Developing your customer purchasing journey
I think a lot of business owners aren't super clear on how people are discovering their business or how people are interacting with their business, up until the point of purchase and even after that point. This is really important because it's going to allow you to start to formulate and build a proper sales funnel, that's going to bring people down the purchase journey, and it's going to grow the know like and trust factor for people who are coming into your orbit, getting to know you and your business, and eventually purchasing from you.
When we're thinking about meeting people where they're at with the value that they need, we really need to think about what types of people are coming to you, and where are they at in their journey. A great example of this would be, what are the needs, or the problems that people are dealing with when they're starting to seek out a solution.
For example, for the digital marketing agency that would be: Who do we serve? We serve small businesses or small business owners who don't have the budget to hire a marketing team in house, and they're really looking to outsource their marketing or parts of their marketing to someone who is going to feel like a partner.
It's kind of like outsourcing their entire marketing department but making it feel internal. That's really who we work with with the digital marketing agency for the most part. And so the problem that they are having when they're starting to seek out a solution for this would be either they've been trying to do their own marketing up until now and they're really seeing that they don't know how to do this, or don’t have the time to do it, or they don't have the interest in doing this.
When they're starting to discover us, or they're starting to find a solution to their problem, how are they starting to look for this thing? This solution might be Googling for us, if not, it's going to be reaching out to their network.
How we really connect with new potential customers is via referrals and Facebook groups. This is our primary lead generation platform. So we know that those people are going to post, or look in a Facebook group for that support for that solution that they're looking for and so because of that, we make sure that we create content and share that content in Facebook groups, we make sure that we are engaging with those people with those questions that they're asking in groups, so that they are able to discover us.
On the coaching side of things. I often work with people who are starting their own small businesses or they've already started their own small business, and they're really looking to build a business that makes them feel supported and is paying them what they need to be paid. They might be ready to really go from a solopreneur who's making money from inconsistent clients to building a business that has a good consistent client base.
Those people are typically searching for content in a couple of places. They might be searching on Google, they might be searching on Pinterest for an answer. They might be turning to those Facebook groups or Instagram. The questions they're asking are typically “How do I get clients in my business? How do I grow my revenue? How do I grow my business? How do I organize my business?”
Our job is to create content around those questions, and we make sure that those answers that we're providing are coming up on Google via blog posts, via podcast episodes, things like that. We're sharing that information and engaging with those people in Facebook groups were sharing those blog posts and sharing those social media posts onto Pinterest so those are coming up and becoming discoverable on Pinterest.
The next step after they've discovered us and we've answered some of these initial questions is to focus on how are we continuing to provide the value that they need, the answers to the questions that they have, where they're spending time. This is really key for a lot of people to be able to understand the purchasing journey for your audience and for your customers or potential customers because this is how you figure out that you might need to create a lead magnet because you want to build your email list and you want to be able to continue to talk to these potential customers.
What lead magnet, do they need? How would they consume that content, but also what are the questions that they're asking and how can we answer those via a lead magnet? Then it might be how do we continue to show value and build trust before they make that high ticket purchase if you're a high ticket service provider, or you have a high ticket product. Do they need to build that trust over a longer period of time, do they need to either consume more of your content to build that trust, or maybe purchase a lower ticket item to continue to build that trust before they're ready to buy that thing?
They might not need a low ticket thing, before they're ready to purchase the higher ticket which is: agency services like digital ad management, social media management and full service marketing, all that kind of stuff, they don't need some in between product price, but coaching clients need that. They need to build that trust, they need to get to know you more, they need to feel like you really have the answers to their questions and you're really going to be able to help them to get where they want and need to go.
How do you get something in between there? Well that's ebooks we have available, that's the Get More Leads Using Facebook Groups E-book which has a super accessible price of $27, it gives great value answers to a lot of their questions and builds that trust. That might be courses like my Content to Clients course, or Click-Up for Entrepreneurs course. That might be some of our low ticket digital downloads, like our Financial Planner, things like that.
Those are things that are going to enable them to get a higher level of value than just the the free content you're putting out, but continue down that purchase funnel, continue down that customer journey and continue to get to know you better so that they feel really content and confident. Since what they got from the free stuff is already so valuable to them and they know it’s good, spending money on low ticket things feel even more valuable and reassuring to them.
When you deliver on that, then they will need more specific and targeted support. They know via the free content that value is great, and then they paid this low ticket thing and the value was even better, so now they feel so much more confident to go out and buy that digital strategy intensive or go out and do a one on one coaching package.
A lot of people don't think about it this way, they don't think about their customers purchase journey, but this is so key because you can now create not only free content, but paid content, paid digital products, low ticket services and products that they need at a price point that they need before you go and sell them on that other thing. And the benefit of this is not only are you increasing your average revenue per customer because they're going to go buy this thing and then go buy the high ticket thing, but you're going to have a higher conversion rate, because the likelihood that someone who just found out about you somewhat recently, the likelihood that they're going to buy a $7 product, the likelihood that they're going to buy $1,000 product later on.
You're going to still be able to expand your customer base and capture those people who might not be ready for or might not ever be ready for those higher ticket things, but you can still serve them and you can still sell to them at those lower ticket price points, and this is really what you want to be thinking about both with your free content with your free value, and with your paid services and products.
So I definitely encourage you to take a beat, and think about what is your customers purchase journey, how are they discovering you, where are they discovering you, how you are building the know like trust factor.
Typically, it's going to take a very short period of time for the digital marketing agency. We might have someone who we've done lead gen on a business that we've done lead gen on or connected with within a month of interacting with them.
When it comes to coaching and consulting clients, it might take them two to three months of discovering consuming free content, maybe consuming some of those lower ticket price point products or services, to get to a point where they are ready to purchase those higher ticket, either a digital strategy intensive, or a coaching package.
That's not a bad thing but being super clear on that timeline is going to be really helpful for you so that you don't set unrealistic expectations in terms of how quickly is this person going to convert into a paying client. Also, as you bring more people into your orbit, as more people discover you, you can get a better at anticipating when you will potentially increase revenue from that person.
If your typical customer journey is two or three months long, why would you expect them to book within two weeks? If you have a spike in new followers because you've been doing some cross promotion going on other people's podcasts, and your typical customer journey is two to three months long, why would you all of a sudden think that those new followers that you just got last week are going to be converting for you?
The answer is they're probably not, they might, a few of them might, but on average they're not going to. And so many people can't answer a lot of these questions about their business, but it is so impactful and it's so helpful to think about where are we connecting and how are we connecting with our potential customers and how are we delivering value where they're at right now, in the purchase journey, not where we want them to be in the purchase journey.
