Most automation strategies are designed around answering customer’s needs as they move along the journey. More advanced strategies have refined customer journeys with data and digital body language insights, but are these rational insights enough?
If you are at the start of your automation journey then yes, the hard facts provide a solid foundation. There comes a time, however, when you need to consider overlaying your current rational journey map with the soft emotive drivers.
Your prospect isn’t a rational agent on a direct pathway to purchase
Your prospect isn’t a rational agent on a direct pathway to purchase. Let me explain, most decisions we make in life B2B or B2C are driven by emotions and guided by our own internal narrative*. Your prospect is on their journey with a head filled with fear, doubt, joy, desire or some other emotion. So you need to think beyond the logical roadmap and consider the emotional narratives that your prospect is being guided by.
Here’s an example:
‘In the summer of 2011, my wife and I decided we would go camping with our son. I needed to buy a tent, so I started with a rational search; waterproofing, build quality, price, customer reviews and all that good stuff. I soon had a long list of tents I could buy and I needed to make my decision as to which one was right for us?
At this point, one manufacture served me a video that addressed the real narrative I was playing in the back of my mind. Not one concerning price, brand or quality (they were all about the same), but the real narrative that was inhibiting me from making a choice.
You see, I don’t know much about putting up tents and I certainly didn’t want to look like a desk jockey struggling to put it up in a field full of outdoor types. My narrative played a scene of me hopelessly pulling on a string, trying to restrain fibreglass poles whipping off in all directions; all the time trying to keep up with a near-impossible instruction manual! So the video that was shared with me at this crucial time on my purchase journey addressed exactly that narrative with the title ‘How to put the Montana tent up in 5 Minutes’.
As I watched the video my narrative changed from fear to relief through to joy. This manufacturer had considered the softer emotional drivers that could become a barrier to purchase. By addressing it directly they enabled me to complete my journey and purchase the tent.’
Customer narratives are powerful
Customer narratives are powerful because they are emotional and most decisions we make, both privately and in business, are driven by emotions. Our internal narratives are like Sherpa’s guiding us through our daily decisions.
Emotional and rational in harmony
Modern customer journey planning needs to combine the factual with the emotional to truly address the prospects internal narrative. HarveyDavid can help you find and articulate the emotional customer insight to influence the decision-making process in the right place at the right time.
Let’s talk
Get in touch and initiate a further conversation to discover how we can add emotional drivers to your customer journeys.