The new customer decision journey: embracing and fuelling the flywheel

Since the introduction of the AIDA model in the late 19th century, marketers have worked to develop traditional marketing channels.

For over a hundred years, the AIDA model has been considered a cornerstone of marketing as it guides consumers through a series of four linear stages in the buying journey:

In turn, marketers spend most of their time engaging the large number of consumers at the top of the funnel, while only a small percentage of consumers move towards a final action or purchase.

In short, most of the time and energy in the marketing channel is wasted on unconverted leads.

But what would happen if that energy wasn’t lost?

What if that energy could be redirected towards a buying journey and real results?

And what would be the result if the customer’s energy could be harnessed and added to the equation?

From funnel to flywheel

Throughout history, inventors such as James Watt and his steam engine have utilised the flywheel for a superior way of storing energy.

Now marketers are doing the same thing.

Marketers are turning to energy-efficient flywheels to leverage data from the entire customer decision-making journey to grow their brands in the digital age.

What makes flywheels superior?

Flywheels continue to spin faster and faster as long as there is no opposing force and, once activated, require less energy to keep running.

Similarly, today’s marketers are using all the data they have access to:

And it’s working.

Microsoft Advertising’s internal study on creating smarter customer journeys found that top marketers who leverage data to create more meaningful touchpoints can see incremental ROI/ROAS gains of up to 45%.

Why now?

What’s causing the flywheel disruption? How can marketers make the most of it?

Here are three factors driving this shift and steps you can take to apply these insights to your search campaigns today.

1. Customer Centricity

We are moving from a product-centric world to a customer-centric world; it’s happening across all markets and verticals.

In today’s world, it is not enough to have customers. A new type of customer has emerged in the digital age: the fan.

Today’s businesses need to create brand buzz in order to cultivate fans who promote their brand.

While funnels can generate customers, they don’t address customer health or how customers can help you grow your business or drive engagement with future customers.

Satisfied customers or brand fans drive the flywheel through word of mouth, customer feedback and repeat purchases.

Unlike a linear funnel that ends with a sale, the flywheel creates a self-sustaining virtuous cycle of four stages:

Customers are at the heart of the flywheel.

Make your dreams come true.

Start documenting your customer journey

Firstly, start documenting your customer journey so you can put your customers at the centre of everything you do. Sounds simple enough, right?

In our internal research, we found that 80% of marketers and agencies are struggling to use AI technology to better understand their customer decision journeys and improve their marketing performance.

As customer decision journeys become more complex and non-linear, using technology to better understand and engage customers is critical.

20% of high-performing businesses have a deeper understanding of the consumer decision journey and can therefore better predict consumer behaviour and intent.

Does your attribution model impair or hinder your ability to be customer-centric?

Secondly, ask yourself: does your attribution model compromise or hinder your ability to be customer-centric and how your programme interacts with customers?

Simple attribution models were better suited to the simplicity of marketing and sales channels in the early 20th century.

However, as customer interactions with devices and channels have become increasingly complex over the past 20 years, marketers need to improve their attribution models.

Marketing flywheels help realise lifetime customer value.

2. Search and social

The AIDA funnel is a very longstanding and successful marketing tool – but that was before the advent of the internet, and well before the advent of search or social sharing.

Search engines and social media have revolutionised the way we work, shop and live.

In the past, it was common for customers to contact customer service organisations directly for information and help with products and services. But that is no longer the case.

Now, customers first go directly to search engines to find answers/content.

If they don’t find what they’re looking for on page 1 (or if they’re lucky, page 2 of the search results), they turn to social platforms like Facebook and Twitter.

After that, if they don’t get an answer, they may try to contact customer service.

Customers are more empowered than ever and play an important role as trusted sources of information. But that doesn’t mean brands and companies are off the hook.

It means that now more than ever, you need to find the truth and make sure you can answer the questions posed by strangers, prospects and even your customers.

Don’t let Munion tell half-truths for you.

Make it happen

Make sure your customers find what they’re looking for immediately.

Understand what your customers are asking (not just what you think they’re asking) through research, then take it back and lead the conversation.

3. Data and Artificial Intelligence

Data is the renewable energy of the next century. This new world order requires companies to optimise their customer experience (CX) for the right channels of interaction, which include:

Data-driven touchpoints are key to the modern customer experience because they can drive your flywheel spin and grow your business. These touchpoints have two goals:

As you leverage AI (Artificial Intelligence) and ML (Machine Learning) to continually optimise the experience, they’re also how you exert power over the flywheel.

Own and unlock your data! According to our internal research, top performing marketers are using ML to make AI systems smarter with every interaction.

Unlocking data at scale is key to creating personalised and interactive brand experiences that blend cognitive services and AI technologies such as chatbots, voice skills and digital assistants.

They are applying machine learning to predict behaviour and consumer behaviour to attract, engage, retain and delight customers. They are creating smarter, more customised experiences at key points in the customer decision journey.

What are the benefits of unlocking data?

Top-performing companies have great data and AI strategies and are achieving amazing results – 45% incremental improvement in return on investment (ROI)/return on investment (ROAS).

Make it feasible

Have your own data to create audience segments – and use those audience segments to drive customer journeys in your paid search accounts.

Customise your ad copy and landing pages based on the audience segments you identify from your data and insights into the customer journey.

Reducing Friction

After creating a flywheel, the next big question is how to reduce friction.

Friction can damage the flywheel, and companies are often put in an unfavourable situation.

Essentially, companies should reconsider any factors that are preventing them from focusing on their customers.

Friction Point SolutionsTeam
The team is out of touch. Work collaboratively as a single marketing team across all channels
Isolated processes Build cohesion between all customer touch points and present a unified front to customers
data loss Ensure you have a system in place to capture data and optimise the entire journey for individual customers
customer churn Maintain close contact with customers through surveys, reviews and social media to identify and mitigate issues
(future) prospects Quickly convert prospects into customers using high-value, actionable touchpoints

Make it happen

Look at your natural and paid search data to identify friction points.

Friction points in paid search can be related to low quality scores – meaning that your keywords, ad copy and target pages don’t necessarily match. Information and content don’t match.

The new customer decision-making journey

The customer journey is changing dramatically as new technologies shift power to the customer.

Modern customers share.

They inform.

They review.

They ‘like’.

Marketers must adapt to the changing marketplace to stay relevant, replacing outdated funnels with more inclusive flywheels. When used correctly, flywheels can quickly transform strangers into brand fans.

As you grow and focus on increasing the power (the processes and channels you use to drive it) and the energy (the touchpoints and data that power it), the speed increases.

Unlike a funnel that ends with a sale, a satisfied customer marks just the beginning.