Need more sales? Clicks? Engagement? If you want to improve your digital marketing, you need to understand the Customer Value Journey (CVJ).
Marketing is about helping customers move along this journey faster. The Customer Value Journey is about turning strangers into super-fans. While other templates have been created, none are in-depth as the map we’re going to lay out for you. The Customer Value Journey stands out among the crowd because it gives you a step-by-step process for attracting, converting, and keeping your best customers. And because we want to give you a jumpstart on implementing this digital advertising strategy in your own business, we’ve made this explanation short and sweet.
The Customer Value Journey is an 8-step path that people travel as they discover your brand, build a relationship with you, and become buyers and raving fans.
But here’s the thing: no one finishes this journey alone. Left to themselves, customers will get lost along the way, stall out, or forget they ever started on a path with your brand.
That’s why you need to create a strategy that walks people through all 8 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:
The first step is obvious. You need to be on your prospects’ radar. That can happen through advertising, blog posts, events, 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 attention, and then entertains or informs them.
Merriam-Webster defines engagement as emotional involvement or commitment. It’s about being in gear with someone, building or deepening a relationship with them. This stage begins immediately after your first interaction with a prospect and continues through their entire experience with your brand. It’s an ongoing conversation you have with them in multiple channels: blog, online community, email marketing, customer support, etc.
When someone likes their experience with your brand, trust begins to build. Once that happens, it’s time to ask for a small commitment — subscribing and giving you permission to email them. There’s just one problem. Today, people are careful about giving out their email address. You have to offer something valuable that makes it worth their while. This is called a lead magnet.
A lead magnet can be anything of value your business offers to your potential clients. Think webinars, free samples of a product or chapters of a book, demos, reports, and guides. You offer something they want, they fill out a form to get it. It’s that simple.
If your lead magnets have enough value (answering questions and solving problems), your prospects are often eager to deepen their commitment. They just need to know how. 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 risk 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 prospect to paid customer. You can focus on profits later in the journey. Now, you only need to ask for small commitment: say, $8–$20 usd. Aim to cover your costs in acquiring the customer.
Buying generates satisfaction. It’s a scientific fact. The dopamine from a new purchase gets people excited, which is why the fifth stage of the Customer Journey is to build on that excitement. How do you do that? By giving your new customer a memorable experience. Consider offering a quick-start guide, bonus features that surprise and delight, quick wins or any content that makes your new customers happy.
At this stage, your goal is to generate repeat buys and real profits. While your entry-point offer was designed for conversions, your ascension offers should be geared for profits. If you’re serving your customers well, they’ll want to buy again and again. Ascension offers may be simple upsells made after that initial purchase like bigger, better solutions or “done for you” add-ons.
Happy customers love to share their experience, but sometimes they need some encouragement to do so. The cool thing is, once they do, they become even more loyal to your brand. So, 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.
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 brand, products, and services. They tell stories, make recommendations, and share your offers because they truly believe in them. Active promotion may be an affiliate/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.
Marketing is about helping customers move along this journey faster. That’s why you can’t use just one tactic or an ongoing series of unfocused marketing campaigns.
At Capitaltec, we help you plan and optimize every stage of the customer value journey. Schedule a call so we can learn more about your business and help you create an effective strategy to grow your sales in a repeatable and predictable way.
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