The Customer Value Journey.
I remember some movies I watched as a kid.
The way they portrayed life like it was a bed of roses.
A child is born now and in the next one or two scenes, he is a full grown adult.
Infact, I recall one where the actor walks through the school gate an undergraduate and comes out a graduate.
I thought it was that easy until I spent five years doing a four-year course, thanks to the incessant strikes.
Don’t even get me started on the challenges I had to face while in school.
If life was as easy as portrayed in movies, I probably would have a huge content writing career right now.
Sadly, it’s not.
Everything in life is a journey, one you cannot skip.
You have to follow the process strictly in order to finish well.
This same rule applies in Marketing.
You must effectively plan before you start to dish out your strategies.
This is to ensure that you get the desired results and hit your goals.
The first step in any marketing journey is getting to know your audience.
Who are they? What do they like? Where can you find them? What are their pains? How can you proffer solution?
Since they are the fuel for your marketing strategy, you can’t afford to ignore or take them lightly.
Once you have researched your target audience thoroughly, and you have a product or service to offer them, you should not just go ahead to start selling and making money.
You have to follow a process.
This process is called The Customer Value Journey.
The Customer Value Journey is the step-by-step process of converting total strangers into high-value customers and brand promoters.
Every prospect has journeyed on this path without even realizing it.
The framework has helped marketers successfully scale through the hassle of building a solid relationship with the audience.
Now, marketers can seamlessly attract, convert, and keep customers who are raving fans of the brand.
Let’s journey together as I reveal the stages involved in gaining valuable customers.
1. The Awareness Stage
There is no magic you can perform.
Nobody will buy from you if they don’t know you exist.
That is why the first stage of this journey is important.
Let your audience become aware of your brand, products or services.
You can achieve this through targeted ads campaigns, storytelling, videos and so on.
Do all you have to do to be on their radar.
2. Engagement Stage
Now that your prospect is aware of you, you need to keep the fire burning.
You are still in the early stage of your relationship, so ensure that you develop their feelings for your brand.
This is when you start engaging them.
You can do this by providing some form of content that is educating, entertaining and informative.
Note that engagement is not something that should be forgotten after this level.
You should continue to carry your audience along at every stage.
3. Subscribe
No matter how much successful the engagement stage is, if you did not collect your prospect’s contact information, your strategy has failed.
People are easily distracted due to the myriad of content available online.
This makes it almost impossible for them to remember or come back to you.
In order to avoid this, you have to get them to subscribe.
Collect their contact information so that you can reach them later on.
To do this, you have to provide something in exchange.
It could be free content, products or services.
4. Convert Stage
This is not where you start to make huge profits off the leads you already have.
Instead, it is the stage where you increase their level of commitment.
You now have their details and have continued to engage them over time, so you must have gained their trust to an extent.
They are now ready to invest in one way or another.
Get ready to convert.
How do you do this?
Make “entry-point offers”.
Give valuable offers that don’t require them to put in too much, be it time or money.
Don’t forget that at this stage, you should be concerned about turning your prospects to customers, not profit making machines.
5. Excitement Stage
Now, your customer has grabbed your “entry-point offer “, how do you ensure you still have their attention?
Excite them.
Make sure they get value for whatever product or service they are getting from you.
Give them valuable experience with you or they won’t be willing to purchase more expensive things from you.
Your offer can be to attend a webinar, buy a product or hire your service.
Give a tangible value from the experience.
6. Ascend Stage
You must have spent time and money into converting your leads into customers.
Also they might have paid for your product or service, no matter how small they spent.
The ascend stage is where you turn your customers from one-time buyer to consistent buyer.
Introduce your core offer to them.
7. Advocate Stage.
Your customers must have made multiple purchases from you.
They are happy and satisfied with your product and service.
You also have gained profits from their purchases.
The next stage is where your happy customers do the work for you.
They advocate for your brand.
When the need arises or when they are prompted, they will gladly tell others about your business.
Provided you continue to make them happy, be assured that they’ll always speak positive of your brand.
8. Promote
This is more of an activity you influence as a brand.
You have to ensure the gospel continues to spread.
Actively promote your brand either through referral programs, affiliate marketing or paying brand promoters who will market to their audience on your behalf.
The customer value journey is interesting and easy to navigate.
All you have to do is follow the process one after the other.
Create awareness, engage, get the contact information of your leads, convert them, excite them through valuable experiences, help them ascend, enjoy when they start advocating for you and make conscious effort to promote your brand.
You should know that it is impossible to jump this process because every stage matters.
Exercise patience at every stage and don’t let the need to make profit get the best of you.
Lastly, always Engage and Excite your audience, no matter the stage you find yourself.
Thank your for reading.🤗
Now that this information has been revealed to you, would you be willing to implement the value journey?
If Yes, let me know in the comment section.
If No, provide your reasons.
Don’t forget to give this write-up a solid clap.👏
