Marketing can sometimes feel a bit like herding cats.
Gathering an entire online global audience that matches your target customer-personas, AND is willing to buy something from you is certainly easier said than done.
An easy way to think of most marketing pipelines is as a journey from stranger to customer.
Catering to every potential customer, along every step of their journey, costs a huge amount of effort.
A huge amount of effort you can’t afford, with potentially thousands of other niche customer-personas also waiting for you to be their sherpa.
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So how do you effectively convert customer leads into sales, without draining all your resources in the process?
The answer is: Signposting.
By leaving actionable checkpoints along your customer journey, you can create a customer journey that establishes a committed audience without the labor of manually shepherding each and every niche of potential customers.
This leaves you more room to tackle those high-energy clients, and expand your business.
Imagine your business as a mountain, far off in the distance. The summit of the mountain represents your offer – what you’re selling.
Your target audience, and potential customers, reside in a village a little ways from the base of the mountain.
None of them have climbed this mountain before, and they don’t know the way.
But, just as we mentioned before, that doesn’t mean they need direct guidance all the way up the mountain from the village.
Most potential customers can at least make it to the foot of the mountain with only a little signposting, before needing additional, manual support up the sheer face of the cliff.
This rings true for your business too – most potential customers can make it to the foot of the mountain by themselves (where you propose your offer), and from there all you need to focus on is convincing them to take your offer and reach the summit.
There is simply no point in investing that extra time and money to guide them manually, all the way to the foot of the mountain: it’s just not needed. Instead, create a customer journey map to visualize and simplify the steps and interactions they will encounter, ensuring a smoother path to your offer.
As a marketer, your job is all about maximizing reach and impact, with minimal effort.
By focusing your energy on the base camps in your customer’s journey, you are free to spread your reach over a larger demographic and still have your workload remain manageable.
Here are the key points on your customer journey that you should focus on:
Gather: Where you initially attract and locate your ideal customers (in the village)
Growth: The point where you build relationship and trust, and start fulfilling your initial promises/providing value. Steer them towards the mountain!
Propose: Where you present your offer. Pour your effort into convincing potential customers to tackle the sheer cliff.
Sell: Welcome customers as they enter your “inner circle”, making purchases and engaging with what you offer directly. Congratulate them on reaching the summit!
Let’s look at an example of how you can break up your marketing plan into the key points:
Suppose IndieBrandBuilder wanted to launch an online course teaching Fine Art. We want to teach this course live, and our marketing strategy should match accordingly. Here’s how we’d signpost our customer journey.
Gather: We would steadily produce content for Instagram, YouTube, and our blog, focusing on basic art skills and targeting new learners.
Growth: Email newsletters and weekly podcasts would provide valuable art tips and learning resources, and prepare potential customers.
Propose: We would announce the course in our email newsletters and podcasts, and advertise it on our website – promising EVEN MORE value and specifically targeting this stage of our customer’s journey.
Sell: We’d have a couple of weeks of sales at launch where people who were loyally waiting can be rewarded and purchase the course for less.
Put this ^ in a bubble! 😀
This example demonstrates how you can use customer journey maps to break up your customer journey into 4 simple stages, and devise a tangible marketing plan around them.
If you’re seeking help on how to cater to your ideal customer for the “gather” and “provide” stages, check out our article on mapping out your perfect audience.
Once you’ve established your base camps, consider what strategies you’ll use to keep potential customers motivated and enhance their customer experience throughout their journey.
Attract: How will you attract strangers gathered from the village into your growth channels?
e.g. Create a valuable lead magnet that motivates your target audience to join your email list.
Excite: How will you build up excitement and anticipation for what you are proposing?
e.g. Start a 2-4 week pre-launch ‘hype train’ via email, your podcast, etc, teasing value and offering tasters to build excitement.
Convince: How will you convince your audience that your proposal is their solution to their problems, and is worth investing in?
e.g. During your launch, reassure your audience with early reviews, FAQs, testimonials, and a transparent look behind the curtain, showcasing your product’s journey and use-cases.
Reassure: How will you reassure customers that they made the right choice, and keep them coming back up the mountain for more?
e.g. Have a post-purchase onboarding program to welcome your customers into your community and highlight the value of their purchase! Offer long-lasting value and promise updates. Keep them excited and in the loop as your business grows!
Signposting your customer journey through customer journey mapping provides a simple, step-by-step approach to constructing a marketing plan.
If you’re not achieving the desired number of customers, consider what stage of your journey is deterring customers, and insert more pitstops and safety measures to rejuvenate their progress and quell their worries.
Imagining your marketing plan in stages is a brilliant way to identify areas for improvement!
It all boils down to getting your potential customers up that mountain and making the right proposals at the right time on their journey.
