The Digital Marketing Podcast: "User Journey Mapping"

Hosts: Daniel Rowles & Ciaran Rogers
Date: February 26, 2018
Episode Focus:
A practical exploration of user journey mapping in digital marketing, covering fundamental concepts, real-world methods, and actionable strategies to build more user-centric digital campaigns and content.

Episode Overview

This episode delves into user journey mapping—a structured process used to keep the user at the center of digital marketing strategy. Daniel and Ciaran break down how defining user Personas and mapping their journey through different stages (from awareness to loyalty) prevents marketers from wasting effort on generic sales pitches, ensuring marketing activities are targeted, relevant, and effective.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Importance of User Centered Design

• Daniel introduces User Journey Mapping as a core User Centered Design (UCD) technique:

  “User journey mapping is a technique that I’ve been using more and more with lots of different people ... and it really helps us to think about what content we need and where and why and when ... It kind of stops you from shouting ‘buy my stuff’ everywhere you go.” (01:17)

• Benefit: Avoids burning out users with irrelevant messages, especially across social and email channels.

2. Persona Building: The Foundation

• Personas are detailed representations of target audience groups:
  Daniel explains how to invent and use personal profiles such as:

  • Marketers wanting to improve their own skills
  • Marketers developing team skills
  • Small business owners improving their organization
  • Learning and development managers with accountability for large groups

• “You build these personas and you're trying to think about them at all times ... The idea is then if your Persona is called Kate, you could say, right, does this work for Kate?” (02:50)

• Warning: Avoid making assumptions—base Personas on real customer interviews, not just imagination.

  “If you’re not careful, you build these from what you think ... You need to interview existing customers ... and you might find it’s a little bit different to what you expect.” (04:00)

3. Mapping the Journey: Stages and Models

• Classic sales funnel and See-Think-Do-Care (STDC) models explained:

  • See: Largest possible relevant audience (browsers).
  • Think: Active interest in the category or topic.
  • Do: Ready to purchase.
  • Care: Post-purchase loyalty and advocacy.

  “So a sales funnel says at the top there is the browsing, kind of vague notion stage ... See, Think, Do, Care is pretty much exactly the same thing.” (05:02)

• Content should match each stage:

  • Fun, engaging social content for “See.”
  • More detailed, comparative, or benchmarking content for “Think.”
  • Directly purchase-oriented for “Do.”
  • Loyalty and retention content for “Care.”

  “At the C stage ... I need some fun, engaging stuff ... When we move into the Think stage, that’s when the skills benchmark or something ... The Do is ‘I am looking for some digital marketing e-learning’ ... and then Care is the loyalty.” (05:40)

4. Practical Application: How to Map and Identify Gaps

• Build a content matrix by Persona and journey stage:

  • List Personas on one axis; stages (STDC) on the other.
  • Plug in what content and channels are used at each point.

  “You can imagine a kind of matrix ... and you start to identify where you’ve got holes in your content and where you haven’t got the stuff you need.” (07:01)

• Map channels and content opportunities:

  • Consider different touchpoints—website, email, social media, offline, third-party reviews.
  • Visualize how individuals move across channels and through stages.

  “You take a particular Persona and ... you might have See, Think, Do, Care along the top ... and then along the side you’ve got all the different channels.” (08:00)

• Content Calendar Tip:

  • Add a column for Personas to ensure each is addressed evenly in your schedule.

  “You want to make sure that you’re not constantly publishing content that’s for one Persona ... and missing others out.” (09:38)

5. Why It Matters: Beyond the Tactics

• Strategic planning requires user journey insights:

  • Including Personas and mapped journeys in situational analysis makes strategies more robust.

  “It really does just make your activity watertight ... Are you busy on the right things?” (10:28)

• Practical impact:

  • Prevents over-focusing on “Do” content (hard sales), which can alienate audiences.
  • Ensures content marketing supports all stages of the journey, not just quick wins.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On agencies and journey mapping:

  “The number of times I’ve worked for different organizations and in a fit of desperation they’ve pulled in an extremely expensive agency ... This always forms the absolute core of it ... basically just really follow this process that Daniel’s just outlined.”
  —Ciaran Rogers (12:34)

• On the power of Personas:

  “Every time that I’ve seen that happen, the most senior people in the room go, ‘My goodness, this is amazing.’”
  —Ciaran Rogers (13:05)

• On the simplicity and impact of mapping:

  “When you actually look at it, it’s just like a chart with a couple of bits of this and that ... but actually it makes you think very differently.”
  —Daniel Rowles (12:20)

• On building a watertight strategy:

  "You can't have a really joined up, watertight digital strategy if you haven't done this stuff."
  —Ciaran Rogers (10:22)

Timestamps for Key Segments

• 00:19 – Episode topic introduction
• 01:17 – What is user journey mapping and why it’s important
• 02:45 – Introduction to Personas and their roles
• 04:00 – The importance of research over guesswork in building Personas
• 05:00 – The sales funnel and the See-Think-Do-Care model explained
• 05:40 – Matching content types to journey stages
• 07:01 – Building a content matrix to identify gaps
• 08:00 – Mapping channels and user movement
• 09:38 – Using a content calendar with Personas in mind
• 10:22 – User journey mapping as the backbone of digital strategy
• 12:34 – Why agencies default to this fundamental process
• 13:05 – Senior leadership’s revelations about user journey mapping

Resources & Additional Materials

• Downloadable journey mapping and Persona templates available in the show notes (Target Internet Podcast).
• Reference to the Chartered Institute of Marketing Digital Summit sample materials.
• Mention of a Digital Strategy course where participants build a hands-on plan.

Summary

Daniel and Ciaran demonstrate in practical terms how critical user journey mapping and Persona development are to effective digital marketing strategy. By shifting focus from sales-heavy tactics to a nuanced understanding of the user’s experience and needs at each stage—visualized clearly through mapping exercises— marketers can spot content gaps, craft relevant messaging, and ultimately build more robust, successful campaigns. Marketers from all backgrounds will benefit from incorporating these fundamentals, whether working independently or alongside agencies.