Customer Journey

In his article, Michael Heine talks about a well-known phenomenon in online marketing: the battle for the last click. Because whoever wins the last click receives the coveted sales commission.

Well-known in this case also means much discussed. Performance marketing is criticised for the fact that conventional KPIs, such as the last click, often only tell half the story. Nevertheless, it is important to understand the significance and benefits of performance marketing. The key here is to achieve a healthy balance between performance marketing and holistic brand work - because this is the recipe for success in reaching the target group on their journey at exactly the right touchpoints and activating them for your own offering.

In order to discuss the problem of the last click, a basic understanding of the customer journey is required. The customer journey describes the journey of a (potential) customer across various contact points. The goal here is a conversion - regardless of whether it is a contact enquiry, purchase or newsletter registration. The touchpoints already mentioned can be diverse and range from traditional advertising to online channels to a personal recommendation from a friend or acquaintance.

The customer journey usually begins when a consumer becomes aware of a product or is specifically interested in a product. However, I personally like to start analysing the journey even earlier by answering the question: How does the consumer become aware of my product? Like personas, the customer journey is based on both quantitative and qualitative analysis data about your own target group. The aim of the customer journey is to get to know the consumer's journey and to be able to derive specific measures for conversion optimisation.

One of my friends often slept badly at night and woke up in the morning with neck pain. One day, she noticed an advert for a Blackroll cushion in her Instagram feed. Due to the presence of Blackroll products in fitness studios, she had already built up trust in the brand and associated the products primarily with the value of health. She clicks on the advert, scrolls to the price of the cushion, takes a screenshot and leaves the website. Three months later, when she is still suffering from neck pain, she visits the Blackroll website and buys the cushion without hesitation.

Traditional online marketing would have labelled my friend a ‘lost customer’. Because after reaching the website via the advert, she leaves it - without achieving a conversion. However, the decision to buy the cushion is made right there and then three months later via direct entry on the website.

Of course, the advert fulfils its purpose in that my friend became aware of the Blackroll brand product. And of course, an advert can also be the final deciding factor in a consumer's decision to buy, even if the decision has already been made a long time ago.

If it hadn't been for the advert, my friend wouldn't have found out about the existence of the Blackroll cushion - the importance of performance marketing becomes clear. However, without raising awareness in advance and anchoring the Blackroll brand in her mind, the advert would not have reached her attention. One question therefore arises...

This example is intended to show you that the customer journey must be understood and optimised as a whole. It is important not only to optimise the ‘last click’ (and therefore the Instagram ad), but also to create a holistic brand experience for the target group. My colleague Mark has explained the relationship between brand building and performance marketing in detail in his article.

Modern online marketing should not only aim to analyse data quantitatively, but also to interpret it correctly in terms of quality. The mistake of focusing on the ‘last click’ is to run after the optimisation of unreliable information. What is needed is a holistic view. Because you want to be more than just a provider of products that urges consumers to buy from your shop. Brand means creating experiences, awakening dreams and fulfilling dreams. That's why we talk about a journey, not a coffee trip.