journey mapping

How to Use Customer Journey Mapping for B2B marketing

Journey mapping is an effective method in B2B marketing (Case for facility protection and preservation services).

Facility protection and preservation services are those services that prolong the lifetime of production assets and in this example, assets such as oil and gas pipelines and production assets, water reservoir, distribution pipelines, etc.

A customer journey road map is necessary for the process of client acquisition in any marketing process. It is the careful and creative planning and documentation of the stages/steps that will be followed as soon as a prospective client has been qualified.

The steps are usually the same but tweaked and customized to fit any particular client avatar.

And these steps include:

  1. The specific objective of the road map
  2. Define client avatar or persona
  3. Define the stages and milestones/goals to be achieved
  4. List the channels to reach clients
  5. Collate data and client feedback
  6. Clarify pain point and friction point
  7. Identify areas of improvement

In marketing B2B using customer journey mapping as a tool, we need to clarify the steps and assign a purpose/role for them in the journey map.

We then take the steps respectively:

  1. Objective:

The objective of this customer journey mapping is to market protective coating services for facility protection and preservation.

       2. Client Avatar:

What is the client avatar/persona for facility protection and preservation services?

This is determined, preferable, by using a template design which should include:

  • Demography research
  • Identify goals, values, fears, likes, and dislikes
  • Decision-making process

Facility protection and preservation services in the context of this write-up is a B2B relationship and the persona check should be for the position and office in charge of consuming the service being proposed, in this case, corrosion by weather conditions.

So we should include the following strategies, cold calling, event participation, digital marketing, sales funnel design, to create for our brand, awareness, and attention of the directors/managers, project directors/managers, contracting companies’ procurement directors/managers, field engineers, etc.

Multi-level engagement of your brand with potential client organizations is important for effective awareness creation and client conversion.

     3. Goal/Mile Stones to be achieved

All marketing efforts should be intentional! Goals must be set and milestones should be achieved to guarantee that the efforts are on track.

A goal could be to get clients for your services or products, using customer journey mapping as a tool. The milestones could then be the respective steps and stages towards outlining an effective customer journey map for your respective services or products.

       4.  Touchpoints:

Where do you find these clients?

On social media platforms, industry events, online communities, their offices, internet, bars, clubs, etc. These are some of the touchpoints you need to research to find where your clients could mostly be found. Those places also are where your brand should show up with its message and its promise to the audience.

      5. Data collection/client feedback.

This is the stage when you develop more templates and questionnaires for the product or product you have to market. Let’s take facility protection and preservation as a case study. The template should be designed to ask questions relevant to assisting a project manager or facility owner in protecting and preserving the asset.

The template will ask questions such as these:

  • When should they start the implementation of facility protection and preservation?

The popular school of thought prescribes that every required feature of any facility must be considered at the FEED (Front End Engineering Design) stage. Little wonder why this stage usually takes a very long time, especially if it is a complex production facility. It is also done during repairs and maintenance of existing operational facilities.

  • What are we protecting and preserving a facility against (Pain point)?

Global best practices prescribe that facilities must have a lifespan. Survival of the facility in living up to its recommended lifespan is relative to observing the protection and preservation protocol put in place for the facility.

One singular factor against the lifespan weather, including fire, followed by usage abuse. While we protect the facility against the corrosive effect of weather, we preserve it against damage by fire and usage abuse.

Corrosion is one factor that reduced the lifespan of facilities, especially very high usage of steel structures and pipelines, prevalent both in oil and gas production and non-oil and gas manufacturing facilities. That is why corrosion of production infrastructure should be the nightmare of maintenance and facility managers and owners. These managers should be conversant with the facility manual to understand the preservation methods and requirements of the facility.

  • How do we protect and preserve facilities against corrosion?

Corrosion experts and coating professionals over the ages developed and practiced protective coating and maintenance routines that have proved very valuable and effective in the maintenance of both manufacturing and oil and gas production assets. So much self-healing corrosion prevention and sealant technology out there for both a broad range and specific solutions.

The questionnaire should be structured in a way to know precisely what type of corrosion is the clients’ pain point.

     6. Clarify pain point and friction point:

There is a need to ensure that the client understands clearly the pain point he is trying to resolve so that an accurate solution could be offered to him. So the questionnaire should probe further to achieve clarity purpose and intent.

  • What are the other protection and preservation issues apart from corrosion? 

     7. Identify areas of engagement and improvement:

At this stage, the client’s issues are clear to marketing who will now develop a solution to resolve the client’s pain point and delight him.

This client should be added to the sales/marketing funnel for targeting for repeat sales and for new product marketing.

The author is an experienced sales and marketing practitioner who also consults for business owners in related subjects. 

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