We've been seeing lots of requests from our clients for how to better leverage their User Journeys and evolve content strategies as audience behavior has changed as a result of COVID. 

We thought this sounded like a great idea for a

First, it bears repeating that digital habits & brand engagement have changed due to COVID.

That's a veritable certainty.

These new habits will set the stage for a fundamental shift in how young audiences view brands and conduct their college search process.

So, what is the *value* of the User Journey for enrollment & marcomm teams?

We already know that all integrated comms & marketing plans should be audience-first — that's table stakes.

Understanding your audience's needs and expectations are paramount to your marketing plan's short and long-term success.

So, *where* do User Journeys come into play?
 
They connect your audiences' needs to your messaging strategy in a way that serves them the right information, in the right places, at the right times.

First, always, is your Brand Platform. Ideally, it'll look something like this:

Brand Platform > Audience Personas > User Journey > Marketing Plan

That means User Journey's core objective is to bridge the details of the audience personas to the marketing plan, identifying the best way to connect your brand with your audiences' priorities.

So, *what's included* in a User Journey?

Four Core Elements:
1. Actions
2. Behaviors
3. User Questions and/or Considerations
4. Brand Touchpoints

Here's a breakdown of the User Journey elements in practice.

Let's assume our audience persona is a Transfer Student and that they're in the consideration stage of the funnel

1. Actions: Researching online, RFIing, following schools on third-party sites

2. Behaviors: Talking to peers, mentors, and faculty support. This may involve simply seeking the right questions to ask or the right things to look for.

3. User Questions: Will my credits transfer? What's the cost? What are the career outcomes? What type of transfer support is available?

4. Touchpoints:
Email — if they RFI
Social— Instagram to see if they can picture themselves there, Reddit to know what it's really like, etc.
College Search Sites — think US News, Niche, Cappex, etc.

Make sure each of these four elements is clearly defined for every stage of the decision-making journey. But don't guess — use a combination of primary & third-party data to support the inputs.

The right User Journey can help you allocate budgets effectively, put relevant persona data to use in marketing strategies, identify gaps in your current marketing communications, and support messaging priorities in execution. 

In other words, they're kind of a big deal.