In this third step of your onboarding process, you'll gain a comprehensive understanding of commencing an automated customer journey. This guide will cover the following key aspects:

1. Introduction to automated journey and journey mapping
2. Example of a journey map
3. Creating a journey
   • Exploring pre-built templates:
   • Creating a journey from scratch:
4. Other necessary tools:

Introduction to automated journey and journey mapping

An automated journey is a meticulously planned and orchestrated sequence of triggers and actions. It is designed to facilitate automated communication with customers at various significant points in their journey or interaction with a product or brand. Think of it as a pre-defined roadmap that ensures timely and relevant interactions with customers, enhancing their overall experience.

To create an automated journey, it's crucial to go through a one-time process called journey mapping. Journey mapping is like a blueprint that allows you to visually chart an individual's interactions and relationships with a product or brand over time. It's a tool for understanding and documenting the customer's journey. 

Example of a journey map

To give you a better idea, imagine a journey map as a visual representation that includes key stages in a customer's interaction with a brand. Here's an example of what a journey map may look like for an e-commerce merchant:

• Stage 1: Awareness - The customer becomes aware of the product through an online ad.
• Stage 2: Exploration - They visit the website, explore features, and sign up for a newsletter.
• Stage 3: Purchase - They make a purchase on the website.
• Stage 4: Post-purchase - After the purchase, they receive a thank-you email and a follow-up survey.

This visual map helps in understanding the customer's journey from initial awareness to post-purchase engagement, including the various channels and interactions at each stage.

Creating a journey

To create a journey within the NotifyVisitors platform, follow these steps:

1. Access the journey section: Begin by navigating to the "Journey" section within the NotifyVisitors panel. This is where you'll set up and manage your automated customer journeys.

2. Choose your journey creation option: Once you're in the Journey section, you'll encounter two primary options for starting your automated journey:

a. Create from scratch: This option allows you to start from scratch, providing you with the freedom to design a custom journey tailored to your specific needs and objectives. You'll build the entire journey sequence based on your unique goals and customer interactions.

b. Choose a prebuilt journey map template: Alternatively, you can expedite the journey creation process by selecting a prebuilt template. These templates are designed to cover various common customer journey scenarios and serve as a solid foundation to build upon.

Exploring pre-built templates:

If you opt for the prebuilt template route, click on the option to browse predefined templates to explore the available templates. You'll find these templates grouped into multiple categories, each serving different purposes. There are two ways to browse these templates:

Browse by types:

This category sorts templates based on the specific type of customer journey they facilitate. Here are some examples:

• Welcome series: Use this series to warmly welcome new subscribers and ensure that those who are just beginning their journey with your brand get recognized and engaged.
• Cart abandonment: This template helps recover potential sales by creating a sense of urgency and encouraging customers to return and complete their abandoned shopping carts.
• Browse abandonment: Explore this series to re-engage customers who have shown interest by browsing but haven't made a purchase.
• Post purchase: Convert one-time buyers into repeat customers with enticing offers and post-purchase engagement.
• Special occasions: Celebrate special occasions like birthdays or holidays by creating special occasion series to show appreciation and drive engagement.
• Transactional: Use this for keeping track of the emails sent to recipients following a commercial transaction, ensuring efficient communication.

Browse by goals:

In this category, templates are grouped based on the specific goals you want to achieve with your automated journey. Here are some examples:

• Convert subscribers: Use strategically timed messages to convert subscribers into paying customers.
• Recover visitors: Attract visitors back to your platform by offering incentives like discounts or free shipping.
• Cross sell: Promote additional or related products to customers who express interest in a particular product, thereby boosting revenue.
• Build customer loyalty: Quickly respond to customer inquiries and gather feedback post-purchase to strengthen customer loyalty.
• Re-activate customers: Re-engage customers who have gone inactive and haven't placed new orders for the past two months.
• Winback series: Re-engage customers who have been inactive for an extended period and haven't placed orders recently.

Select and customize your template: Once you've chosen a template that aligns with your specific journey needs and objectives, select it to start customizing it. You can modify the template to suit your brand's unique messaging, timing, and interactions.

With these steps, you can efficiently create an automated customer journey using prebuilt templates, making the process more accessible and effective while still allowing for customization to meet your brand's specific requirements.

Creating a journey from scratch:

1. Start by clicking on "Create Journey" within the NotifyVisitors panel to create a journey from scratch.

2. You will then be presented with two main options: "Workflow" or "Sequence." Choose the one that best suits your needs.

- Workflow: This option allows you to design a journey that involves multiple branching paths and actions. It's ideal when your customer journey is complex and has various possible outcomes.

- Sequence: This option is simpler and linear, making it suitable for straightforward customer journeys with predefined steps and actions.

3. After making your selection, provide a name for your journey. This name should help you identify and manage your journey effectively within the platform.

Journey builder tool:

After providing a name to your journey, you’ll enter in the journey builder tool, where you'll have various options on the left side, organized into categories. These categories include "Triggers," "Actions," "Conditions," and "Flow Control."

• Triggers: Triggers determine when or on what action the customer's journey begins. It's the starting point that initiates the automated journey. For example, a trigger could be when a user signs up, makes a purchase, or abandons a cart.
• Actions: In the "Actions" category, you can specify the type of notifications you want to send to users when they complete a certain event or transition to another stage of the journey. These notifications can be in the form of emails, SMS messages, push notifications, or other communication methods.
• Conditions: Conditions are essential for deciding when to send notifications to users. For instance, if a user moves from stage A to stage B, you can define conditions for sending notifications. You might choose to send a notification when a user is approaching point B or when they have already reached point B.
• Flow control: Flow control allows you to manage the journey efficiently. It's particularly useful in situations where a user has already completed a journey without engaging in any touchpoints. You can configure it so that no further notifications are sent. You can also set timelines to determine when the journey should end. If a user completes the journey before that time, you can halt the flow accordingly.

In addition to these options, you can set an "Exit Trigger" and "Goal" for your journey:

Exit trigger: This feature helps identify when a user's preferences or actions have changed, making the journey no longer relevant to them. For example, if one stage of the journey offers a free trial, but the user purchases the product before reaching that stage, offering a free trial is unnecessary. The exit trigger can automatically remove them from the journey in such cases.

Goal triggers: Goal triggers allow you to automatically remove users from a journey once they've achieved specific predefined goals. For example, if the goal is for users to complete a certain action or reach a particular milestone, the journey can automatically end for those who accomplish this, ensuring that they don't receive unnecessary notifications.

By customizing your journey through these options, you can effectively create a dynamic, responsive, and tailored automated customer journey that meets your specific objectives while ensuring a great user experience.

Other necessary tools:

Once you've successfully created a journey, it will be visible within the Journey section of the NotifyVisitors panel. On the right-hand side of each specific journey, you'll find a three-dotted menu button. This menu offers essential tools for journey management, including:

• Edit: The "Edit" option allows you to make modifications and adjustments to a journey as needed. This is particularly valuable for refining and updating your automated customer journeys to align with changing requirements or evolving customer interactions. However, do note that editing an already published journey is not allowed.
• Duplicate: In cases where you need to create a journey that closely resembles an existing one but with minor variations, you can utilize the "Duplicate" option. Rather than crafting an entirely new journey from scratch, duplicating an existing one can save time and effort, providing a foundation that you can then modify as necessary.
• Analysis: This section helps you analyze the performance of your journey and contain information such as total users entered/exited the journey, channel wise comparison (sent rate, delivered rate, etc.), campaign wise comparison, and much more.

These tools enhance your ability to manage, fine-tune, and evaluate your automated customer journeys effectively. 

Embarking on the customer journey is a pivotal step in ensuring meaningful and automated interactions with your audience. Understanding the core concepts of automated journeys and journey mapping lays the foundation for effective customer engagement. 

For a comprehensive, step-by-step guide on how to create your own journey, we invite you to explore the Journey section within our knowledgebase, where you'll find the tools and insights you need to embark on this transformative path.

Upnext: Session 4 - Broadcast Campaigns (Email / SMS / Push)