User flows, personas, and funnel stages
While not necessary for every project, oftentimes it helps to put together user flows, personas, and funnel stages.
Our aim is alignment and clarity. These three visual representations can quickly communicate complex ideas and help to bring multiple parties onto the same page, especially if these parties work on different teams, or when working between agency and client.
I’ll give a quick definition of each of the three and then showcase a few examples below.
What is a user flow? A user flow is a visual representation of potential ways a person could move from one point to another in your system. Users rarely follow the exact course we chart for them, but mocking up several potential flows can be useful to think more empathetically about the visitors and to identify gaps. When creating your own user flows, start with your entry points and then end objectives or success points. Everything else can be filled in from there.
What is a persona? A persona is a fictitious representation of a potential user or customer. While some shape their personas around demographic data, usually this is not helpful (unless a person must meet certain demographic criteria in order to become a customer). Instead, focus on things such as desired progress, past bias, frustrations, assumptions & perspectives, etc.
What is a funnel stage? The funnel is a representation of the stages a person will pass through during the sales or onboarding process. This often includes things such as awareness, understanding, consideration, purchase and advocacy. Defining these stages both in their title and with a quick description through the perspective of your users is a useful way to ensure you are meeting their potential needs and operating strategically in your marketing.
Essential for strategic copywriting
Strategic copywriting requires us to have tools like these at our disposal. We can’t afford to operate with too much disorder, confusion, or lack of clarity. Otherwise, our work will be weak, lacking the pointed precision we need to cut through the noise and take prospects by the hand through the entire journey.
Take a look at a few examples below.
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