Stages of the Customer Value Journey
Posted: Sun Dec 22, 2024 5:17 am
To ensure that your marketing strategies are consistent with the stages of your conversion funnel, we recommend implementing a Customer Value Journey .
In this article, we will explain everything you need to know about this technique and how it can help you increase conversion rates.
What is the Customer Value Journey?
The Customer Value Journey is a graphic representation of the ideal process by which your leads become sales prospects, your sales prospects become customers, and your customers become promoters of your brand.
It can also be defined as a map or scheme made up of 8 stages that serves to establish the main actions that your clients carry out, from when they interact with your business for the first time until they recommend your products or services to other people.
Differences between the Buyer Journey and the Customer Value Journey
Before moving forward in this guide, it is important that you know the difference between Buyer Journey and Customer Value Journey, as some people often confuse both terms.
The Buyer Journey is the journey that a user takes from the moment they recognize that they have a problem or need until they decide on a market offer that can solve their problem.
Briefly know what its three stages consist of:
Recognition stage
The user experiences a problem, challenge or opportunity that is not clear to them exactly, so they conduct online research to better understand their situation and the problem they have.
Consideration stage
The user already knows what the problem is and is now trying to better understand the different solutions that can be used to solve it.
Decision stage
After researching solutions, the user makes more specific searches for products, services, companies or suppliers that can satisfy their needs with the aim of making a purchasing decision.
We invite you to read: What is the buyer's journey?
Now, while the Buyer Journey only considers the stages prior to the purchase process of a product and/or service, the Customer Value Journey provides greater specificity and extends that process even further, as it incorporates the ideal moments that would follow the purchase decision, and in which your company interacts even more with the user.
While the Buyer Journey has 3 stages, the Customer Value Journey has 8. However, despite these differences, both “journeys” are important to consider. Their frameworks and stages can be considered together to build effective marketing, sales and customer service strategies.
stages-of-the-customer-value-journey
1. Awareness
In this first stage, users begin to know you and become “aware” that you exist, possibly through the following practices:
Viewing your website, ads, and social media posts.
Hearing about you in conversation with friends or family.
Reading recommendations.
For this first stage of the Customer Value Journey to occur, we recommend:
Implement SEO strategies on your website so that it appears in the first search results.
Create brand-building ads and social media posts to get your name out there.
Segment your audiences well in your advertising to attract users who are truly interested in your company's services.
Delight your current customers so they can attract more buyers to your business.
2. Engagement
At this point, users start to engage and feel even more attracted to your content: articles, ebooks, guides, videos, webinars, podcasts, social media posts, among others; so they start to interact and show their interest.
If you want your content to engage your future sales prospects, make sure it has the following characteristics:
Readability.
Attractive design.
Creativity.
Originality.
3. Subscription (subscribe)
At this stage, users subscribe to your blog, download a content offer or sign up for a webinar, to continue maintaining contact with your company through their email.
During the process, users provide you with their data (including their email) and become part of your CRM system.
Using the conversion funnel as a reference, at this stage users go from being strangers to becoming leads, that is, contacts for your company.
What will guarantee these subscriptions will be the quality of your content and the level of commitment that your leads generate with them.
4. Conversion (convert)
At this stage of the Customer Value Journey , your leads become sales opportunities or customers, demonstrating greater commitment and interest towards your company.
They usually demonstrate this by giving you a few minutes of their time, requesting a free demonstration, or making a small purchase of the cheapest products or services.
To ensure that the transition from leads to customers or sales opportunities occurs correctly, both in your conversion funnel and in the Customer Value Journey , we recommend:
Nurture your leads with personalized content.
Send irresistible offers via email. For example: 2 for 1 promotions.
Use automated marketing tools to program chatbots and autoresponders. This allows you to answer specific questions related to your products and/or services, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
5. Emotion (excite)
After your new customer makes their first transaction, you need to make them feel comfortable with their purchase and add value to it by providing an exciting and memorable customer experience.
At this stage, the idea is that your customer feels happy with their purchase and wants to stay in touch with your brand. To make this happen, we recommend:
Give them a discount on their next purchase (make sure it's a higher value purchase to increase your profits).
Give them access to exclusive informational or educational material for customers.
Give him small gifts on his birthday.
6. Ascend (ascend)
At this stage, your customer starts purchasing new products and/or services and telegram free number philippines a repeat buyer of your company. This is thanks to your efforts in the previous stage to make them feel comfortable with their initial purchase.
However, no matter how happy your customer is, you need to employ sales strategies to motivate new purchases. These include:
Cross selling
Cross selling is the act of selling your customers a product or service that is complementary to the one they have already purchased. For example, if your customer has purchased a mobile phone, you can offer them headphones as an accessory.
Up selling
Upselling is the act of offering your customer a product or service of greater value than what they have already purchased, but which is also related to their interests.
7. Defend the brand (advocate)
At this point, your customer's shopping experience and level of satisfaction becomes a success story for your company.
If a person has purchased your products and/or services several times, it means that you have built a loyal customer base. Therefore, you should take advantage of this situation to motivate them to share their experience through testimonials.
You can interview them live or via email, asking them about their experience with your company, what motivated them to become a customer, and how your company helped them meet their needs or solve their problems.
8. Promote the brand (promote)
Finally, in this last stage, customers begin to recommend your products and/or services to other consumers.
They go from being customers to promoters of your brand, they create a close bond with your company, and they are the reason why more and more buyers begin the Customer Value Journey , starting at the first stage or going directly to the conversion stage where they make a purchase.
Benefits of the Customer Value Journey
Some of the benefits of the Customer Value Journey are:
Higher return on investment in marketing and sales
Faster sales cycles
Increase conversion rates
Customer experience improvements
In this article, we will explain everything you need to know about this technique and how it can help you increase conversion rates.
What is the Customer Value Journey?
The Customer Value Journey is a graphic representation of the ideal process by which your leads become sales prospects, your sales prospects become customers, and your customers become promoters of your brand.
It can also be defined as a map or scheme made up of 8 stages that serves to establish the main actions that your clients carry out, from when they interact with your business for the first time until they recommend your products or services to other people.
Differences between the Buyer Journey and the Customer Value Journey
Before moving forward in this guide, it is important that you know the difference between Buyer Journey and Customer Value Journey, as some people often confuse both terms.
The Buyer Journey is the journey that a user takes from the moment they recognize that they have a problem or need until they decide on a market offer that can solve their problem.
Briefly know what its three stages consist of:
Recognition stage
The user experiences a problem, challenge or opportunity that is not clear to them exactly, so they conduct online research to better understand their situation and the problem they have.
Consideration stage
The user already knows what the problem is and is now trying to better understand the different solutions that can be used to solve it.
Decision stage
After researching solutions, the user makes more specific searches for products, services, companies or suppliers that can satisfy their needs with the aim of making a purchasing decision.
We invite you to read: What is the buyer's journey?
Now, while the Buyer Journey only considers the stages prior to the purchase process of a product and/or service, the Customer Value Journey provides greater specificity and extends that process even further, as it incorporates the ideal moments that would follow the purchase decision, and in which your company interacts even more with the user.
While the Buyer Journey has 3 stages, the Customer Value Journey has 8. However, despite these differences, both “journeys” are important to consider. Their frameworks and stages can be considered together to build effective marketing, sales and customer service strategies.
stages-of-the-customer-value-journey
1. Awareness
In this first stage, users begin to know you and become “aware” that you exist, possibly through the following practices:
Viewing your website, ads, and social media posts.
Hearing about you in conversation with friends or family.
Reading recommendations.
For this first stage of the Customer Value Journey to occur, we recommend:
Implement SEO strategies on your website so that it appears in the first search results.
Create brand-building ads and social media posts to get your name out there.
Segment your audiences well in your advertising to attract users who are truly interested in your company's services.
Delight your current customers so they can attract more buyers to your business.
2. Engagement
At this point, users start to engage and feel even more attracted to your content: articles, ebooks, guides, videos, webinars, podcasts, social media posts, among others; so they start to interact and show their interest.
If you want your content to engage your future sales prospects, make sure it has the following characteristics:
Readability.
Attractive design.
Creativity.
Originality.
3. Subscription (subscribe)
At this stage, users subscribe to your blog, download a content offer or sign up for a webinar, to continue maintaining contact with your company through their email.
During the process, users provide you with their data (including their email) and become part of your CRM system.
Using the conversion funnel as a reference, at this stage users go from being strangers to becoming leads, that is, contacts for your company.
What will guarantee these subscriptions will be the quality of your content and the level of commitment that your leads generate with them.
4. Conversion (convert)
At this stage of the Customer Value Journey , your leads become sales opportunities or customers, demonstrating greater commitment and interest towards your company.
They usually demonstrate this by giving you a few minutes of their time, requesting a free demonstration, or making a small purchase of the cheapest products or services.
To ensure that the transition from leads to customers or sales opportunities occurs correctly, both in your conversion funnel and in the Customer Value Journey , we recommend:
Nurture your leads with personalized content.
Send irresistible offers via email. For example: 2 for 1 promotions.
Use automated marketing tools to program chatbots and autoresponders. This allows you to answer specific questions related to your products and/or services, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
5. Emotion (excite)
After your new customer makes their first transaction, you need to make them feel comfortable with their purchase and add value to it by providing an exciting and memorable customer experience.
At this stage, the idea is that your customer feels happy with their purchase and wants to stay in touch with your brand. To make this happen, we recommend:
Give them a discount on their next purchase (make sure it's a higher value purchase to increase your profits).
Give them access to exclusive informational or educational material for customers.
Give him small gifts on his birthday.
6. Ascend (ascend)
At this stage, your customer starts purchasing new products and/or services and telegram free number philippines a repeat buyer of your company. This is thanks to your efforts in the previous stage to make them feel comfortable with their initial purchase.
However, no matter how happy your customer is, you need to employ sales strategies to motivate new purchases. These include:
Cross selling
Cross selling is the act of selling your customers a product or service that is complementary to the one they have already purchased. For example, if your customer has purchased a mobile phone, you can offer them headphones as an accessory.
Up selling
Upselling is the act of offering your customer a product or service of greater value than what they have already purchased, but which is also related to their interests.
7. Defend the brand (advocate)
At this point, your customer's shopping experience and level of satisfaction becomes a success story for your company.
If a person has purchased your products and/or services several times, it means that you have built a loyal customer base. Therefore, you should take advantage of this situation to motivate them to share their experience through testimonials.
You can interview them live or via email, asking them about their experience with your company, what motivated them to become a customer, and how your company helped them meet their needs or solve their problems.
8. Promote the brand (promote)
Finally, in this last stage, customers begin to recommend your products and/or services to other consumers.
They go from being customers to promoters of your brand, they create a close bond with your company, and they are the reason why more and more buyers begin the Customer Value Journey , starting at the first stage or going directly to the conversion stage where they make a purchase.
Benefits of the Customer Value Journey
Some of the benefits of the Customer Value Journey are:
Higher return on investment in marketing and sales
Faster sales cycles
Increase conversion rates
Customer experience improvements