When you hear the phrase “Customer Value Journey,” you might think the concept sounds simple or even obvious. Your potential customer hears about your product, you tell them why they need it, they buy it, and that’s it. Right?
Wrong. If you aren’t thinking about your customer’s journey with your brand, you risk not only losing them but losing them for life. While the loss of one customer might not seem so bad, it can be a bigger deal than you might think. Not only are you losing that one sale, but you are losing future sales. You might even lose potential sales from that lost customer’s friends, family, and social sphere of influence.
Worse, they might end up shopping with your competitor.
*shudder*
Your Customer Value Journey is a huge part of your content marketing strategy, as well as your overall business strategy. It is critical to make sure it works for you, not against you.
What is a Customer Value Journey, anyway?
The term Customer Value Journey® was made famous by the folks over at Digital Marketer. Their idea is that every customer goes on a journey with a brand. There’s that first magical moment that the prospective customer becomes aware of you. Then, they go check out your website, or maybe they even make an initial purchase.
For many companies, this is where the story ends. Indeed, many marketing strategies fall off the proverbial cliff when it comes to creating loyal customers. Once they complete that first transaction, they assume that the customer is converted. They don’t get any more of your time or energy, all of that is directed to the next purchase. Perhaps you didn’t even bother to get their permission to email them about future promotions.
This is where the Customer Value Journey shines. Beyond making your customer aware of your brand and what you have to offer, it maps out everything you need to create the kind of lifelong fan that will not only keep buying your product or service but will recommend it to others.
Here are the top reasons you MUST include a Customer Value Journey in your overall content marketing strategy.
A Customer Value Journey creates a better overall brand experience, which will boost your business.
The key here is in the word “value.” The Customer Value Journey is just about that, making your brand and their experience more valuable. If your content marketing strategy was all about “getting the sale” before, now it is about making your customers happy.
This becomes a win-win situation for both sides. Here are a few other things to consider as well…
Email marketing is a HUGE part of any marketing strategy. Your Customer Value Journey gets you email addresses.
Sure, you might have thousands of followers on Instagram. Or perhaps you have a devoted fan base on a Facebook page. That certainly deserves a pat on the back, because gaming the social media system is no easy task!
Now, imagine this: in some apocalyptic (but not unlikely) future, your hard-earned fans decided to migrate to a new platform. That new platform has all sorts of exciting new features. All the cool kids are doing it. Even the un-cool kids are doing it. Your fans are so over wherever you have been hanging out.
They all moved on and left you in the social media version of the stone age.
But you know what can never get taken away from you? Your email list. Social media trends may rise and fall. Email marketing is forever.
But getting that email address can feel like pulling teeth. A Customer Value Strategy helps you figure out how to build a strong email list without the headache.
Knowing Your Customer Value Journey Saves Money
Chances are, you’ve spent a lot of money getting that first customer. You’ve invested in production, inventory upkeep, not to mention the marketing costs of paid ads, promotional events, or even giveaways.
If you are going to spend that kind of money, why not keep the client you worked so hard to get instead of constantly trying to find new clients?
The Customer Value Journey considers your customer along the way; it doesn’t just plop the product or service in their lap and call it good. It makes sure that your customers aren’t just a one-and-done deal; they are here to stay.
And that saves you TONS of time and money in the long run.
Your Customer Value Journey Converts Interested Customers into Loyal Fans
Do you know what is better than a customer who loves your product? A customer who tells everyone they know how much they love your product.
Social proof is critical to any content marketing strategy. After all, you can talk until your face is blue about how amazing your product or service is. You can run the most magnificent ad campaign worthy of the SuperBowl commercial set. But just like anything else in life, we look to other people to tell us whether or not something is worth buying.
It’s called social proof, and it is a powerful psychology force. It’s also critical to your content marketing strategy. You have to take your customers on the kind of journey that inspires them to say good things about you, whether that be through reviews or testimonials on your website.
If you do it well enough, you can even turn them into partners who help sell your product. This could be through affiliate marketing or other partnership structures. If keeping your customers around is winning the battle, then converting them into loyal fans who love talking you up (and helping sell your product) is winning the war.
If you don’t do it, your competitors will.
This might be the most important reason you should be considering your Customer Value Journey as part of your overall content marketing strategy. We hate to bring up #FOMO, but it’s true. If you aren’t thinking through your customer’s brand journey on the whole, chances are, your competitors are.
They are effectively strategizing their brand awareness. They are getting every single lead that visits their website on their email marketing list. They are converting those leads and nurturing them into loyal fans who are singing their praises on social media for all eternity. And their business is growing in leaps and bounds because of it.
Wouldn’t you rather all of that success go to you, not your competitor? Then the fact of the matter is, you can’t afford not to consider a customer success plan as part of your overall content marketing strategy.
OKAY, OKAY, you are probably thinking. You are realizing the importance of a Customer Value Journey. You might be aching to get started. But where to begin?
A lot of other small business owners share that yucky feeling of marketing overwhelm. It’s no fun. But many people can’t afford the huge price tag of hiring a full-time marketing agency to do it all.
That’s why we’ve created this free quiz, for people who are stuck somewhere in the middle and are unsure of where to start! With our quiz, you can determine where to focus your energy when it comes to your marketing strategy. So what are you waiting for?! Take our quiz, now!