B2B Customer Journey Mapping: Complete Guide for Advertisers

Advertising

B2B marketers and advertisers are no strangers to complex sales cycles. 

Customers’ decision-making processes, in particular, can be hard to measure, especially in the B2B space. That’s why mapping out the B2B customer journey is essential to ensuring you stay in step with your audience and their needs along the way. 

Here’s all you need to know about what a B2B customer journey map is and how to build one that supports the growth of your brand. 

What Is a B2B Customer Journey Map?

A B2B customer journey map visualizes how another business interacts with your brand. It outlines every step, from brand awareness to post-sale engagement, all while identifying each touchpoint and channel a stakeholder might interact with. 

Unlike the business-to-consumer (B2C) journey, the B2B customer journey tends to be longer and more detailed. 

That said, while stakeholders rely on logic and value-based decision-making, they are still consumers. That means a proper journey map will help you blend B2C and B2B strategies and make your content more appealing altogether.

B2B Customer Journey vs. B2B Buyer Journey

The buyer journey covers the path to purchase—awareness, consideration, and decision—before someone becomes a customer. 

The customer journey goes further, mapping the full relationship after the sale, including onboarding, retention, and advocacy.

Benefits of B2B Customer Journey Mapping

Investing time in customer journey mapping can provide a big payoff for your business. Some of the top benefits of the practice include the following:

1. Deepened Insights Into Customer Behavior

Visualizing the B2B customer journey provides detailed insights into each stage of the decision-making process. You can then use that knowledge to remove any bumps in the journey and create a more engaging experience for B2B decision-makers by way of developing messaging that resonates and offers relevant solutions. 

2. Optimized Customer Interactions

When you know which touchpoints matter most, you can work to improve and personalize them. Every interaction, therefore, will become more purposeful and impactful, leading to smoother handoffs between marketing, sales, and service teams.

3. Strengthened Customer Loyalty

The better you understand a client’s needs and pain points, the better you can meet their expectations before and after a sale. You want your clients to know that you understand their needs and are there to solve them, and the result will be stronger relationships that increase lifetime customer value. 

4. More Efficient Marketing and Sales Alignment

As alluded to earlier, mapping the B2B customer journey naturally encourages collaboration between your marketing and sales teams. You’ll identify which team oversees which touchpoints and help each department align around shared goals. Mapping also promotes consistent, on-brand messaging across all channels. 

5. Discovery of Challenges and Growth Opportunities 

Sometimes, the biggest wins come from uncovering what’s not working. A good B2B customer journey map exposes friction points and potential gaps in your content strategy. You can also use your map to identify underserved client segments and missed opportunities that could have led to big sales. 

With that information in mind, you can specify and capitalize on growth opportunities that drive your business forward. Look for areas that would benefit from innovation, such as automation or the introduction of new channels. 

How Does B2B Customer Journey Mapping Work?

Customer journey mapping begins with extensive research. You need both qualitative and quantitative data to understand what your customers go through at each stage of their journey. From there, you’ll break the journey into stages and define what’s happening at each point. 

Components of a B2B Customer Journey Map

Your journey map should consist of the following components: 

Customer Personas

These are fictional yet research-based profiles you’ll create that represent different stakeholders. Each will include job roles, challenges, goals, priorities, and buying behaviors. 

Touchpoints

Any moment of interaction between your business and a decision-maker is a marketing touchpoint. Examples include social media ads, demo calls, blog posts, and support chats. Identify every touchpoint so you can make the most of them. 

Stages of the Journey

A typical customer journey B2B map includes the following stages:

• Awareness
• Consideration
• Decision
• Onboarding
• Adoption
• Retention
• Advocacy

The key is to create messaging that aligns with your audience’s mindset at each stage. 

Emotions and Pain Points

Understanding how your customers feel at each stage will help you personalize your messaging and offer valuable solutions. Just like B2C consumers, B2B buyers are human beings who want to know you understand their pain points. 

Goals and Expectations

You need to recognize what your customer is trying to achieve at each phase of their journey. Sometimes, they may simply be comparing solutions, but in other stages, stakeholders may be trying to get other decision-makers on board. Give them the information they need to achieve their goals no matter where they are along the way.

Channels and Devices

Identify all of the channels and devices that your B2B customers may use to interact with your brand, then prioritize the top-performing channels so you can maximize your reach. 

How to Create a B2B Customer Journey Map

Now that you know the components, just follow these steps to build your own customer journey B2B map:

• Step 1: Define your objective
• Step 2: Build customer personas
• Step 3: Identify touchpoints
• Step 4: Map the journey stages
• Step 5: Add emotions, pain points, and goals
• Step 6: Evaluate current experience
• Step 7: Make it actionable

Your map won’t be perfect on day one; you must continuously analyze the customer journey and refine your map to create more engaging experiences. 

B2B Customer Journey Optimization Tips

Here are a few ways to create a better journey for B2B clients:

• Personalize communication based on the customer’s stage and persona
• Automate routine touchpoints like follow-up emails
• Create content for each stage
• Align teams around the journey map
• Track marketing metrics like engagement and conversion rates to measure your success

When optimizing the customer journey, B2B brands should also ensure that they are using a variety of traditional and dynamic channels. Take a moment to evaluate your strategy, including the channels you are using to differentiate your brand from the competition.

How Performance TV Connects the Dots

Want to understand how B2B buyers move from interest to intent to action? MNTN’s platform helps by aligning Connected TV advertising campaigns to key engagement and conversion points. With keyword-based audience targeting, real-time attribution, and premium streaming inventory, Performance TV advertising supports every stage of the B2B funnel, from awareness to closed deal.

Here’s how MNTN Performance TV helps B2B marketers map and influence the customer journey:

• MNTN Matched: The world’s first keyword-based audience builder for CTV lets advertisers match with the consumers most likely to buy their products based on recent shopping behavior, life events, and relevant interests.
• Premium CTV Inventory: Deliver your brand message on top streaming networks where business audiences are actively engaged.
• Verified Visits™ Attribution: Tracks site visits and key conversion events tied to CTV exposure, giving you visibility into journey milestones.
• Automated Optimization: AI continuously adjusts your OTT advertising campaign to focus spend on the moments and audiences that drive progress.
• Reporting Suite: Access real-time insights to understand how CTV supports every stage of your B2B buyer journey.

Guide B2B buyers from awareness to action — sign up today to get started with MNTN’s self-serve software.

B2B Customer Journey Map: Final Thoughts 

The B2B customer journey is nothing if not complex, but through mapping, you can better understand key stages in the decision-making process and gain a competitive edge. Use your map and the insights it provides to create smoother interactions and more relevant messaging. 

Whether you’re just starting or refining your current strategy, journey mapping is a powerful tool to help you see the big picture of B2B marketing.