How can you choose the right user journey segments to target?

One example of user journey segmentation is purchasing preference. A company that nails it is Warby Parker. They segment users by purchasing preferences and how customers want to interact with their brand - online browsing, try-on at home, or in-store. This is then used to create customized buyer journeys and experiences for each segment. For online shoppers, it's virtual try-ons. Those wanting an online-offline experience can have frames mailed to them to try before buying. Store shoppers receive personalized direct service. Each segment receives a distinct journey with tailored communication. The takeaway? Know your audience, use your data smartly, meet your customers where they are, and keep adapting.

User journey segments, or, for that matter, any consumer segment, are chosen on the basis of the size of the segment (no. of customers who are driven by certain parameters to showcase a particular behavior), the growth potential of that user segment and the brand’s unique ability to address the pain points of that segment.

When it comes to user journey - there’s only one simple answer: leave the textbooks, and pick up the phone and speak to your customers. As many as possible. They’ll quickly tell you where your gaps are. Once you understand who you’re trying to serve and what their needs are, you then start to map out a journey.

Bear in mind who you want to target, what's their preference for receiving communication from you e.g. channel, time of day and how do you want to engage and keep them engaged. Use data to understand your users and their behavior.

User journey segments in wealth management can include onboarding, goal setting, investment selection, monitoring, and withdrawal. Each segment focuses on a specific phase of the user's experience, helping you tailor your product to their needs at different stages of their financial journey.

When trying to improve user engagement, there are several common mistakes that businesses can make. 1. **Not understanding your users**: Failing to understand your users' needs, preferences, and behaviors can lead to ineffective engagement strategies. 2. **Ignoring feedback**: Ignoring user feedback can lead to missed opportunities for improvement and reduced engagement. It's important to listen to your users and take their feedback into account. 3. **Not providing quality customer support**: Providing quality customer support is essential for maintaining engagement and satisfaction. Failing to provide quality customer support can lead to negative reviews and reduced engagement. These 3 are many times consistent issues that many have.

Journey segmentation can be used in two ways to drive additional sales. It can create brand ambassadors in which the customer’s loyalty influences other potential customers to become familiar with your products. In the social media driven markets this is extremely important as the influence and reach of everyone’s network can make them an influencer. The second way to use journey segmentation is to drive customers to make repeat purchases. Perhaps a customer may enter the journey with your brand as a beginner or novice product user. But through engagement in this journey you can see their purchases continue to grow with complimentary products.

Segmentation indeed plays a crucial role in crafting personalized and customized marketing activities. It not only helps businesses stay ahead of the competition but also ensures relevance and swift action. Utilizing both qualitative and quantitative feedback from users further refines marketing strategies, making them more attuned to the specific needs and preferences of different segments. This iterative process of segmentation, feedback, and refinement contributes to the ongoing success and adaptability of marketing initiatives.

What we usually see in the market are excellent strategies, which dive into various derivatives, are very well elaborated, but which do not generate the expected result, at the end of the day This usually happens because we leave an important part of the strategy aside, at the time of putting the plan into practice, which is the user journey segmentation It is crucial to think of this as a powerful tool to achieve a variety of product marketing objectives Customers and users expect a personalized dialogue, a personalized experience The marketing area, as a source of market study, should learn how to work with customer-focused solutions. That’s the way the company will be able to have its results increasingly aligned with its strategy.

A vital piece of the marketing puzzle, customer segmentation can help optimise brand messaging towards increasing conversions. As the buyer's decision making process will vary at each stage in the funnel. Customers require very different communication to ensure it resonates with their pain points and motivators and increases retention. As an example, those entering the awareness stage will need to have more educational content focused around their pain points to drive them through to the interest stage. Then it's important to focus on building desire based on their motivators before they will spark any action. Doing in depth research on the customer persona will ensure the segmentation is informed by the marketing strategy effectively.

The key is to frequently revisit and refine these segments. Market trends, technological advancements, and consumer priorities are ever-evolving.Therefore, constant monitoring and adapting are essential. Additionally, leveraging predictive analytics can be a game-changer. It helps in anticipating changes in user behavior, enabling proactive adjustments to marketing strategies. Moreover, integrating cross-functional insights from sales, customer service, and product development teams can provide a more holistic view of the customer journey. In essence, the real competitive advantage lies in an organization's agility to adapt and the strategic use of predictive analytics to stay ahead in understanding and catering to evolving customer needs.

Certainly, to effectively define user journey segments, it's crucial to first identify the motivations, needs, and wants of the users. Once these aspects are understood, one can proceed to define different user journey segments based on the chosen criteria. Subsequently, creating marketing funnels tailored to each segment enables targeted marketing and retargeting strategies. This approach ensures a more personalized and effective engagement with users throughout their journey, ultimately enhancing the overall user experience.

There are two categorical ways to do user-journey segmentation: the first stems from a deep understanding of your market, in which case you a-priory divide your data based on your pre-known sub groups, and statistically analyze your results group-wise. The other method should be used if you're unfamiliar with your market's under-current. In the latter, one should use statistical methods like K-means, which will unveil different groups' behavior. This statistical wonder the reverse of ANOVA: it will run a statistical ANOVA over and over again until it unveils the sub groups in which the within-group-variance is the lowest and the between-group-variance is the largest.

Creating user personas is more of a static exercise where you define your persona based on characteristics like the demographics, goals, pain points, etc. The user journey segments are better defined by mapping each persona to the different stages in product/service use, the corresponding touch points, and the outcomes of those interactions. So, it is more of a dynamic thought process as you envision each persona to go through the journey through your channels where you offer the product/service.

One thing I've found helpful is to consider the wide range of factors when considering a "path to purchase." To start, one must go back to the the point of discovery or inception. In simple terms, I define this as the reason or motivation for a purchase. Once the trigger point is understood, we can then consider the decision criteria that is most important to the purchase (and the various sources of information that a consumer may be accessing). Once the motivation and the decision factors are known, the resulting purchase process can be dissected. Additional factors such as speed, necessity, cost, brand, past experience, availability, and trusted recommendations must be analyzed. Generally speaking, no two purchase journeys are identical.

Analyzing user journey segments demands a comprehensive approach. Leveraging analytics tools, I scrutinized touchpoints, drop-offs, and interactions. Heatmaps and user flow analysis provided crucial insights. This analytical rigor enabled me to refine segments, optimizing the user journey for enhanced user satisfaction and conversion rates.

How to analyze User Journey segment ? We can follow 2 approaches here :- 1. Analyze the data ( product data if it a live product or public data available of the respective TAM). This will help PM clearly understand the user journey and their pain points. 2. A/B test on the sample group will be great way to understand the user journey segment.( for live products) 3. For new product during the user research identify the feature which are must have and less time to market. Please note putting the product in the market should always be the 1st goal.

We need to be honest and admit that today we have an unsized range of information. The challenge for corporations is to dive information, organize correctly and turn data into decision-making More important than that, we need to have a brief sense of what we want to find in this data. Are these behaviors that we are looking for? Consumption trends? Trends of new usability? As we usually say, if we don't know where we want to go, any path is good

The Scientific Method - Report on the observable only and leave your opinions at the door. To many try to read between the lines and fail at understanding due to this.

Analyze your user journey segments: 1) Go deeper: Interviews, surveys, and analytics unveil motivations, trends, and friction points. 2) Spot opportunities: Highlight high-performing & low-performing segments, pinpoint user obstacles. 3) Take action: Personalize experiences, test solutions, optimize features based on segment needs. 4) Keep evolving: Re-evaluate segments, track results, and adapt approaches for continuous improvement. Personalization = Happy users!

It’s recommended to leverage data to understand best user journey segments to target. It’s important to understand where the user engagement drops. Analyzing the funnel of drop off rate, helps a PM to identify the loopholes, root cause of user issues that led to the drop off and build solutions to prevent it.

There is a very famous book in Operations called "The Goal", which is based on Theory of Constraints by E. M. Goldratt. In the book The Goal, he beautifully illustrates the importance of focusing on points in your process or value chain where there are bottlenecks. He suggests that once you optimize and focus on the top most bottleneck i.e. the bottleneck with most constraints, you will encounter the next bottleneck which you then focus on. When you do this, one by one you arrive at a highly optimized system because all constraints across all bottle necks will be optimized. For user journeys, the same principle has proven to work well. Prioritize the most inefficient bottleneck first!

Prioritizing user journey segments involves evaluating their impact on your business goals. Focus first on segments that drive the most conversions or revenue. Analyze customer behavior and feedback to identify critical touchpoints. Allocate resources to optimize these key segments, enhancing customer experience and maximizing ROI. Regularly review and adjust your priorities to align with changing market trends and customer preferences. This strategic approach ensures effective resource utilization and sustained business growth.

Prioritizing user journey segments in wealth management involves assessing the impact on user experience and business goals. Begin by identifying critical phases, such as onboarding and investment selection. Consider user feedback, pain points, and potential improvements. Prioritize segments that enhance user satisfaction, address key pain points, and align with strategic business objectives. Regularly iterate based on user feedback and market trends to ensure ongoing optimization.

Prioritizing segments requires a strategic approach. I employed the ICE framework (Impact, Confidence, Ease) to assess each segment's potential impact on business goals. This prioritization ensured resources were allocated efficiently, targeting segments with the highest potential for positive outcomes, and aligning marketing efforts with overall business objectives.

One word to focus upon is "Value", What is the Value sought by the customers in your product . A marketer's job is facilitated when once this aspect is known . Then accordingly the marketer can create product propositions with differing value propositions at differing price points . The same product then appeals to multiple customers

Understanding and researching consumers provides insights into their diverse needs, behaviors, and preferences, enabling marketers to create more accurate and meaningful user segments. This data-driven approach ensures that marketing efforts resonate with specific audience segments, optimizing engagement and driving better overall results.

Too much information is too much. So we need to define and balance when it comes to educating users during this buying or exploration journey. When must I know when to supply the information and what should be done when it comes to data protection. For that listening to your customer via feedback and analysing and improving continuously is the best way according to my experience.

Never stand still. John F. Kennedy once said, “Time and the world do not stand still. Change is the law of life.” It is no secret that change is constant. That means that discovering and rediscovering shopper preferences and adjusting go-to-market approaches must remain fluid also.

Speak to both internal and external stakeholders while identifying what types of tools or resources you want to engage your customer with in their user journey segment. By bringing both these viewpoints you are able to better align on what’s resonating, what needs to be promoted more and what is missing.