the customer journey infographic

I love great infographics, especially when they illustrate a topic I care about. Seeing complex ideas presented in an appetizing, easily consumed format is so satisfying.

Here’s one I found when I was reading through this year’s Content Marketing Awards.

I can see why The Customer Journey by IDG Enterprise was a finalist for Best Infographic. There is so much data here, but it is organized in a way that fulfills the subtitle “The Guide to Reaching IT Decision Makers Through Content Marketing.” If you sell to IT decision makers, you ought to click here to get a poster of this and really internalize everything it says. Even if this content isn’t relevant to you, it provides a teaching moment for creating infographics.

My criteria for great infographics:

Educational

This one is abundant with useful information and advice when selling to IT decision makers whether you engage IDG Enterprise or not.

Actionable

Although there is a massive amount of data on this infographic, the clear call to action of “5 Top Tactics – How to Engage ITDMs” engages the reader to take the next steps.

Credible

IDG Enterprise has a strong reputation. But the statistics from their 2014 IDG Enterprise Customer Engagement Survey bring market authority from the respondents, not just IDG Enterprise opinions. The way the statistics are woven into the overall story is masterful, beginning in the introduction and threaded through each of the 5 main points.

Organized

The flow of the infographic starts with the title “The Customer Journey.” Since I care a lot about the customer journey, this is what propelled me to look for this infographic when I saw the Best Infographic award.

The subtitle, “The Guide to Reaching IT Decision-Makers Through Content Marketing” further drew me in. Three things about the subtitle hooked me:

1. Guide: This is intriguing because it infers educational and actionable.
2. IT Decision-Makers: This is a persona I marketed to for years, across different industries. Although many things change depending on industry and type of problem you solve, there are a lot of similarities that cross industry and problem.
3. Content Marketing: This has been a passion of mine for a long time, especially in the last few years.

The subtitle alone is a trifecta for me.

Then, the introduction starts with “The Challenge.” LOVE it! “What problem are you trying to solve?” is one of my all time favorite questions. When you state the challenge, you draw in those who know they have the problem, and can intrigue those whose problem is latent.

Down to the body, the reader is walked through the 5 groups of information, finishing up with the clear call to action. Without a strong organization, your eyeballs would have been spinning on the top third of the infographic. As it is, there is a lot to digest in one sitting, but you can easily come back to where you left off to absorb more after you’ve taken a breather.

The information is scannable (where I can hone in on interesting “chunks”) with multiple points of entry. I can move from left to right consuming each morsel step by step, or I can scan down the first column for the highlights of the 5 groups, and go back up again through the details.

Creative

Although extremely busy, the use of color, typography, icons, and the hand drawn touches all work well to take the reader on a journey through the information. The first 5 steps are colored blue (this is the main body of information) and the conclusion is orange which leads your eyes to the call to action.

A bonus for creative would be creating a chart or graph where the shape reflects the context of the statistic. The Customer Journey infographic doesn’t have any, but here is an example:

Do you have any great infographic examples? Post them in the comments along with why they are great.

best content marketing advice

My love-a-meter for content is high when I think, “Dang, I wish I’d thought of that!” That’s what I thought when I saw this infographic from Curata.

They posed this question on the LinkedIn Content Marketing Forum:

“In just one sentence, what is your best content marketing advice?”

Great question. But cooler than that is the infographic they created to summarize their findings. All of which I wish I’d said.

Check out the rest of their post and comments. Good stuff. And ask to join the Content Marketing Forum on LinkedIn. I just did. Hope they let me in!

content is fuel

Content marketing started for me back in the 80’s. Long before the term was coined. I had a complex product that did anything and everything for companies that made widgets (tech, consumer, and anything a manufacturer might regularly ship to their distributors to meet ongoing demand). Because it did so much, it was hard to describe in 25 words or less.

My background was education, not marketing. But one day as I was trying to write something to describe what our product did, a big lightbulb appeared above my head.

I started writing a story. A “case study” of a robotics company and the key challenges they had that my product would solve. A narrative sprinkled with screen shots illustrating how our product would be used to solve those challenges. Mind you, this was done in courier font on an impact printer with dot matrix screen shots pasted (literally, not with the computer). Before we had our first fat Macs with Word, MacPaint, and MacDraw.

This case study (all fictional) had examples of the reports they would see (which back then was a big deal), some diagrams to illustrate the life of a sales order, but more importantly told a story that resonated with our buyers.

We spiral bound that document and used it in our marketing and sales efforts with great success. Parts of the story resonated early in the buying cycle for buyers who didn’t realize there was even a product that would solve their problems. The sample screens and reports (in context, not in isolation) answered questions for buyers later in the buying cycle. Boy, I wish I still had a copy of that pre-e book.

Back in the last millennium in 1992, the Dockers® brand at Levi Strauss created the Guide to Casual Business Wear that was mailed (yeah, before ebooks) to 25,000 HR managers. Dockers had been on the market since the 80’s, but in the early dot com era of the early 90’s, employees were embracing Aloha Fridays wearing Hawaiian shirts and flip flops to work. The pamphlet addressed a concern about casual dress impacting productivity and gave HR tools to guide employees on what was appropriate casual wear. According to the Levi’s website, “Dockers was hailed as revolutionary for creating a cultural shift that propelled their khakis into the mainstream.” Levi’s doesn’t say whether their sales improved as a result of the pamphlet, but it was educational, valuable content for the HR persona that helped them deal with a growing problem in a professional manner. Practical, relevant content. That likely sold more Dockers.

When I first stumbled across content marketing as a discipline, I immediately got it because I had been doing it. I love what the godfather of content marketing, Joe Pulizzi and Content Marketing Institute have done to crystalize the power of content marketing. Here’s a fun infographic from Content Marketing World 2012 illustrating a brief history of content marketing.

How to Build and Operate a Content Marketing Machine written by Marketo and Kapost is a great illustration and explanation of creating a content marketing machine.

This was written back in 2012 and although many new tools and techniques have been developed over the last three years, this ebook continues to be a must-have guide for creating the content marketing machine.

Machines are great. Making things repeatable, sustainable, and scalable. Machines are essential to do that. But…

Relevant content is the fuel for the marketing machine.

Content marketing isn’t just feel-good stories to drive awareness. Ultimately, content marketing should engage buyers throughout the customer journey, moving them along to ultimately buy and consume our products and services. And content relevance depends on where the buyer is on that journey.

What was brilliant about the Dockers pamphlet was their understanding of the HR persona (an influencer, not buyer of their products). With HR sanctioning khakis as appropriate for Casual Fridays, employees (the buyers) would consider Dockers when purchasing their casual wardrobe.

In a future post I’ll give examples of different kinds of content that can help buyers navigate the customer journey leading to more business.

And as I said before, relevant content is the fuel for the marketing machine. Worth repeating.

A great ebook or blog post or tweet or video or story or infographic or testimonial: these are all fuel that is essential to run the machine, as long as the fuel is relevant to the buyer, at the right time in their journey, in a place they will find it. In the olden days we used to call this approach “integrated marketing.” Don Draper knew about content marketing back in the 60’s. (I know it’s TV, but you know what I mean. Go back and watch it on Netflix, a master of content.)

To be successful at marketing, at content marketing, at business, it is essential to get inside your buyer’s head. To know and understand them better than they know and understand themselves. This is the key to creating great, relevant content that will inspire and engage them, leading them to buying and using your products and services. My robotics case study worked because I understood the problems my buyers had, and how my products and services would help them address those problems.

Checkout

If you’re interested in learning more about how you can create a content marketing machine, contact me. I’d love to help.