Strategy
The Customer Value Journey Roadmap
Need more online sales? Then you need to understand the Customer Value Journey.
The Customer Value Journey covers the variety of ways in which a person might see or interact with your business online. Leading all the way from their first interaction to turning them into brand ambassadors. And yes, this includes making the sale along their journey with you.
This roadmap gives you a step-by-step process for attracting, converting, and keeping your customers.
This article is designed to give you a concise overview of the Customer Value Journey. That’s so you can implement it within your business without too much extraneous detail. Read on…
The 8-Step Customer Value Journey Roadmap
As mentioned above, the Customer Value Journey is the path along which people travel as they discover your business, build a relationship with you to becoming your customers and brand ambassadors.
The roadmap itself looks like this;
Something to remember, no-one will be able to travel the path unaided and alone, customers need to be guided. So it’s important to create and implement a strategy to nudge and encourage customers through the 8 steps to make it successful.
Like all things, it begins with the first step.
Step 1: Awareness
The first step is to put yourself on your potential customers’ radar.
You can do this through several means including advertising, blog posts, word of mouth, social media, events or any other channel that’s appropriate for your service/product that results in getting yourself in front of your ideal audience.
At this stage you want your audience to be interacting & consuming content that informs or entertains them and encourages “liking” your brand.
Step 2: Engagement
Continuing along the Customer Value Journey you want to build more of a relationship with your potential customers which occurs after the very first touch.
You should continue to build on that first positive experience and engage with your prospects on a deeper level. Do this by providing more valuable content on your blog, online community, and via email or customer support.
Note*: What is valuable to some might not be appealing to others…before you start creating content make sure you understand who you’re talking to by defining your target audience.
When someone receives values and enjoys their experience with your brand it builds trust. Once you have that you can ask for a small commitment – subscription, or more plainly, their permission for you to email them.
In the current online climate, people are very careful with who they give their email address out to. You will need to think of something of value that makes sit worth their while. Think free samples, brochures, demos, reports & comprehensive guides.
If they’re confident that you’re going to continue to provide value, they trust you or your offering something that they want, they will fill out their details to get it. Simple.
Step 4: Conversion
If you continue to provide value in advance by answering their questions and solving problems, your prospects are likely eager to deepen their commitment, they just need guidance as to how.
The best way to do this is by having a high-value low-risk offer that lets them sample what you have to offer without asking too much of them.
An Entry-point offer is not designed to generate profit but perform the crucial action of converting someone who is building a relationship with you as a potential customer into a paid customer.
You only need to ask for a small commitment of time or money (say $10-20) or aim to cover the cost of acquisition, profit comes later.
Step 5: Excitement
Buying generates excitement, more scientifically, the dopamine our bodies produce gets people excited and the next step of the Customer Value Journey is designed to build on that feeling.
You do this by giving your customer a memorable experience. Bonus content or features that surprise and delight, quick wins, or anything that makes your new customers happy.
Step 6: Ascend (Profit)
This is the step most people are excited to get to because it means generating repeat business and real profit.
While you design your entry-point offer to change your relationship from potential customer to customer. Your Ascension offer or core offer as it usually stands should be geared toward driving profits and making them buy again and again.
Further ascension offers after your core or flagship product or service are simple upsells…bigger, better, faster solutions or “done for you” add-ons.
Step 7: Advocacy
Happy customers are, funnily enough, happy to share their positive experience with your brand but they just need a little nudge to do so.
At this stage of the Customer Value Journey, you can reach out to your customers and ask them to share their positive experience with your business in a way that is appropriate for them and your business.
Whether that means writing a review on a certain platform or sharing on social media is up to you.
Step 8: Promotion
The great thing about this is that once someone advocates your brand, they become even more loyal.
They will actively spread the word about their experience and share your material and offers because they truly believe in it.
Active promotion may also be an affiliate, commission-based relationship or just a free offer for sending some new customers your way but it’s a win-win for all.
Helping people on their Customer Value Journey journey
At its core, digital marketing is about helping potential customers move along each step of the Customer Value Journey faster. Which is why you need a strategy, not just one gimmick or disjointed campaigns.
To get to the end, you need to address every stage of the roadmap. Meaning you need to think about how you can optimise someone’s experience through each step.
To get started, you need to define your current Customer Value Journey. Find the gaps in your strategy & pull together another that gets people excited about interacting with your business.
Reminder*: What is interesting to some might not be appealing to others. So before you start creating content make sure you understand who you’re talking to by defining your target audience.
If you’re interested in how we can apply this system to your business, we’re offering a chunk of value in exchange for your contact information…
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