What is a customer value journey in digital marketing?
Marketing in today’s busy, mostly online, 24/7 world is remarkably different from the cold calling, sales-making style of marketing of a decade ago. If you’re in marketing, you’ll know that one of the most successful forms of marketing today is content marketing – offering relevant, engaging content to clients – the kind of content that makes them want to engage with your brand and your business over and over again.
Any marketer worth their salt knows that this type of marketing is not about the once-off sale or the hot deal. A truly successful marketing strategy focuses on a business’ long-term relationship with their clients, a relationship that is nurtured over numerous interactions, that works to turn customers into loyal fans – fans who not only buy from the business but are avid supporters and promoters today and into the future.
This brings us to the concept of the customer value journey – the process of getting the most value out of your clients through a series of organised interactions. The customer value journey is a process, made up of a number of steps and the frequency and nature of those steps can change depending on the nature of your business and what it is you want to gain from your interactions with your clients (while in turn offering them the best value possible).
Basic steps on the customer value journey
1. Create awareness
It doesn't matter how great your product or service if your ideal customers don’t know you exist or what you can do for them. Brand awareness (through the right channels, using the ‘best fit’ campaigns) is a crucial foundation step for connecting with the customers you want and need.
2. Get (and keep) attention
People are bombarded with new marketing messages every day. Harness the power of content marketing (with the aim of education and entertainment) to get your brand noticed and to get customers to engage with what you have to offer.
3. Lead generation
After attention, the process of turning an interested individual into a paying customer starts with lead generation – find your target market and offer them content marketing in exciting and enticing ways. The aim? To collect their contact information to use at a later stage to get them to subscribe to your brand and buy your products i.e. the practice of conversion. Effective lead generation relies on giving something of value to the customer, even better if it includes a solution to their problem.
4. Sell and up-sell
Now that you have a loyal client on your hands, you can use your long-term relationship with them to stay in touch, keep adding value to their experiences with your business, and sell more to them. You can take this further and up-sell your services and products, while keeping your client so happy that they start referring you to their connections.
5. Fans, fans, fans
Once a customer has brought into your products, services and your brand, you no longer have simply a customer – you have an advocate for your brand and business. This means someone who will actively promote your business to others, encouraging them to engage in their own customer journey with you.
When it comes to marketing, does your business work with the customer value journey to maximise your interactions with your clients, to go beyond the sale to creating a sustainable relationship of mutual value? Would you like to try that? Talk to us. As content marketing experts, we are focused on creating and delivering digital marketing strategies that will drive sales for your business while building long-term relationships with your ideal clients. Work with us and you’ll soon see the results of our combination of marketing experience, expertise, and passion for all things marketing.