This article recaps the "what is a customer journey" segment of our Customer Journeys & Drip Campaigns webinar (AppFront Growth Series, Campaigns 201).
Built once, runs forever
A campaign is a one-time send: you schedule it, it deploys to a group of people at the same moment, and you're done — think a Labor Day push or a new-menu-item announcement. A journey (also called a drip campaign) is the opposite: you build it once, and it keeps running indefinitely, moving each guest through a series of touches based on their own individual behavior.
Personalized vs. broad
Campaigns are broad and group-focused — everyone gets the same message at the same time. Journeys are personalized: each guest starts their sequence based on their own action (signing up, a first purchase, going quiet), so the timing and content are unique to where that person actually is in their relationship with your brand.
A campaign creates a spike. A journey creates a floor.
One-time campaigns are built to create a spike — a short-term jump in sales or engagement. Journeys are built to create a floor: a foundational layer of ongoing frequency that the rest of your marketing stacks on top of. The two aren't either/or — layer your one-time sends and lifecycle campaigns on top of always-on journeys rather than choosing one over the other.
Next up: why you'd use a customer journey in the first place, and the three things every journey should do.