERIENCE

ENGAGEMENT

LOYALTY & ADVOCACY


RE-PURCHASE

DEFECTION


4) Visualize their content journey with you.

Well crafted personas are essential to defining your customer journey, and also guiding and inspiring all aspects of your content strategy and creative development.

(this is not news…)


Make them tangible, real, and relatable.Turn personas into living samples of yourContent Experience Journeys

Marry each persona to a friction-free, idealized end-state version of their journey with your brand.

Where will great content, paired with smart business processes, channels, messages and tools smooth and accelerate that journey?

What would a true content experience journey with your brand look like for this individual?

(Is this vision actually achievable?)


AGENDA


The most elegantly constructed content experience in the world is flawed.

And that’s OK.Experiment like crazy.


5) Construct your experiments.Experiment early, often and relentlessly.

• What does a friction-free experience with your brand look like at each stage? Can we measure it?

• Develop a hypothesis about the influence of content against that success measure.

• Pick the fastest content experiment you can find. Get it in market and go. Did it help? What attributes (placement, type, focus, etc.) actually made the difference? Do we need to start again?

Optimize continuously, then roll out another experiment. Rinse, repeat forever.

• Experiment #1• Experiment #2• Experiment #3• Experiment #4• Experiment #5• …


AGENDA


4 Some parting words.

FINALLY…


The short version…

① Think content experiences not hubs

② Find the points of friction

③ Identify the content opportunities

④ Visualize the journey

⑤ Construct your experiments

⑥ Put it all into practice (easy, right?)


Thanks!

KEVIN BRIODYSVP, Chief Strategy [email protected]@paceco.com

HEATHER WRIGHTSVP, Executive Creative [email protected]@paceco.com

mapping content to the entire customer journey (cmw 2016)

Marketing