IMPROVING

CAMPAIGN
CONVERSION
WITH JOURNEY
MAPS

HOW-TO GUIDE
 Improving Campaign Conversion
with Journey Maps
HOW-TO GUIDE

Driving increased campaign conversion is the top priority for marketers across all industries and
company size. Most marketers rely on campaign elements that performed well historically and
input from peers. Campaign conversion improves when the buyer receives the right message and
offer at the right time through the right channels. Journey Maps provide the necessary detailed
framework to define laser-focused, audience-centric campaigns.

This How-To Guide has been designed to help you improve the conversion rate of marketing
campaigns by aligning tactics and calls-to-action to customer journeys.

Benefits Of Journey-Based Campaigns

The benefits of using customer journey maps as guiding frameworks for your demand generation
and nurture campaigns are three-fold:
100+% increase in opens and click-throughs from adapting offers and subject lines to
specific journey steps.
2X increase in pipeline velocity by aligning content and calls-to-action to journey tollgates.
30% increase in revenue pipeline attributable to marketing campaigns.

Why Traditional Campaigns Don’t Convert

Journey maps are powerful tools to help marketers develop laser-focused, audience-tuned demand
generation and nurture campaigns that drive conversion. Today, most campaigns are designed
from the “inside-out” based what has worked in the past, “gut feel,” and/or the path that marketers
would like, or think, buyers take. Multiple teams have input into campaigns design based on
their own perspective of the buyer and the buying and selling process. The result is frequently
one-size-fits-all campaigns that are then tailored for specific segments by including some key
segment-specific phrases. It’s no wonder that campaigns do not convert and produce leads that
do not meet the needs or expectaions of Sales.

By developing your Campaigns from journey maps, Marketing can improve, attract, engage and
conversion rates and as well as build stronger brand preference. There are three hallmarks of
journey-based campaigns:

1. Sequence of integrated campaign elements across omni-channels mirror journey steps -

increasing lead velocity.

2. Offers, Calls-to-Action and Content align to journey tollgates - increasing conversion.

3. Messaging, language and tone reflect the target segment and buyer role - increasing relevance.

2 IMPROVING CAMPAIGN CONVERSION WITH JOURNEY MAPS

Developing a Journey Map
Customer Journey Maps are detailed definitions of all the actions that buyers take and the interactions
they have with the company – from the initiating business problem trigger event through a completed
purchase and beyond to solution adoption and expansion.

The map identifies all the activities and content as well as the channels, physical and digital, buyers
use at each step. Journey maps are frequently defined by industry, revenue tier (F100, F1000, SMB,
SOHO, etc.), and geography.

The latter is important because cultural differences will result in different journey maps for the same
industry and buyer-personas; there is no one-size-fits-all global journey map. That being said, every
company will have no more than four or five journey maps that address all their market segments.

While the actual format of Journey Maps vary based on the group developing them, there are
three constants:

1. Maps should be created through the lens of the buyer, not the seller.

2. Maps document, in detail, every action, decision and interaction the buyer takes across all
touch points and channels over the relationship’s lifetime.

3. Every piece of content, regardless of source (vendor, competitor, analyst, peer, etc.), the buyer
sought at each step, is documented.

Each action, decision and interaction mapped should include, at a minimum, the following information:

Description of the action

A detailed definition of each piece of content sought
Through which specific physical-virtual channel(s)
The buyer’s expectation(s) and feelings
The desired outcome(s) of the action
Who was involved in the action (Persona-roles).

The key is to develop actionable Journey Maps through the lens of the buyer, meaning it should be
vendor agnostic and include all the buyer’s actions especially those that do not involve any vendor.

The most expedient way to achieve this is through qualitative or ethnographic research. Quanti-
tative tools, such as surveys, cannot discover the ‘why’ behind buyer’s actions; only ethnographic
research can do that.

3 IMPROVING CAMPAIGN CONVERSION WITH JOURNEY MAPS

Six Steps to Campaign Planning
To develop an integrated campaign from journeys detailed, complete segment-specific journey
maps that cover the steps beginning with the Trigger Event through the actual purchase. A word
of caution to those tempted (or advised) to short-cut the process by substituting generic or partial
journey maps in lieu of conducting their own: It shouldn’t be a surprise that conversion rates for
campaigns based on generic or fragmented maps do not achieve target or best-in-class bench-
marks; there is no substitute for knowing your buyer.

There are 6 steps in planning a journey-based campaign:

1. Identify specific tollgates the buyer must address before they can proceed to the next step.

2. Conduct a gap analysis to identify where your current campaign strategy doesn’t match the
journey.

3. Define high value content, irrespective of source, the buyer seeks at each step.

4. Identify those journey steps where you can reach buyers with out- and/or in-bound marketing
activities.

5. Define the integrated campaign elements and align them to the journey map.

6. Highlight where the interaction can hyper-personalized and assess data requirements.

Step 4 of the process is depicted in the example below. The visual depicts a snapshot of a journey
and shows, at a high level, the specific journey steps where a buyer can be reached by marketing.
This is a framework that is used to develop and align integrated campaigns.

3rd party White Competitor Social

Buyer Activity Videos Tools
research Papers Comparison Graph

Google looking for 3rd

party research on need

Research various
approaches and pros/cons

Inquiries with
industry analysts

Web Research including

various vendor solutions

List of all vendors

discovered

Research and evaluate

various vendor solutions

Develop vendor
assessments

Business requirements &

1st short list of vendors

4 IMPROVING CAMPAIGN CONVERSION WITH JOURNEY MAPS

Basing campaigns on journey maps is an ‘‘outside-in’’ approach to meeting customer and prospect
expectations. This method is more effective because it eliminates the guesswork that currently
plagues most marketing departments as they make decisions and tradeoffs in their campaign plans.

It also gives Marketing a clear roadmap of how to align activities and investments to meet and influ-
ence buyers expectations by delivering the right action, at the right time, through the right channel.

The next step, Step 5, defines the campaign elements across multiple channels and aligns them
to the journey framework. The example below shows how a high level waterfall campaign aligned
to the above journey framework. Done correctly, early stage campaigns will more rapidly build
brand awareness and preference, which drives conversion in subsequent journey stages.

Buyers expect personalized marketing and sales interactions. Marketing’s opportunity is to

develop an appropriate balance between automation and hyper-personalization. Journeys enable
you to more quickly and relevantly understand a buyer’s action and know how to respond with a
personalized experience.

The example below marks which campaign elements should be personalized to meet buyer
expectations.

3rd party White Competitor Social

Buyer Activity Videos Tools
research Papers Comparison Graph

Google looking for 3rd

party research on need Targeted Advertising

Research various
approaches and pros/cons 3rd-Party Research Studies

Inquiries with
industry analysts
Partner Authored Best Practices
Web Research including
various vendor solutions
Personalized Sites with
List of all vendors Webinar & Video
discovered
Blogger Infographic of
Research and evaluate Vendors in Buyers' Industry
various vendor solutions

Develop vendor
Targeted Vendor Comparisons
assessments

Business requirements &

1st short list of vendors Peer Customer Videos

5 IMPROVING CAMPAIGN CONVERSION WITH JOURNEY MAPS

Best Practices
A best practice is to focus on educating, helping and serving the buyers’ needs instead of pushing
products and services. It is the key success factor in breaking through the noise and reaching your
target buyer.

Hyper-personalization is a tactic that leverages the wealth of journey and internal data to deliver the
right content, interaction and solution at the right time, to the right persona through the right channel.
Journey maps are the decoder ring to hyper-personalized campaigns because they provide the
context, the “why,” and intent of buyer behavior.

Other best practices in journey-based campaign planning include

Develop offers for each tollgate that not only support your message but are audience specific
in terms of content and format.
Map your nurture model and messaging to focus on specific journey step sought-outcomes.
Remove gates and add a single, non-invasive “profiling question” that augments your data-
base and enables you to determine in which stage the buyer is.
Share profiling questions and all buyer/target account responses with sales to help them
assess sales readiness and prioritize follow-up.

Bottom Line
A focus on buyer behavior coupled with a deep understanding of their journeys not only enables
marketers to execute campaigns that convert but also improves decision-making across the
board. Studies have proven that high-performing companies consistently deliver contextually
relevant and meaningful personalized experiences. The place to start is by knowing your buyer.

6 IMPROVING CAMPAIGN CONVERSION WITH JOURNEY MAPS

 Action Plan
STEP 1 - Identify

Identify Your Company's

1 Identify
Customer Touch Points

Use our Customer Journey

2 Learn
Map to identify the touch
points with your company.

With a clear guideline of each

buyer persona’s experience
with your organization, you can
3 Implement
identify any weaknesses in
your customer experience and
prepare yourself to improve
your content strategy.

Customer Journey Map

VIEW RESOURCE

7 IMPROVING CAMPAIGN CONVERSION WITH JOURNEY MAPS

 Action Plan
STEP 2 - Learn

Learn How to Develop

1 Identify
Content Strategy from
Journey Maps

2
Read our Developing
Learn Content Strategy from
Journey Maps to learn how
to develop content strategy
from Journey Maps that
effectively engage and

3 Implement convert prospects.

This How-To Guide describes

content strategy based on the
information the potential buyer
is actually seeking rather
than what the marketing or
sales organization thinks they
should have.

Developing Content Strategy

from Journey Maps

VIEW RESOURCE

8 IMPROVING CAMPAIGN CONVERSION WITH JOURNEY MAPS

 Action Plan
STEP 3 - Implement

Implement Your Content

1 Identify
Marketing Strategy

Follow our Content

2 Learn Marketing Plan Playbook

to create a results-oriented
content marketing plan
that provide a step-by-
step guide on how to build
a strategic process and a

3 Implement comprehensive content plan.

CONTENT MARKETING PLAN

Playbook & Toolkit

Follow this simple step-by-step playbook to develop a content marketing plan

that supports your company’s goals & objectives.

Content Marketing Plan Playbook

VIEW RESOURCE

9 IMPROVING CAMPAIGN CONVERSION WITH JOURNEY MAPS

 About ANA

The ANA (Association of National Advertisers) makes a difference for

individuals, brands, and the industry by driving growth, advancing the
interests of marketers and promoting and protecting the well-being of the
marketing community.

Founded in 1910, the ANA provides leadership that advances marketing

excellence and shapes the future of the industry. The ANA’s membership
includes more than 1,000 companies with 15,000 brands that collectively
spend or support more than $400 billion in marketing and advertising annu-
ally. The membership is comprised of more than 750 client-side marketers
and 300 associate members, which include leading agencies, law firms,
suppliers, consultants, and vendors.

Further enriching the ecosystem is the work of the nonprofit ANA

Educational Foundation (AEF), which has the mission of enhancing the
understanding of advertising and marketing within the academic and
marketing communities.
Demand Metric helps Marketing teams get stuff done with practical tools,
training, and a simple, modern platform for managing work.

Our analysts identify best practices from fast-growing companies and build
Playbooks & Toolkits, Guides & Reports, Training Courses, and Project
Templates to help you optimize your processes, add structure to your depart-
ment, and get your team punching above their weight class.

Manage your work visually with our easy-to-use platform, built for small
marketing teams by design. See what your team is working on at a glance
so you can spend less time managing projects and more time knocking
stuff off your list.

Through strategic partnerships with the AMA, ANA, and AIPMM, our
1,000+ time-saving tools & resources have become the industry standard.
Don’t start from scratch!

Sign up for a free trial at: www.demandmetric.com

LEARN MORE

© Demand Metric Research Corporation.

All Rights Reserved.