Original article is posted on Hubspot

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Investor relations for any crypto project is pretty much like relations with the customer. Whether it’s an investor or a customer they both pass certain stages from being unaware of you to repetitive deals. With the help of a map we will define each stage they pass and actions we control the experience.

A customer journey map is a visual representation of the process a customer or prospect goes through to achieve a goal with your company. With the help of a customer journey map, you can get a sense of your customers' motivations — their needs and pain points.

The best way to visualize how a customer interacts with a business is by mapping it. Most customer journey mapping starts as excel sheets that outline key events, customer motivations, and areas of friction within the user's experience. Then, this information is combined into a comprehensive visual that describes an average experience with your business.

By understanding this relationship, you can understand how to structure your touchpoints to create the most effective and efficient process for your customers. A customer journey map maps out the current process, from the first to final touchpoint, to see if your customers are currently reaching the goals and, if not, how they can.

Because the customer journey can no longer be represented in a linear journey from A to B — buyers often take a back and forth, cyclical, multi-channel journey — the mapping can be hard to visualize.

For this reason, savvy business leaders use a variety of ways of representing the journey, from post-it notes on a boardroom wall, to Excel Spreadsheets, to infographics. The most important thing is that the map makes sense to those who'll be using it.

However, before you can dive into creating your customer journey map, you need to first collect data from your customers and prospects. The process of creating an effective customer journey map is extensive but valuable.

Based on this rationale, you can't deny the importance of a customer journey map. Thus, we've created the following steps for crafting the best map to help your company and customers prosper.

1. Set clear objectives for the map.

Before you can dive into creating your map, you need to ask yourself why you are making one in the first place. What goals are you directing this map towards? Who is it specifically about? What experience is it based upon?

2. Profile your personas and define their goals.

Next, you should conduct research. Some great ways to get valuable customer feedback is through questionnaires and user testing. The important thing is to only reach out to actual customers or prospects.

3. Highlight your target customer personas.

Once you've learned about the different customer personas that interact with your business, you'll need to narrow your focus to one or two of them. Remember, a customer journey map tracks the experience of one customer type who's taking a very specific path with your company. If you group too many personas into one journey, your map won't accurately reflect your customers' experience.

If you're creating your first map, it's best to pick your most common customer persona and consider the route they would typically take when engaging with your business for the first time. You can use a marketing dashboard to compare each one and determine which would be the best fit for your journey map. Don't worry about the ones you leave out, as you can always go back and create a new map that's specific to these customer types.

4. List out all the touch points.

Touch points are all the places on your website that your customers can interact with you. Based on your research, you should list out all the touch points your customers and prospects are currently using, as well as the ones you believe they should be using if there is no overlap.

This doesn't just mean your website. You need to look at all the ways in which your customer might come across you online. These might include: Social channels; Paid ads; Email marketing; Third party review sites or mentions

Run a quick Google search of your brand to see all the pages that mention you. Verify these by checking in on your Google Analytics to see where your traffic is coming from.

5. Identify the elements you want your map to show.

There are four types of customer journey maps that each have their benefits. Depending on the specific purpose you have for the map, you can choose the proper one.

These customer journey maps are the most widely-used type. They visualize the actions, thoughts, and emotions your customers currently experience while interacting with your company. They are best used for continually improving the customer journey.

These customer journey maps visualize the actions, thoughts, and emotions your customers currently experience in all the activities in which they partake on a daily basis, whether or not that includes your company. This type gives a wider lens into the lives of your customers and what their pain points are in real life. They are best used for addressing unmet customer needs before customers even know they exist.

These customer journey maps visualize what you believe will be the actions, thoughts, and emotions your customers experience in future interactions with your company. Based on what the current experience is, you map out where you want to be with this style. They are best used for illustrating your vision and setting a clear objective.

These customer journey maps begin with a simplified version of one of the above map styles. Then, they layer on the factors responsible for delivering that experience, including people, policies, technologies, and processes. They are best used for identifying the root causes of current customer journeys or identifying the steps needed to attain desired future customer journeys.

6. Determine the resources you have and the ones you'll need.

Your customer journey map is going to touch on nearly every part of your business. This will highlight all of the resources that go into creating the customer experience. So, it's important to take inventory of the resources you have and the ones you'll need to improve the customer's journey.

7. Take the customer journey yourself.

Just because you've designed your map doesn't mean your work is done. This is the most important part of the process: analyzing the results. How many people are clicking to your website but then closing out before making a purchase? How can you better support customers? These are some of the questions you should be able to answer with your finished map.

8. Make the necessary changes.

Your data analysis should give you a sense of what you want your website to be. You can then make the appropriate changes to your website to achieve these goals. Perhaps this is making more distinct call-to-action links. Or, maybe, it's writing longer descriptions under each product to make its purpose more clear.