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A Strategic Digital Pathway

This course coaches you to design a user journey — a strategic digital pathway that guides individuals from a point of curiosity toward a specific spiritual goal. By following a step-by-step process, you’ll learn how to transition from simply posting content to creating intentional, audience-centered experiences.

Building a User Journey

In the digital mission field, generating activity online does not always equal spiritual impact. To move from aimless online activity to spiritual life change, effective digital strategies rely heavily on a core concept: the user journey.

What is a User Journey?

A user journey, also known as a content journey, is a designed pathway or sequence of experiences that helps an individual move from a point of curiosity or need toward a specific goal. It involves taking your audience step by step through a digital path, guiding them from one call to action (CTA) to another. 

For example, a journey might start with an article about sharing a personal testimony, then link to a video example, and end with a call to action (invitation) to download an evangelistic app.

And something to note: if you have in-person ministry experience, you have likely already utilized a user journey, maybe without realizing it.

For example, at the start of the school year many staff members and students involved in campus ministries pass out spiritual interest surveys. The survey has calls to action that ask students to indicate their interest by circling if they’d like to: 

  • Learn more about the student group.
  • Meet with someone to learn more about Jesus.
  • Connect with a Bible study group. 

After they’ve completed the survey, campus staff members follow up with them on their specific interest and invite them to the next step. This is a simple user journey! 

Another example often happens with events. In the first step, you invite people to an event by word of mouth, flyers or invitations via social media. The call to action is to come to the event. The next step is the event itself, and your call to action at the end is usually to fill out a comment card or connect card. On the card you ask for their feedback, their contact information, and their interest level in talking with a mentor or coming to the next event. Again, this is a user journey. 

Creating user journeys online follows the same principles of having a step-by-step process that continues to invite people to take a next call to action.

Why Are User Journeys Vital to Digital Strategies?

Without a designed journey, digital ministry can easily fall into scattered activities focused on “vanity metrics,” such as clicks or views rather than on spiritual growth. User journeys are vital because they serve as the blueprint that moves ministry from broad, aimless broadcasting to intentional engagement. They ensure that we are not just adding to the internet’s noise, but are actually providing tangible next steps for people to discover and follow Jesus, helping them take real steps in spiritual maturity.

How Do You Build a User Journey?

Building a user journey is a deliberate, step-by-step process that revolves entirely around the audience. The process of building a user journey includes the following, in this order:

Step 1: Define Your Audience

Know exactly who you’re trying to reach. Understanding their age, motivations and challenges will help you make important decisions about what images, language and other content to use.

Establishing a clear picture of who you are trying to reach is the first major step towards building a User Journey. If you build a journey for everyone, it reaches no one. So start by asking: Who is my audience? 

Understanding your audience’s age, life stage, motivations, spiritual background and daily challenges will shape every decision you make. Your audience informs the images you choose, the language you use and any decisions about which content gets created or removed.

Consider starting with the Audience Map: a framework that uses data and interviews from around the world to categorize people by their spiritual stage (from Unaware to Multiplying). The Audience Map helps you understand your audience so you can create or curate relevant content that meets their needs and helps them move toward Jesus.

As you reflect on your audience, the Guide to Understanding Your Audience (PDF) can help you organize your thoughts.

 

Step 2: Write a User Story

A user story is a framework that helps you describe your audience’s experience. Your user story identifies the specific challenge or need your audience has and highlights what they are trying to achieve. You’ll write the user story from the perspective of your audience.

The format looks like this:

As a [person on a spiritual journey],

I want to [perform an action or discover something],

so that [I can achieve my goal of…].

For example:

As a person who is curious about the reliability of the Bible,


I want to learn the reasons why people consider it trustworthy,
so that I can decide if I believe what the Bible says.

Writing a user story before building your content will keep your user journey centered on the audience. You can find the User Story template inside the Guide to Understanding Your Audience (PDF).

 

Step 3: Set a Clear Goal

Now that you have clarified who will be traveling along your journey, it’s time to define a specific destination. What action do you want your audience to take at the end of the journey? Some examples include: joining a small group, starting a conversation with a mentor or requesting prayer.

A user journey without a goal is just random content. Goals move digital activities to purposeful ministry. They help you measure and celebrate.

Use the SMART Goals worksheet (PDF) to create goals that are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time-bound.


Step 4: Brainstorm Content

Brainstorm 3-5 pieces of content that will serve your audience and lead them to the goal. Ask these questions:

  • “What types of content will I need?” (e.g., social media post, article, video, podcast episode)
  • “What content do I already have?”
  • “What content will I need to create?”

Remember that you don’t always have to start from scratch. Connect with others in the [Community] to learn what they have tried. Key ministry tools like GodTools and the Jesus Film Project App can also help you get started. 

The Content Creation Guide (PDF) can also help you think about requirements, topics and visual needs as you start brainstorming ideas for your user journey.


Step 5: Map the Flow of Content

Following your user story, order your content in a sequence. Think of this like you’re creating a map or drawing a storyboard. Is there a natural flow from one piece of content to the next? 

You can order your content based on the commitment you’re asking of your user. We also call this “risk level.” Place the easiest-to-consume content and lower-risk call to action (CTA) at the beginning. This builds rapport and trust.

An early, low-risk step might be watching a short video or liking a post. A later, higher-risk step could be signing up to attend an event or requesting a one-on-one meeting with a mentor. Trust is earned gradually, so your content sequence should reflect that.

The User Journey Template (PDF) is designed specifically for this step. It is a printable planning document that helps you physically map out your audience, goals, platforms and channels, and the specific touchpoints of your journey before you build it digitally.

If you want to try building the entire journey in one place, NextSteps (created by Jesus Film Project®) is a customizable digital platform specifically built for creating interactive online journeys. It allows you to use videos, text, polls and buttons to guide users, and it packages your entire journey into a single shareable link or QR code.


Step 6: Add More Detail to Your Content

After ordering your content, write out the three core components needed for each piece:

  • Hook: The entry point to your journey and the content that grabs the reader’s attention. The hook is all about grabbing attention, sparking curiosity and/or making the user feel seen and understood right away.
  • Message: The core content that provides value. The message explores the heart of your theme and provides value, such as a personal story or Scripture, without overloading the audience with information.
  • Call to Action (CTA): A clear, specific and inviting next step for your audience that is directly tied to your goal. Without a clear CTA, you miss a vital opportunity for connection. Every piece of content should include a call to action.

Once you have created your User Journey, the Content Strategy Toolset can help you share your content with your audience via website platforms, social media channels and learning pathways.

If you are creating a User Journey with your team, the Ministry Canvas (PDF) can help you write out your strategy—from defining your audience to distributing content—in one place.

A Final Thought

This process may seem challenging at first. But once you familiarize yourself with it, you’ll be able to repeat the process to create countless different types of user journeys for your audiences.

The more you prayerfully create and try user journeys, the more you will, God-willing, see your audiences take steps to follow Jesus and grow in their faith.

Connect with a Coach

Connect with a coach who will walk through
the user journey process with you.

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