In NewCampus’s colearning space in Dubai, we hosted our first “Virtual session”- which is a session taught by someone that’s an expert in their field.

The session was presented by Ian Chong, co-founder of Tribr. Tribr is an innovation agency that helps corporates discover their weaknesses internally and externally and helps them to future-proof themselves. Ian presented a virtual session on the World of Marketing Automation and The Customer Journey.

The crowd was a good mix of entrepreneurs and wide-eyed individuals who were keen to learn more about the future of marketing concepts.

So how exactly are our sessions structured?

Each class is capped at 15 people with the goal of making it feel intimate, and designed to be consumed in bite-sized dialogues (60 mins) with the instructor dialling in and presenting live content.

The session kicks off with Ian introducing two basic frameworks, setting the agenda for the session.

“If you don’t do these frameworks properly, there will be nothing to automate”

Here are the key takeaways from the session for you to apply to your business.

The first framework he introduced was:

1. The Customer Journey Map — an entire process where you depict step-by-step where each customer will be interacting with your business, from pre-purchase to post-purchase.

He broke down the process of building a robust customer journey map in just 5 steps. (Note: Each customer journey map should only hold true for each customer persona)

#1: Define behavioural stages

It’s important here to be data-driven, and try to make as little assumptions as possible

“If [a customer] purchases from you, they are not against you. The biggest gap is from pre-purchase to purchase. If they take the leap to purchase, the negotiations are over, and they are on your team”

#2: Timing customer goals with each stage

What lead them there and what problems did they have. Keep in mind that these are THEIR goals, NOT yours.

#3: Plot out the touchpoint

These are the points of interaction between your customer and your business — eg Facebook, Instagram, Website etc

#4: Uncover friction & leakages at each touch-point

Are you giving them exactly what they want at that stage? It’s important to identify the drop-offs at certain points

#5: Identify opportunities

How can you improve?

The second important framework was the:

2. Customer Marketing Funnel

The process in which you move your customers from awareness to purchase/retention. This funnel has to be built internally unlike the previous one. You have to plot the previous customer journey map into this funnel. (Note: different types of businesses will have different funnels)

Ian listed out four major funnels in each business — acquisition, nurturing, education and community building funnels.

- Acquisition: Use effective triggers with the main purpose to convert

- Nurturing: This funnel solves one thing and one thing only — “People want your product, but it’s not the right time to buy your product” — This is where you stay on top of their mind, and keep giving them value

- Education: What happens after they purchase, the key goal here is to ensure they succeed and whatever it is they want to achieve with your product, e.g. “I love Apple because they just get this right. Within two days of buying a MacBookPro, I received an email saying I have a ‘Personal Genius’ that is waiting for me to schedule an appointment with him/her when I need them to teach me to use the MacBook Pro. Includes a photo, description etc!”

- Community-building: Where you would do your up-sell, down-sell, cross-sell or referral programs. Regardless of what industry you’re in, this will always be applicable!

The session ended with a live demo walk-through of how to fully automate the marketing funnel. For this, he used marketing automation software, Autopilot which he described as “the heart and soul that controls my automation”.

If you’re interested in attending one of our classes, learn more about NewCampus’s colearning campuses.