Traditional marketers will focus on understanding the client / member / customer, often using a tradition marketing “Who-what-where-when-why-how” framework. And the more one drills down into each of these questions, the more effective the marketing will be. Layer onto this the concept of segmentation – after all, not everyone is the same – and both focus and effectiveness improve even further. Yet, for all of this analysis, there is a limit to how far this analysis will take you.

Is this you? Is your marketing boat “leaking”? Is there a mechanism, or type of analysis that can improve your marketing effectiveness even further? Enter Journey Mapping.

The concept of Journey Mapping can fundamentally change your view on marketing. Journey Mapping is defined as the documentation of all touchpoints that a specific stakeholder group would encounter during a particular process. It can be done at a high level, or a low level. It can be used through the sales/business development process, and it can be used during the operational delivery of your services. (The latter will impact satisfaction, retention, and referrals.)

As many people are involved in their professional associations, these two examples should be familiar.

Here is an example “high-level” journey.
Touchpoint 1: Saw an ad about the organization, or was referred to it.
Touchpoint 2: Attended a meeting as a guest
Touchpoint 3: Decided to join
Touchpoint 4: Attended the annual convention
Touchpoint 5: Volunteered on a committee
Touchpoint 6: Became a board member
Touchpoint 7: Achieved specialist certification

Here is a low-level journey example: registering for the annual convention:
Touchpoint 1: Received an email about the convention
Touchpoint 2: Clicked the link and read through the convention website
Touchpoint 3: Filled in the form to register, including payment
Touchpoint 4: Received an acknowledgement email
Touchpoint 5: Received an email to register for the pre-conference, and a booking links for hotel options
Touchpoint 6: Registered for hotel and air travel
Touchpoint 7: Registered for the pre-conference
Touchpoint 8: Received acknowledgement emails: one contained an invitation to ask speakers questions via social media
Touchpoint 9: Received reminder emails
Touchpoint 10: Showed up on site
Touchpoint 11: Picked up name card and attendee kit.

The idea is that at each touchpoint, a specific person has an experience (good/bad/indifferent) that impacts their views on your organization, and their willingness to move to the next step on the journey.

The marketing (and later operational) job is to ensure that the person is appropriately equipped (and motived) at each touchpoint to move to the following touchpoint. The technology job is to smooth the way, collect data, and then make it available for the marketers.

Does this topic resonate? Reach out to Randall: he can present it to your group.  (More presentation topics)
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