From Awareness to Advocacy: Mapping the Ultimate Client Journey

The number of businesses in the U.S. is on the rise. A 2024 article from the U.S. Small Business Administration revealed there are more than 33 million small businesses in the U.S. and from 2021 to 2023, an average of 440,000 new business applications a month—46% higher than the average of the preceding four years. With a growing number of businesses across multiple industries (professional services and construction being among the top growth sectors), finding ways to stand out becomes more important than ever before.

One way that leading firms separate themselves from their peers is through an intense focus on customer experience optimization. Understanding the customer journey is a great starting point for providing an excellent experience for the customers your business serves.

In this article we’ll explore the various stages of the customer journey, why it matters, and how you can create a customer journey map to better understand your clients and create standout moments in their minds.

What is a Customer Journey: Evaluating the Stages

PwC’s 2023 Customer Loyalty Survey found that brand loyalty starts during the early stages of a relationship, with 46% of customers noting that it begins when they use or engage with a product or service and have a positive experience. For another 25%, brand devotion starts during the research and shopping phase, before any engagement occurs. As customers look to make a purchase or engage with a firm, they will go through several stages before reaching their decision—in other words, the customer journey.

There are five main stages that move an individual from prospect to client to advocate, and it’s an organization’s role to ensure client engagement is maximized at each touchpoint. By doing so, businesses can create raving fans who are not only loyal but also serve as brand advocates—helping to attract new clients through referral marketing.

Stage 1: Awareness

The awareness stage is when a prospect first becomes aware of your firm and what you have to offer. This can happen in several ways such as seeing a post on social media, hearing about your firm through word-of-mouth, receiving an email marketing communication, engaging a team member, etc.

Optimizing marketing efforts across the most effective channels will ensure you’re meeting your customers where they are and expanding your reach to as large an audience as possible. Research shows that for many marketers, organic search generates the highest number of leads at 27% and that social media is another effective marketing channel, with 20% of marketers claiming it’s a top source.

For teams looking to amplify their efforts during the awareness phase, consider implementing a content marketing strategy and maintaining an active presence on social media. Both avenues serve different purposes. Content marketing demonstrates your expertise while social media fosters engagement through frequent interactions— placing you front and center in your prospects’ news feeds. Another key strategy is search engine optimization (SEO), ensuring your content ranks well when your prospects are seeking solutions.

Stage 2: Consideration

During the consideration phase, customers evaluate their options and narrow their selections. Your prospects will look for solutions that best address their pain points. As such, you want to serve up content that helps answer their key questions while also nurturing leads and encouraging client engagement.

To effectively help prospects during this phase, make sure your services are clearly listed on any marketing materials and especially on your website. Create content that answers questions while building trust. This could include webinars, case studies, or testimonials that serve as social proof, which can be a substitute for direct word of mouth, while reinforcing your credibility. Also, consider developing personalized email marketing campaigns that move leads further down the funnel toward the decision phase.

Stage 3: Decision

The decision phase is where clients will choose to engage your firm or opt for a competitor. Their considerations may include team alignment, whether your offerings fully address their pain points, and if you can meet their timeline.

To streamline the user journey, make it easy for prospects to choose you by:

• Creating a user-friendly website that is easy to navigate and therefore easy to find what the user is looking for.
• Offering incentives such as free resources, mini audits, or guides.
• Ensuring your team is responsive and proactive, giving prospects a taste of what working with your firm will be like.

Stage 4: Retention

Maintaining client engagement and satisfaction is key to customer lifecycle management. In the B2B space, customer retention strategies can have a massive impact on revenue. Research shows that acquiring new customers is 5x to 25x more expensive than retaining them.

Continuously seek feedback on opportunities to strengthen relationships while finding creative ways to add value. Seek out those “delight” moments that reinforce brand loyalty such as hosting exclusive client events, recognizing milestones, or sending personalized holiday gifts.

Stage 5: Advocacy

Reaching the advocacy stage is the goal of the customer journey. This is when loyal clients become brand advocates, spreading the word about their positive experiences with your firm. By focusing on the earlier stages, businesses can turn clients into referral marketing champions.

To encourage advocacy, consider:

• Creating brand loyalty programs and referral marketing initiatives
• Showcasing client success stories and testimonials
• Engaging with clients on social media (by reposting mentions of your work together, interacting with their content, engaging with posts you’re tagged in, etc.)
• Adopting a continuous improvement mindset around ways to improve the client experience

By prioritizing customer experience optimization, businesses can create a strong network of loyal advocates.

With an understanding of the steps, we’ll next dive into how to map a client’s journey and make this knowledge actionable.

How to Create One: Mapping the Journey

One way to put your customer experience strategy into action is through user journey mapping.

Dreamdata, a B2B revenue attribution platform, reports that the average B2B customer journey has 62 touches across 3+ channels over 6 months. Conduct a user journey mapping exercise to put your customer experience strategy into action. A customer journey map is a visual representation of every step a client takes from initial awareness to advocacy.

When creating a customer journey map, its essential to go beyond outlining the touchpoints—it’s about understanding client behaviors and sentiments.

1. Start with a buyer persona and think through the ways they would move through an engagement with your firm. For key considerations around creating your own personas, check out our blog post on Bringing Context to Your Content Using Buyer Personas.
2. Next, define the journey you’ll be mapping for this persona – is it a prospect signing on for the first time? An existing customer that’s engaged but not yet an advocate? Once you know what journey you’re mapping, you can assemble key stakeholders to brainstorm opportunities and generate your map.
3. Ask the questions needed to get clarity on their sentiments, behaviors, potential pain points, or even roadblocks they may encounter. Use a mix of research, direct feedback, sentiment analysis, and any other data points to build out your document.
4. Take the information gathered and brainstorm ideas for how to improve the experience then implement your changes.
5. Set key performance indicators (KPIs) to understand your progress toward achieving a successful client journey.
6. Measure the effectiveness of the action items you’ve taken, acknowledging that there are always opportunities for improvement, and continue to refine your strategy.

Why Create Customer Journey Maps

A Gartner survey shows that 80% of organizations compete primarily on customer service. While your product and service offerings need to be a strong, this statistic shows that the true way to differentiate lies in the experience you provide.

Creating customer journey maps is one way an organization can orient itself around goals and initiatives for the year, allowing various teams to identify collaboration opportunities and create an optimal experience for clients.

When you’re able to identify potential pain points you can solve for them early, before they become an issue, and foster long lasting relationships with your customers. This not only adds value for your clients but for your firm as well. An example of this would be adding in automations to personalize different client journeys. Doing so not only shows you understand their unique needs but can also save you time by allowing you to communicate with multiple people on the same journey at once

Being hyper-attuned to the overall client journey helps you implement processes and strategies that will improve the experience clients have with your firm. And for those firms that focus on the customer experience, they can expect to see 2x growth over their peers.

How to Make Your Customer Journey Map Actionable

Once you’ve created your customer journey map, look for opportunities to put it to use and incorporate it into your operations. Consider using a customer relationship management (CRM) system to centralize customer communications and track engagement with your firm. This can be paired with an analytics platform that monitors user behavior, measures KPIs, and finds trends that drive improvements to your client experience program.

Artificial intelligence provides so many opportunities to add value. Consider integrating AI into your process to predict needs and personalize experiences even further.

No matter the actions taken in the initial stages of setting up your client experience improvements, ensure you’re regularly adjusting for changes in behavior, market trends, business offerings, and more. Setting up a feedback loop will keep your journey map dynamic and results-driven.

Customer Experience = Your Competitive Edge

Understanding and optimizing the customer journey is an ongoing process that requires refinement, data-driven insights, and a commitment to delivering exceptional experiences. By mapping the client journey from awareness to advocacy, businesses can eliminate friction, enhance customer lifecycle management, and build long-term relationships that drive sustainable growth.

Customer experience optimization is no longer optional—it’s essential. By recognizing the unique needs and behaviors of different audience segments, businesses can leverage user journey mapping to uncover new opportunities, strengthen relationships, and ultimately position their firm as an industry leader.