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Imagine embarking on a journey where every step is guided, every turn anticipated, and every milestone celebrated. This is the essence of the email marketing customer journey.
Each interaction is a chance to craft a memorable experience. Some people might begin by following your brand on social media, while others may pick up your business card at an event or join a webinar. A select few will proceed to make that all-important purchase. But what transforms a casual encounter into a loyal customer?
Welcome to the world of email marketing—a powerful tool that shepherds customers from their first contact to their final purchase and beyond. Email marketers aim to identify pivotal moments, alleviate concerns before they arise, and gently guide customers toward their next purchase. Here’s how to master this journey.
Table of Contents
What Is the Customer Journey
The customer journey is the series of experiences a buyer encounters as they learn about, engage with, and ultimately purchase from your brand. It encompasses the entire customer experience from the first touchpoint to the final purchase and beyond.
It’s called a journey because it tells the story of how a prospect encounters your business and the steps they take toward conversion, purchase, and beyond. It’s not surprising to know that customers don’t follow a linear path. Some can take years reading your newsletter while others may get recommended by a friend and immediately visit your website for a demo.
The customer journey is a crucial framework for understanding your customers’ experiences. By mapping this journey, you can improve their experience and build a deeper relationship with them.
The way your customer journey looks will depend on your products, customer demographic, and sales & marketing strategy.
What is Customer Journey Mapping?
The easiest way to visualize the customer journey is through customer journey mapping. As a marketer, you use data across different channels as your customers encounter your brand on different platforms. Email is one of the platforms that help you understand your customer’s behavioral patterns and the actions you would like them to take based on their behavior. When you understand your customer, you will know how to map their journey. As you will see, there are different customer journey maps, from the traditional marketing funnel to complex diagrams and cyclical loops.
What is the Email Marketing Customer Journey?
The email marketing customer journey encompasses every touchpoint, including the emails you send to introduce your brand, automation for targeted prospects, the specific emails you send toward the path to purchase, and those you send for loyalty, onboarding, adoption, and beyond.
The email journey allows you to set up little nudges to get your prospects moving in the right direction, encourage them to get more involved, and remind them what they are missing, depending on their buyer persona. That is why it’s essential to know your buyer personas.
Who Are Your Buyer Personas?
Marketers use buyer personas to represent their ideal customers well based on market research and real data. This includes demographic data such as age, gender, income level, education level, marital status, geographical location, and ethnicity. It can also include data from people’s personalities, habits, and hobbies.
Knowing your different buyer personas will help you curate different email marketing customer journeys tweaked at different points depending on customer needs. When you have a buyer persona, you can create personalized strategies using better segmentation in your email marketing.
The 10 Most Important Stages of the Email Marketing Customer Journey
In marketing, we say, “Create meaningful connections that last.” The email marketing customer journey allows you to form perfect relationships for long-term loyalty and advocacy. You can use email at every stage to increase conversion.
1. Brand Awareness
Email is not usually a first choice for brand awareness since you must first know a brand to subscribe to its newsletter. However, email can still play a crucial role in the first stages of the customer journey.
Since people do not subscribe to newsletters without being aware of a brand, it’s best to start by creating brand awareness to drive newsletter subscriptions.
Some ways to do this include social media engagement, where you share your content, engage with your audience, and build a community around your brand. You will also want to collaborate with influencers and industry experts with a strong market following.
Another way to create brand awareness is to create search-engine-optimized content that search engines can find using the right keywords. Online webinars and workshops relevant to your customer’s pain points can encourage attendees to subscribe to your newsletter.
2. Lead Acquisition
When you have acquired valid email addresses, you can now move on to the stage of lead acquisition by sending a welcome message that introduces what your brand is about and what you can offer of value, sets expectations, and gathers more information about them. You can identify information such as their birthday or preferences.
Email Marketing Strategy for Lead Acquisition
Your email marketing strategy needs to complement your content marketing strategy. Ask yourself questions like: What value can you offer to earn your leads’ trust? What problem is your buyer persona trying to solve?
The email marketing strategy for lead acquisition involves high-quality content, a good landing page, and optimized forms. It’s important to segment prospects by using qualifying questions that help you put together people with certain roles and interests into specific email campaigns relevant to their journey.
Consider your audience and include discount codes and personal letters in your welcome email. Moreover, it’s always good to maintain a balance between the information about your company and services with the value-added content that you send.
3. Research
Research is crucial in the email marketing journey because it allows you to understand your audience’s needs, questions, and pain points. By conducting thorough research, you can craft email content that addresses specific concerns, provides valuable information, and builds trust with your subscribers. This understanding enables you to deliver highly relevant content that resonates with your audience and guides them through their decision-making process.
Importance of Research in the Email Marketing Journey
- Understanding Customer Needs: Research helps you identify what your customers are looking for and their questions. This knowledge allows you to tailor your email content to provide answers and solutions, making your emails more relevant and useful.
- Building Trust and Credibility: Providing well-researched, accurate, and valuable information in your emails positions you as a knowledgeable and trustworthy source. This builds credibility with your audience and increases the likelihood of them engaging with your content and eventually making a purchase.
- Addressing Pain Points and Objections: By understanding the common pain points and objections your customers have, you can create email content that addresses these issues directly. This helps alleviate concerns and builds confidence in your product or service.
- Enhancing Customer Experience: Research enables you to anticipate your customers’ needs and provide content that enhances their experience. By delivering timely and relevant information, you can guide them through their buyer journey more effectively.
Email Marketing Strategy for Research
- Identify Common Questions and Concerns: Start by identifying the most common questions and concerns your potential customers have during the research phase. This can be done through keyword research, analyzing search engine queries, and consulting your sales or customer support teams. Keep in mind that the riskier the purchase the more research the lead is going to undertake. For example, a potential customer will spend more time researching about a new car they want to buy than a new pair of shoes. Hence, it’s important to provide more research for riskier purchases.
- Create Valuable Content: Develop content that addresses these questions and concerns. This could include educational blog posts, detailed product guides, FAQs, and case studies. Ensure this content is easily accessible through your emails.
- Segment Your Audience: Use segmentation to deliver personalized content to different segments of your audience. For example, you can create segments based on where they are in the buyer journey, their past interactions with your brand, or their specific interests.
- Leverage Data and Analytics: Use data and analytics to track how your audience engages with your emails. This can provide insights into what type of content is most effective and help you refine your strategy over time.
- Address Emotional and Logical Needs: Remember that people use logical information to justify emotional decisions. Ensure your emails not only provide useful information but also connect with your audience on an emotional level. Share success stories, testimonials, and use persuasive language to appeal to their emotions.
- Call to Action (CTA): Include clear and compelling CTAs that guide your audience to the next step in their research or buying journey. This could be downloading a detailed guide, signing up for a webinar, or contacting your sales team for more information.
Research is an ongoing process that helps you stay attuned to your audience’s evolving needs. By integrating research into your email marketing strategy, you can create more effective campaigns that guide your subscribers through their buying journey and ultimately drive conversions.
4. Consideration and Comparison
The consideration and comparison stage is crucial in the customer journey. Your customer is close to their purchase and is now comparing your brand to other brands. While price is going to be one of the top important considerations, knowing how to stand out from other brands is equally important if your product is not the cheapest.
Email Marketing Strategy for Consideration and Comparison
During the consideration and comparison stage, your potential customers are looking for:
- Detailed information about your products or services.
- Comparisons with similar offerings in the market.
- Testimonials and reviews from other customers.
- Case studies showcasing your success stories.
- Clear explanations of how your product can solve their problems or meet their needs.
Key Components of an Effective Strategy
- Educational Content
- Product Comparisons: Create emails that compare your products or services with competitors. Highlight unique features, benefits, and advantages.
- Case Studies: Share success stories and case studies that demonstrate how your product has helped other customers achieve their goals. Include real data and tangible results.
- Testimonials and Reviews: Include positive testimonials and reviews from satisfied customers. This social proof can significantly influence purchasing decisions.
- Detailed Product Information
- Feature Highlights: Send emails that focus on key features of your products or services. Use visuals, such as images and videos, to make the information engaging and easy to understand.
- Usage Guides: Provide guides on how to use your product effectively. This helps potential customers visualize how they can benefit from your offering.
- Engaging and Interactive Content
- Webinars and Demos: Invite your subscribers to attend webinars or live demos. This interactive content allows potential customers to see your product in action and ask questions in real-time.
- FAQs: Address common questions and concerns through FAQ emails. This proactive approach can help alleviate any doubts your potential customers might have.
- Personalization and Segmentation
- Tailored Content: Use segmentation to send personalized content based on your subscribers’ interests and behaviors. For example, if a subscriber has shown interest in a particular product, send them more detailed information about that product.
- Behavioral Triggers: Set up automated email sequences triggered by specific actions, such as visiting a product page or downloading a whitepaper. These emails can provide additional information and encourage further engagement.
- Call to Action (CTA)
- Clear and Compelling CTAs: Each email should have a clear and compelling CTA that guides your potential customers to the next step. Whether it’s scheduling a demo, downloading a brochure, or contacting your sales team, make sure the CTA stands out.
- Limited-Time Offers: Create a sense of urgency with limited-time offers or exclusive deals. This can motivate your potential customers to take action more quickly.
Example Email for Comparison and Consideration
We’ll use an example of an email marketing company that wants to help a customer compare its email marketing tool to that of its competitors. We’ll call the brand’s tool MailMaster.
In this email, you can offer a limited discount or a free trial without a credit card. You can also use social proof by showcasing testimonials or case studies that show how awesome you are.
At this point, it’s super important to make an authentic and personal connection with your email. This is a good opportunity to show your customer that you are ready to offer world-class service by answering any questions they might have.
5. Purchase
The purchase stage is a critical phase in the customer journey where your potential customers are ready to make a buying decision. At this point, they have evaluated their options, compared different products or services, and are now deciding whether to purchase. Your goal during this stage is to remove any remaining barriers, provide assurance, and motivate them to complete the purchase.
At this stage, customers weigh the final factors that will influence their purchase decision, such as price, features, and benefits. The customer is seeking reassurance that they are making the right choice, and are often looking for reviews, testimonials, or guarantees. Here, you will want to offer incentives such as discounts or bonuses that can tip the scales in your favor, making the decision to purchase easier.
Email Marketing Strategy for the Purchase Stage
To effectively engage your audience during the purchase stage, your email marketing strategy should focus on providing clear information, building trust, and creating urgency. Here’s a detailed strategy to guide you:
Ensure your email list is segmented based on the behavior of potential buyers, such as those who have added items to their cart but haven’t completed the purchase. In addition, use data from previous interactions to personalize your emails, making them relevant to the recipient’s interests and preferences.
At this stage, it is crucial to provide detailed information about the product or service, highlighting key features and benefits. Also, clearly state the pricing, including any discounts or promotions available.
Build Trust and Confidence by including positive reviews and testimonials from satisfied customers to build credibility. Don’t forget to offer satisfaction guarantees, return policies, or warranties to reduce perceived risk.
Another important strategy is to create urgency by highlighting any time-sensitive discounts or promotions and offering additional bonuses such as free shipping, a gift with purchase, or a discount on the next purchase.
Example Email for the Purchase Stage
In this email, it’s important to include clear product information and offer customer testimonials. Then, create urgency with an actual limited-time discount while maintaining a personalized and engaging tone.
6. Onboarding and Education
The Customer Journey is not over after their initial purchase. At this stage, your customer is starting to use your product or service. Thus, you will want to ensure that your customer knows how to use your product, realize its value, and feels supported as they start their journey with your company.
At this stage, it’s time to help with onboarding through informative content and tutorials to help your customer understand your product/service fully.
Email Marketing Strategy for Onboarding and Education
An onboarding email sequence is crucial if your product has a learning curve. The key elements to consider include providing clear instructions and resources to help customers get started and understand how to use your product effectively.
Also, offer ongoing support and resources to address any questions or issues that may arise during the onboarding process. Not to mention, keeping your customer engaged by offering educational content about the features and benefits of your product.
To this end, offer tutorial emails, video tutorial emails, use cases, knowledge base, FAQs. Additionally, leave clear contact information for your support team including email, phone, and chat options.
Example Email for Onboarding and Education Stag
This email provides a warm welcome, introduces key features, offers resources for getting started, and invites the customer to engage further through support channels and upcoming webinars. It aims to make the onboarding process smooth and engaging, ensuring that the customer feels supported and empowered to use MailMaster effectively.
7. Upsells and Cross-Sells
According to Invesp, the probability of selling to an existing client is 60-70%, whereas the probability of selling to a new prospect is 5-20%. Existing customers are 50% more inclined to try new products and spend 31% more than new consumers.
If your email marketing strategy is tight, you have established a good relationship with your customer, and your emails are welcome. Upselling or cross-selling can be a good marketing strategy but don’t do it too soon and risk damaging your customer’s trust.
Give it a little time, and then encourage your customer to explore more products or to upgrade to a higher-tiered plan. You can also offer complementary services that support the product they purchased.
Email Marketing Strategy for Cross Sells and Upsells
To effectively engage your audience during the cross-sells and upsells stage, your email marketing strategy should focus on leveraging customer data, personalizing offers, and highlighting the additional benefits of the recommended products.
Example Email for Cross-Sells and Upsells Stage
This email provides personalized recommendations, highlights the benefits of upgrading, and creates urgency with a limited-time discount. The clear CTA makes it easy for the customer to take action.
8. Retention and Loyalty
The retention and loyalty stage is focused on keeping your customers engaged and satisfied long after their initial purchase. This stage aims to turn one-time buyers into repeat customers and brand advocates. Key strategies include delivering exceptional customer service, providing continuous value, and fostering a sense of community.
Email Strategy for Retention and Loyalty
To maintain customer engagement, send regular, value-packed newsletters highlighting new features, best practices, and success stories. Personalized anniversary emails celebrating milestones or offering exclusive deals can strengthen customer relationships. Additionally, loyalty programs should be run that reward frequent users with points, discounts, or early access to new products. Solicit feedback through surveys to show customers that their opinions matter and to continually improve your offerings. Lastly, segment your audience to ensure that the content remains relevant to their specific needs and interests.
Example Email for MailMaster
This email expresses gratitude, offers a special discount, highlights new features, and encourages feedback, fostering a sense of appreciation and community.
9. Advocacy
The advocacy stage is where satisfied customers become brand advocates, promoting your product through word-of-mouth and positive reviews. This stage is crucial as it leverages the power of customer referrals to attract new users, enhancing credibility and trust. Advocacy is achieved by ensuring customers have exceptional experiences, feel valued, and are encouraged to share their success stories.
Email Strategy for Advocacy
To foster advocacy, implement an email strategy that includes requesting reviews, testimonials, and social media shares. Offer incentives, such as discounts or exclusive access, to encourage participation. Highlight customer success stories in newsletters, showcasing how your product has made a difference. Personalized thank-you emails expressing genuine appreciation can further strengthen relationships. Additionally, create a referral program where advocates can earn rewards for bringing in new customers, making it a mutually beneficial experience.
Example Email for MailMaster
This email encourages advocacy by inviting customers to share their success stories, participate in a referral program, and read about other customers’ achievements, all while expressing genuine appreciation.
10. Re-Engagement
The re-engagement stage targets inactive or lapsed customers, aiming to rekindle their interest and bring them back into active use. This phase is vital for maintaining long-term customer relationships and maximizing the lifetime value of each customer. Successful re-engagement involves identifying reasons for inactivity, addressing any issues, and providing compelling reasons for customers to return.
Email Strategy for Re-engagement
To effectively re-engage customers, start by segmenting those who have been inactive for a specific period. The best email marketing software will let you send personalized re-engagement emails that address the individual’s previous interactions and offer incentives to return. Highlight new features or improvements made since their last visit. Utilize special offers, such as discounts or exclusive content, to entice them back. Follow up with a series of reminder emails if needed, gradually increasing the urgency of the offer.
Example Re-Engagement Email for MailMaster
This email aims to re-engage inactive customers by highlighting new features, offering a discount, and providing easy access to support, creating a compelling reason for them to return. However, if customers do not re-engage with your emails, it’s to let them go. It’s better to have a small list of responsive customers than a large list of prospects who never open your emails
The Email Marketing Customer Journey: Conclusion
The email marketing customer journey takes your audience from leads to prospects, customers, and brand ambassadors. Every stage is important as it allows you to build a reliable customer base by building relationships with them.
I’ve compiled a list of the best email marketing tools to help you kickstart your journey in the world of email marketing. GetResponse and ClickFunnels are my favorites, but you can also look into HubSpot and MailChimp, as they offer great plans and features.
My closing remark is to remember that you are interacting with real human beings and to always treat them as individuals not data to help progress your brand’s goals.
Have a successful email marketing customer journey.
