Is your business in need of more traffic? Leads? Sales?
How about you just want to improve your digital marketing strategy, then you need to understand the Customer Value Journey (CVJ).
The Customer Value Journey is about turning ice cold prospects into raving fans, who actively promote your business.
The CVJ is the new process which businesses need to follow to help them stand out amongst the crowd because it gives you a simple step-by-step process for attracting, converting, and keeping your best customers.
This roadmap will walk you through the 8 stage funnel we build for both clients and ourselves, resulting in automated lead machines that bring in highly qualified leads 24/7 on autopilot.
Setting out the Customer Journey
The Customer Value Journey is an easy 8-step path that people travel as they discover your brand, build a relationship with you, and become buyers and avid fans.
No one finishes this Journey alone.
You will constantly need to be reminding your customer, who you are, why they need you and how you can make their lives better.
If you leave the customers to themselves they will get lost along the way or even worse forget they ever started on a path with your brand.
You need to create a strategy that takes people through all 8 of these steps, giving them a boost when they get stuck and encouraging them every step of the way.
Let’s look at each step of the Customer Journey to see how you might do that.
Make Them Aware Of You
The first point of any marketing or sales relationship is to build awareness.
If people don’t know you exist, they aren’t going to buy from you!
The awareness stage can happen through advertising, blog posts, SEO, word-of-mouth, social media, or any other channel that puts your products, offers, and solutions in front of your ideal prospects.
For this, create top-of-funnel content that gets people’s attention, and then entertains or informs them.
The key here is to know your audience and go where they are hanging out.
Here’s an example of Taboola making me aware of their company.
Get Them To Engage With Your Brand
This is all about creating a relationship with your audience.
The dictionary defines engagement as emotional involvement or commitment.
We now want our potential customer to engage with us in some way so we can start building that relationship with them.
To get them engaged with our brand we want them to consume a video, blog post, infographic or live stream etc.
We need to make sure the content is tackling one pain-point or goal of the potential customer.
Get Them To Subscribe To You
When someone likes their experience with your brand and appreciates the content you are producing they will start to trust you.
When that happens, it’s time to ask for a small commitment—subscribing and giving you permission to email them.
Today, people are careful about giving out their email address.
We suggest the prospect downloads a piece of content (checklist, reports, guides, eBooks or demo) that is related to, but has even greater value, than the first ‘freely available’ (engagement) piece.
You offer something they want, they fill out a form to get it. It’s that simple.
This stage is crucial as it is the first point that we ask for a commitment back and we get to see how much perceived value the prospect places on our content.
Make Them a Customer
If your free offers have enough value, then your prospects are often eager to deepen their commitment either with time or money.
We just need to show them how to do this.
We reach out to the customer either by automated email or text series and take them to thank you page to up-sell to them.
The best way to do that is through an entry-point offer—a high-value, low-risk offer that lets them sample your wares without putting too much skin in the game.
To be clear, an entry-point offer is not designed to make you a profit. Its only purpose is to create a smooth transition from a subscriber or follower to a paid customer. You can focus on profits later in the Journey.
Now, you only need to ask for small commitment: say, £5–£20. Aim to cover your costs in acquiring the customer.
If you are a service type of business, we will ask the subscriber to hop on a call with you. This is the perfect time to diagnose their problems and come up with a solution.
Get Them Excited About Your Business!
By giving your new customer a memorable experience, this creates excitement. You need to keep the excitement bubbling.
Consider offering a quick-start guide… bonus features that surprise and delight… quick wins… anything that makes your new customers happy.
Make Them a Buyer
Finally!
At this stage, your goal is to generate sales, make them repeat buyers and real profits.
While your entry-point offer was designed for conversions, your ascension offers should be geared for profits—because if you’re serving your customers well, they’ll want to buy again and again.
They are now totally primed to purchase, a fully sales qualified lead.
Ascension offers may be simple upsells made after that initial purchase… bigger, better solutions… or “done for you” add-ons.
At this point, the potential customer has read multiple content pieces, downloaded guides, watched videos you have produced and subscribed to your email list.
Ask Them to Spread the Love
Happy customers love to share their experience, but sometimes they need some encouragement to do so. Once they do, they become even more loyal to your brand.
At this stage of the Customer Value Journey, ask people to share their positive experience with your brand by writing a review or sharing a social media post.
Promotions!
Up until now, any “promotion” your customers have done has been passive, but in the promotion stage, your customers actively spread the word about your brands, products, and services. Ask them to tell stories, make recommendations, and share your offers because they truly believe in them.
Active promotion may just be an affiliate or commission relationship—or just a free offer for sending some new customers your way. The point is, it’s a win-win for both of you.
How to Help People on Their Journey
All we want to do as is to help customers move along this journey faster. That’s why you can’t use just one tactic or an ongoing series of unfocused marketing campaigns.
You need a plan that addresses every stage of the Journey. And you need to think in terms of optimising that journey.
Get your FREE fully customised marketing blueprint in a 30-Minute Strategy Session Call (£1,000 Value) aimed at generating leads and sales for your company.