Modern customer journeys span multiple channels, platforms, and devices. A customer might start their buying path on a laptop, continue researching on a mobile device, and then return to the laptop to make a purchase. These fragmented journeys can be a nightmare for marketers to track and optimize, but they also present a massive opportunity. By understanding these touchpoints, you can fine-tune your marketing strategies, improve conversions, and maximize return on investment (ROI).
Eva Ber, senior solutions consultant at Branch, recently joined Rockerbox customer success manager James Shields for a webinar to tackle one of marketing’s hottest topics: creating a unified view of the customer journey. In this blog, we break down the key points from the webinar, including how to effectively track customer behavior across devices, use tools like Branch and Rockerbox to make smarter marketing decisions, and improve campaign performance.
To catch the full conversion, watch the webinar on demand.
1. What does it mean to have a unified view of the customer journey, and how can the unified view be balanced with user trust?
A unified view of the customer journey means understanding every touchpoint where potential customers interact with your business — from initial engagement to the actions that drive key performance indicators. Marketers need this holistic perspective to optimize campaigns across platforms and devices and improve engagement and conversions.
Here’s where the challenge comes in: Brands need to strike a balance between gathering data to better understand the customer journey and maintaining user trust. Users expect both seamless experiences and data privacy across every interaction touchpoint, including desktop, mobile, and apps. Shields recommends that marketers transparently explain how data collection enhances the user’s experience — by providing personalized content, for example, or maintaining user preferences across different channels. This approach fosters trust and encourages continued engagement, ensuring customers perceive data usage as beneficial and privacy-compliant.
2. How can customers leverage Branch and Rockerbox, separately and together?
In short, you can use Branch and Rockerbox together to enhance your marketing effectiveness and optimize campaigns.
Branch specializes in linking and measurement, facilitating seamless user journeys from different channels like email, paid ads, or SMS to the mobile app. Because mobile app users are, on average, 3.3x more valuable than non-app users, moving users from less valuable channels to the app can significantly increase customer lifetime value (LTV) and revenue potential. Once users are in the app, Branch provides insights into their actions, such as purchases or subscriptions, helping you understand user behavior and the down-funnel impact of your campaigns.
Rockerbox, a marketing measurement and analysis solution, integrates with Branch to analyze the data collected from these marketing efforts to derive valuable insights about high-value touchpoints and campaign effectiveness. By combining data from Branch with Rockerbox, you can pinpoint which campaigns drive desired outcomes, such as app installs or conversions, and which need adjustments (or to be scratched entirely).
3. Why is it so beneficial to centralize customer touchpoints across web and mobile?
Centralizing web and mobile touchpoints is critical to provide a seamless user experience across devices. For instance, a customer might explore a new clothing line on their desktop during their lunch break at work. Later that evening, on their mobile device, they receive a targeted email that takes them directly to the item they liked earlier, making it easy to purchase from their phone. Integrating the two touchpoints also facilitates converting web users into app users. Using tools like deep links, you can guide users from web platforms to app installations, tapping into the higher LTV of app users. This approach not only supports acquisition initiatives but also fuels effective reengagement strategies post-app install to drive ongoing revenue.
4. How can brands take action on this unified view?
A deep, unified view of the customer journey empowers brands to take practical steps toward measurable growth, using insights to refine strategies and allocate resources more effectively. The options are endless: By analyzing performance metrics and setting benchmarks across different funnel stages, for example, you can pinpoint where to allocate resources for maximum impact. You could also assess how each channel influences conversion times to inform strategic planning and budget allocation, helping you decide whether to focus more resources on channels that quickly convert users or to invest in nurturing channels that may require longer conversion cycles but lead to higher customer retention rates.
Comprehensive visibility and tracking also lay the groundwork for advanced modeling techniques like media mix modeling that provide predictive insights into optimal marketing spend across channels.
Conclusion
It’s worth mentioning that achieving a unified view of the customer journey is very challenging due to the nature of consumer behavior and evolving privacy regulations. As new devices and technologies continue to proliferate, navigating customer journeys will become even more elusive. However, brands can take proactive steps toward integrating touchpoints with tools like deep linking to bridge channel gaps and attribution to unify cross-channel insights.
To learn more, request a demo with our team.
