Why Ads Alone Won’t Build a Sustainable Business
If your goal is to gain immediate traction and generate leads, running ad campaigns can be an effective short-term strategy. However, ads alone won’t deliver consistent results. Over time, their impact diminishes—much like the economic concept of diminishing marginal utility, where repeated exposure to the same tactic yields decreasing returns.
But what happens after a lead is generated? If there’s no clear customer journey strategy, potential customers may drop off before converting, or worse, have a negative experience with the brand.
The Key to Growth: Knowing Your Audience
If you want to build a brand that fosters customer loyalty, you need to understand your audience at every stage. This means mapping their journey from the first interaction to post-purchase engagement, ensuring a seamless experience that encourages repeat business.
This is where Customer Journey Mapping comes in—a crucial but often overlooked aspect of marketing.
Why Customer Journey Mapping Matters
The customer journey is the sum of all experiences and interactions a customer has with a brand—from initial awareness to post-purchase loyalty. It spans across multiple touchpoints, including social media, ads, website visits, customer service, and offline interactions.
However, many businesses fail to align their marketing efforts with their customer journey, leading to disjointed experiences.
A Real-Life Example of a Broken Customer Journey
Recently, while in Dubai, my friend received a voucher from a medical clinic, offering a 60% discount on various blood tests for AED 160. Excited about the offer, he called the clinic, only to be told that their basic test (which included all the tests mentioned in the coupon) was already priced at AED 160—without any discount.
This is a classic example of poor customer journey management. Not just a failure in customer journey mapping, but a complete disconnect between marketing and on-ground operations. While this may seem like a minor oversight, it was actually the first interaction the prospective customer (my friend) had with the brand—and it instantly led to confusion and distrust.
This incident also highlighted a larger gap in the UAE market for an agency that can cater to small and medium businesses—while many agencies and marketing professionals cater to small and medium businesses, their focus remains heavily on running digital ads. In the process, they often overlook the need for a comprehensive marketing approach that truly understands each business’s audience. This paved way for us to enter the UAE market. Understanding the audience is fundamental when it comes to effectively mapping the customer journey and is a core value that is embedded in our organisation’s genes.
A customer journey map presents a visual representation of the customer’s experience, helping businesses understand and optimize each interaction. By mapping the journey, companies can:
- Gain insights into customer needs and perceptions
- Identify areas for improvement in the customer experience
- Align marketing efforts with customer touchpoints
- Enhance customer satisfaction and loyalty
Understanding the customer journey is crucial for businesses to create seamless experiences, address pain points, and ultimately drive customer satisfaction and loyalty across all stages of interaction.
Let us now look at the stages of a Customer Journey:
Awareness
Customers first become acquainted with a brand through advertising, word-of-mouth, social media, or online searches. This stage is when individuals recognize they have a problem or need.
Consideration
Customers research offerings, compare features, prices, and reviews to understand how well products or services meet their specific needs.
Decision
At this point, customers are ready to make a purchase decision, weighing value, benefits, and special offers.
Retention
After the purchase, businesses focus on ensuring new customers remain satisfied and continue to see value in their products or services.
Advocacy
Happy customers promote the business to their family and friends, often through loyalty programs or referrals.
Contact us if you need a free marketing consultation for your company.