When international automaker smart broke into the electric vehicle market, it needed to bring its legacy customers along for the ride.
But it wasn’t enough to simply promote the release of its new “smart #1” model—the brand needed to fully revamp its customer journeys to convert its existing audience into EV buyers.
Using Adobe Journey Optimizer, DEPT® and smart built a new customer relationship management and marketing automation program to support the automaker’s updated strategy. In less than nine months, we implemented a new campaign strategy that included 11 customer journeys for new and returning users. And it worked. Our first campaign resulted in 11% of smart’s database converting into pre-order customers, a 300% higher conversion than the automotive industry benchmark.
Since then, the project has expanded to more than 500 emails sent annually, and email has become one of the key drivers of direct and indirect revenue for smart. By leveraging the Journey Builder, Audience, and Profiles sections, smart provides an unprecedented level of personalization within its customer experience.
Turn prospects into customers with better customer journeys
Amidst today’s digitally driven landscape, it’s crucial that businesses create seamless, personalized customer journeys. And as exemplified by smart’s successful launch into EVs, Adobe Journey Optimizer is a powerful solution for brands looking to enhance their customer experiences.
But at the same time, a tool is just a tool. The strategy and people behind the tool drive the results.
With deep expertise in Adobe products, marketing automation, and content creation, our team has some helpful ideas for creating better customer journeys and experiences via Adobe Journey Optimizer. To orchestrate holistic, effective journeys, we recommend the following.
Define goals and customer journey stages
First things first. Before diving into the software, clearly define your customer journey goals and estimate the time to achieve them.
Identify the touchpoints along the customer journey and prioritize them based on their impact. Think of greater business goals like revenue, margin, or market share but also smaller goals like conversions and CTR.
Gather and analyze customer data
Collect all available data about your customers from various sources and spend the time to analyze it properly. This will help you understand your customer personas, define goals, and identify the touchpoints where personalized experiences can be created.
We most often see two main challenges around data.
- With customer data, it’s often scattered and requires integration before you can get utility from it. Depending on external factors, this might be a huge undertaking, so it’s worth strategizing with your data team.
- Combine customer interests with customer journeys. Not just demographics but preferences, preferred channels, and purchase history. When paired with where a customer is in the buying journey, it can add that personalized element that drives conversion.
Consider integration with other systems
Determine if you need to integrate Adobe Journey Optimizer with other systems (like your advertising platform) to enhance data collection and streamline processes. This can provide a more comprehensive view of your customers and enable seamless platform communication.
For example, at DEPT®, we enrich customer profiles with specific ads the customer clicked on. This helps us understand what their initial interests are.
For those without advanced analytics platforms like Adobe Journey Analytics, AJO’s reporting and SQL capabilities offer valuable tools for monitoring profile/channel engagement and troubleshooting.
Collaborate with cross-functional teams
Assemble a team of specialists who can create end-to-end experiences aligned with your goals and touchpoints. Collaboration between experts from sales, service, and marketing is crucial to ensure a holistic approach to customer engagement.
Our biggest tip here is to make sure your whole team works towards the same goal! From our experience, this simple act is often overlooked, but it can make a difference in large teams. Balance mandates for individuals with collaboration days so individuals can dial in their expertise while keeping a single north star. Celebrate success.
Altogether, Adobe Journey Optimizer can help your marketing team deliver highly relevant, personalized experiences.
However, despite its integration capabilities and user-friendly interface, it’s important to remember that Adobe Journey Optimizer is still a tool—and you need expert collaboration, a deep understanding of your audience, and a data-driven strategy to deliver truly effective end-to-end customer journeys.
As a long-time Adobe partner, DEPT® has more than 500 team members who specialize in helping brands harness the full potential of their Adobe products. So, let’s discuss how you can most effectively use Adobe Journey Optimizer to create and manage personalized web experiences.
Insights & work
Questions about customer journeys?
Head of Marketing Automation