Get a complete view of your customer journey in 5 easy steps

The most challenging part of a marketer’s job is grasping customer data in a way that allows them to properly review, synthesize and make meaningful future strategies. In fact, just under half of us marketers leave that job to our CEO instead of leading the charge ourselves.

But why? What’s so difficult about it? Whatever you answer, I’ve no doubt that what it probably boils down to is the inability to get a holistic view of your customer journeys. What I’m going to tackle in this blog post is how you can get a complete view of your customer journey using Ungapped so that your email campaigns continue to win new customers.

This post is designed for all Ungapped users or those who are probably thinking about using Ungapped. If neither of these is you, stick around and read anyway. You might find it useful.

No, take me back to the blog instead »

1. Get all your data in one place

This is kind of the root of the problem because when we have data in all different platforms it’s incredibly complicated to get that information into one place where we can analyze it. It’s also very time-consuming to be jumping in and out of different tools to put all the data together. I know some marketers that are balancing a lot of single-solution apps. They have one app for email campaigns. They have another for surveys. Then they have their CRM which attempts to store insights from both of those apps. But why wouldn’t you just use a platform that has all three functions, plus a few extras?

Spoiler: I’m talking about Ungapped. But you don’t need to take my biased word, you can read what our customers say instead.

2. Draw your attention to meaningful actions

When people start using mailings, surveys, and text messages as part of their customer experiences, they tend to focus all of their time and energy on a few basic KPIs rather than a spectrum of basic and deep KPIs. For example, most marketers will be checking deliverability stats, open rates, and click-through rates. But fewer are checking deep-level KPIs like unsubscribe rates and conversions from individual mailings.

To be fair though, it’s not really at the fault of most marketers. Industry leaders and influencers for a long time preached the importance of high open rates and click-through rates. But if nobody converts into a customer after opening, it doesn’t really matter how many people open your mailing or not. The result is the same = zero revenue.

So when you jump into a sent mailing, yes keep an eye on open rates and click-throughs but most importantly, check how many of your subscribers converted into customers.

This mailing had a great open rate but a pretty low conversion rate. What could you do to improve the conversion instead?

3. Get a snapshot of individual engagement

Collectively, data can be a really powerful tool to help us track trends or implement new strategies. But looking at the data of individual contacts has its value too.

Getting a snapshot of how a particular individual has engaged with your mailings, surveys, or text messages is ideal when you want to paint an accurate picture of an ‘ideal’ customer or if you want to target specific leads. Using the contact card within Ungapped allows you to do just that. Search for individual contact and in a couple of clicks you can bring up all their previous engagement and activity.

A contact card in Ungapped.

If I use the example of researching an ‘ideal’ customer, you can get a great snapshot of how someone with their profile would typically engage with your business in their own customer journey. How many mailings do they open, and how do they engage with said mailings? Do they answer any feedback surveys? What kind of feedback do they give you? The answers to these questions give you excellent insight into what you should replicate across audiences and where you might be able to improve with this ‘ideal’ customer.

Using the example of a sales lead, using the contact card enables you to see very quickly which messages your lead has seen and which they have not. If they haven’t opened any mailings, perhaps they are no longer a lead. If they have opened your mailings but not converted, this might be an indication that they are interested in what you are offering but that you’ve not tailored enough to them. You can then modify the content and try again, tracking their engagement as you continue to tailor the customer journey to them.

4. Share the data across your team

Just as you find it challenging to sync data across platforms and tools, imagine the potential impact disconnected data can have on the team or department goals. Typically, one of the hardest cross-team functions to manage is marketing, sales, and customer support. We strongly believe that all three should work together to create exceptional customer experiences which is why we built Ungapped in the first place.

Using the contact cards mentioned above, in combination with individual tool statistics, makes it really easy for teams to share data in Ungapped. Which makes it even easier for departments to identify what’s missing in their efforts. Marketing can see which content converted them to a sales lead, the sales team can track exactly when they became a customer, and customer service can see how satisfied they are with your products or services through feedback surveys. It couldn’t be more simple.

5. Partner to get longitudinal data

A lot of the analytical tools available to marketers only give you data once someone begins interacting with your marketing content. But what’s the customer journey two or three steps before that? Likewise, what does a customer’s journey look like once it has ended with you? One way to have access to this kind of data is to partner with a provider, immediately gaining access to years of experience and a wealth of knowledge that you might not have access to.

Ungapped resellers will be the first to tell you how a partner program has given new opportunities to their business and we’re really proud to offer such a program. It doesn’t cost anything to become a reseller but the dollar returns are limitless. Learn more about becoming a reseller here »

Make your customer journey better with Ungapped

If you’ve made it this far down and you’re not already a user, give in to your curiosity and create your free account here »

Updated Oct 2022. The article was written in 2016.