Create your customer journey map for SaaS companies in 5 steps

The customer journey map is the most critical asset for SaaS companies (software as a service company). Customer journey mapping tools are typically part of marketing automation software.  

The customer journey map lays out how our buyer persona gets to our company and begins looking for our products and services. In other words, the customer journey map depicts the experience of someone who comes to us with a problem and seeks help in solving it. Before creating our customer journey map, we have to examine who is our customer persona.

Another approach, named "sales funnel," is well-known to marketers, but they're not the same thing. In contrast to the customer journey map, the sales funnel explains the entire process from the company's perspective - how to convert foreigners into buyers. 

The most significant advantage of a customer journey map is that businesses can see that they are solving their target audiences' problems. But they may not be a one-size-fits-all method. However, if you want to outperform your rivals, you can make some adjustments to your strategy and succeed. As a result, it's not impossible to gain your customers' favor. 

How can you outshine the thousands of SaaS options available to your customers and gain their trust and respect? You'll need to follow five specific steps that we discuss in some seconds to get started. 

Please continue reading to learn how Spotify, one of the biggest software developers, used web development, business intelligence, and developer tools to capture the interest of its target audience through customer journey mapping. 

Is Spotify a good example? 

One of the top SaaS companies and an audio streaming service popular worldwide is Spotify. Thanks to a detailed customer journey map, the eCommerce platform improved users' music-sharing experience. They're trying to figure out which aspects of music-sharing work best for their buyer personas. 

Spotify's customers' actions, beliefs, and feelings are documented in the customer journey mapping. Users went through seven stages, starting with downloading Spotify on their mobile device and ending with listening to a playlist created by a friend: 

• Visit the platform 
• Listen to music 
• Discover new music 
• Share the music 
• Discuss with their friends about the platform 
• Receive new playlists from friends 
• Respond to them 
• Spotify also conducted customer surveys and analyses to understand better how customers felt throughout the customer journey map and collect customer data. 

The Spotify's Customer Journey Map:   

• The popular SaaS business and its customer relationship management, financial management, and project management discovered pain points for the customers at every stage to succeed in the software development. 
• The project managers dealt with those pain points so that the music sharing experience was well-tempered constant and promoted this through content management. 
• The enterprise software company encouraged more customers to use the app and share music.   
• The company achieved to find critical consumer engagement areas.  
• Understood consumer behavior.   
• They managed to enhance the customer experience making it as enjoyable as possible.  

Differences between customer funnel and customer journey mapping 

Every marketer or salesperson's favorite child is the customer funnel. It gives them a complete picture of their converted leads; they find it easier and more manageable to work with. But as we've already mentioned, the customer funnel is separate from the customer journey maps. 

There is no such thing as a complete customer funnel. The customer journey is a necessity for every company in the Saas market because a great user experience is impossible without it; this customer journey map aids in your decision-making process. And how can you achieve this? 

By creating a customer journey map that outlines the objectives of the end-user and the steps necessary to reach those goals. It's much simpler than you might expect. 

Let's learn about the sales funnel and the importance of a customer journey map first. 

Differences between the sales funnel and customer journey maps 

• When it comes to sales funnels and customer journeys, the most notable difference is that the first tells a company-centric story. 
• Leads begin at the top of the sales funnel and move toward the bottom as they progress from awareness to purchase from the perspective of your business. The company is at the heart of the problem and studies what it needs to do to gain customers and passively moves from awareness to purchase. 
• A marketing/sales funnel is a broad classification that does not have a simple way to manage it, resulting in a straightforward approach and customer acquaintance, regardless of the type of marketing used like email marketing, social media marketing in every marketing platform and social media channels. 
• You can now see why funnels don't give us much information about consumers. Instead, we require a marketing and design tool that focuses on the end-user's needs. There must be a customer journey map. 
• It is also important to note that the focus is more on a broad categorization of customers than a detailed study of their behavior and pain points in a sale funnel. Sales funnels may be faster and easier to use, but they are inefficient and do not provide information about customer activity. 

For SaaS, why do we need a customer journey? 

It's a fact that there are millions of SaaS products available, and that number is constantly growing. When it comes to the 2020's MarTech claimed that one in five SaaS products are new. 

You can only imagine how difficult it is for a customer to decide with so much competition. 

What are the demands of the consumers? 

• To ponder their emotions, 
• Find out what's bothering them, and help them. 
• Recognize their plight, 
• Lead the way, 
• Solve their issues if you can. 

How is this possible? 

But of course, with the customer journey map.  

Companies that take the time to learn about their customers' unique needs using web analytics and google analytics are applauded by customers. 

In surveys, customers who received content from companies that addressed their pain points were three times more likely to purchase a more expensive deal from that company with less consideration. 

Seeing the whole process through the eyes of the customer, we become more accurate specific, and we adjust our content according to the necessities and issues of our customers. We need a customer journey that helps us align our solutions and strategy with our customers' pain points.  

Is there a way to plan out your customer's path? 

We'll begin by dividing our customer journey into five distinct stages and defining our marketing messages for each. We will attempt to depict the typical steps in a customer journey in this diagram, which will vary depending on the company and the customers' needs. 

"Stages of Awareness" was developed by Eugene Schwartz in 1966. Five stages of awareness were outlined in the process: 

• unaware step 
• problem-aware step 
• solution-aware step 
• product-aware step 
• most aware step 

As a part of your process, we set up a series of touchpoints with potential customers. The first thing you should do is create a customer journey. 

We're now ready to look at the five steps that a SaaS company must follow. 

A customer's journey begins with these five steps 

1) Unaware step 

We can discover what our potential customers are searching for online through keyword research. Then, based on the information gleaned from the searches and the problems encountered. 

As a result, we hope to demonstrate to customers that our company cares about them and will be there for them when they encounter difficulties. The goal of promoting our brand widely isn't to do so right away. As a substitute, we strive to address readers' concerns, empathize with them, and help them move from a state of ignorance to one of awareness. 

2) The problem-aware step 

These questions come up when you look at what your customers search for on Google. You can, for example, look for examples of businesses that have implemented a customer journey, automated processes, and enhanced the value proposition of their products. 

You are now prepared to move to the third step after responding to these inquiries with your strategy. 

3) Solution-aware 

It's time to learn how to use customer journey maps to improve your marketing or customer experience. If you aren't satisfied with your current strategy, it's time to rethink it or even start from scratch. 

Every customer should have access to our SaaS apps like mobile apps, web apps, or e-stores. In other words, we'll make a lot of content about how users can reach our web pages or apps to find their solutions. Solution-awareness is your chance to differentiate yourself from your competitors. 

Customers are much closer to purchasing at this point than they were at the beginning of the process. As a result, you have the perfect opportunity to direct your users to content that solely promotes your products or services as the solutions they require. 

4) The product-aware stage 

The fourth stage of your customer journey map is one of the most critical. The moment you become fully aware of your product is the one that will determine your ultimate success or failure. 

Customers who have already made up their minds to buy from you will get an additional reason to do so with this offer: You can persuade them to invest in you and your company by offering them demo versions, discounts, trials, case studies, customer testimonials, recommendations, and general methods.  

As a result, customers will learn about you, remember your products and services, and adapt to using them, making them more likely to buy from you in the future. 

To begin with, consumers can try out a product or service for free to discover its advantages. Afterward, they'll be able to find additional features that provide even more value and results with the paid version so that customers can see the differences and make an informed purchasing decision. 

5) Most-aware stage 

Once customers have found what they're looking for and purchased your goods and services, the customer journey isn't over. To stay ahead of the competition, a SaaS model must constantly monitor and adapt to changes in the market. 

Client fees are pre-loaded, but it will take some time before the monthly costs per user start saving money. So, companies must work hard to keep customers engaged. 

To better understand how customers feel, what they need, and what they want at any point in their journey, the sum-up customer journey is a method that never ends.  

To be customer-centric, an organization's entire business strategy must revolve around the needs of its customers because the customers are no longer the problem but rather a part of the solution. Do not hesitate to contact us if you want to boost your business performance and learn all the secrets of the marketing world. Our approved team is here to assist you with anything you require!