A customer journey map defines every step that customer goes through when interacting with a business. This lesson shows you how to develop a customer journey map that delivers positive results.

Recent changes in technology have made it necessary for businesses to adopt a customer-centric approach when marketing their products. 

Today’s customers expect to have personalized experiences and marketing messages tailored to them.

The most common tool businesses use to develop unique experiences for their customers is called a Customer Journey Map.

A customer journey map is a diagram that shows all the steps a customer must go through when interacting with a company. It applies to products, services, retail stores, and much more.

The video below walks you through the steps involved in creating customer journey maps.

Customer journey maps give companies an insight into the thoughts and feelings of their customers, and shows them what actions their customers take at every stage of their journey.

As a business improves its customer journey, it will understand how to relate to its customers on an emotional level and how to create targeted marketing campaigns. 

In the following cards, you’ll see three common questions that businesses need to answer about their customers when creating a customer journey map.

1. How can I increase loyalty among a particular customer group?

2. Why are we losing customers during a particular stage in the buyer journey?

3. How can technology and content marketing help alleviate some of our customers’ pain points?

When a business answers all three questions, they’ll be able to create a customer journey map that delivers memorable, simple and usable experiences for its customers. 

The SWOT analysis framework is a must-know for any marketer. In this lesson, you’ll learn how to perform a SWOT analysis and use the results to inform your marketing strategy.

The key to a successful business lies in the ability to gauge its strengths and weaknesses, as well as opportunities and threats. 

A useful tool for finding out this information is called a SWOT analysis.

SWOT is an acronym for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. It’s an analytical framework that helps businesses assess the internal and external factors affecting their objectives.

A SWOT analysis is usually represented as a square with four quadrants, with each quadrant including information about the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of the business.

For example, a SWOT analysis of Coca-Cola Company would highlight strengths such as its well-known brand name, and large distribution network as well as opportunities like developing markets.

When developing a SWOT analysis, it is important that an organization presents the good and bad points in a realistic way.

The overall analysis needs to be specific enough so as to avoid any ambiguity or grey areas in the information. It should also be short and simple, rather than being overly-complex.

The Strengths in a SWOT analysis refers to the areas in which a business excels. It’s what separates the organization from other competitors.

Examples of strengths include proprietary technology, brand recognition, strong customer base, and strong balance sheets.

Weaknesses refer to the areas in which the business needs to improve. For example, lack of capital, high turnover, and low customer lifetime value when compared to other competitors.

Opportunities are the external factors that a business can use to gain a competitive advantage in the marketplace. For instance, changes in tax rates or high income in the population.

Threats refer to all the external factors that could negatively affect business. These include natural disasters, political instability, and changing consumer behavior.

Should you need some more clarity, the video below will summarizes this lesson and shows you how to perform an in-depth SWOT analysis.

A value proposition is what makes a business different from all other competitors in the market. After completing this course, you’ll know the steps and strategies involved in creating a compelling value proposition.

A value proposition is the first thing a business must create before marketing their products or services to the public.

It explains how the products or services solve customers’ problems, improves their situation and delivers specific benefits.

As a business, it tells the ideal customer why they should buy from you and not from other competitors offering similar products or services.

Here’s an example of a good value proposition:

“We help large companies reduce the cost of building new software without impacting product quality.”

That’s a good value proposition because it’s simple, targeted and straight to the point. 

Value propositions should always be very easy to understand and include the main benefits of a product or service.

Businesses must always ask these three questions when creating a value proposition:

What is it?

For whom?

How is it useful? 

If they answer those questions, they’ll always end up with a clear and concise value statement.

Keep in mind that the way a company talks about their product or service is often very different from how their customers describe it. 

As a result, companies have to rely on interviews with their customers, or use social media to find the right voice for their products.

Businesses don’t need to be completely unique. They only have to be unique in the customer’s mind. 

Just remember that a value proposition is not the same as a slogan.A slogan is simply a short, memorable phrase that companies use in their advertising campaigns.An example of a slogan is “Nike. Just do it.”

Value propositions are often internal, while a slogan is used in marketing campaigns.

Every mass market consists of several smaller sub-markets called niches. In this lesson, you’ll learn about niche markets and why they are so important for marketers.

In the majority of markets, there is one larger segment or mass market, and many smaller segments called niche markets.

An example of a niche market in the fashion market would be designer clothes for budget-conscious people.

An example of a niche market in the food industry would be healthy food for busy professionals.

The main advantage of targeting a niche market instead of a mass market is that there’s less competition from other companies.

Businesses that operate in smaller niches also gain specialized skills and knowledge that they can use to attract customers to their products or services.

These companies are usually able to charge a higher price for products because consumers are willing to pay premium prices for their expertise. As a result, they gain higher profit margins, revenue, and customer loyalty.

As a marketer, it’s important that you understand the difference between niche markets and mass markets.

You’ll also need to perform extensive research to understand the needs, wants, demographic, and psychographic traits of your niche market.

The ability to identify target markets is an important skill for any marketer. In this lesson, you’ll learn about the importance of creating a target market.

The more details businesses can collect about their target market, the more effective they’ll be.

In addition to demographics, companies also need to consider the psychographics of their target market.

Psychographics go beyond the personal characteristics of a person and include personality, attitudes, values, interests/hobbies, lifestyles and behavior.

A target market should be sufficiently large and precisely targeted. For example, if a business finds that there are only 40 people that match their criteria, then it’s better to create another target market.

A good place to find more information about a target market is to look for magazines, articles and blog articles that appeal to the target market. You can also search for blogs and forums where people in the target market communicate their opinions. 

For instance, if your target market is antique car collectors, you can find forums dedicated to this niche.

Businesses can also conduct surveys and ask current customers for feedback to define a target audience.

Once a business identifies a specific target market, they’ll be able to create better marketing messages and get a better return on investment on their marketing efforts.