You’ve taken an essential step in establishing who your ideal customer is, and now it’s time to plot their ideal journey. Think about the experience your customer has after they have joined your list. What’s their next step with you and their next, and their next?

Simply having an email list is not a result in itself. You have to take action to continue to attract the attention of your ideal customer. When you intentionally build the path you would like your subscribers to take, you are more likely to see positive results, with increased sales and improved relationships with your ideal customers.

In this module, you’ll plot out your customer’s path and learn how you can incrementally build sales. The results will come as you gain interaction with your subscribers, learn more about your audience, and see your revenue grow.

Create a Start-to-Finish Plan

“To begin with the end in mind means to start with a clear understanding of your destination. It means to know where you’re going so that you better understand where you are now and so that the steps that you take are always in the right direction.” – Stephen Covey

You need to map out the journey you want your customer to take with you and your business. This is for your use so that you can plan ahead; you don’t tell the customer!

To start, they will sign up for your free content (aka your “freebie” or “lead magnet”). This can be anything of value such as a checklist, a mini course, or even a how-to guide. We’ll go into detail on this in the next module.

To finish, you need to decide what you want your customer to purchase from you. Is the final step to be working one-to-one with you on a high-level, tailored program? Or is it to buy your highest priced product and support package? This is your end goal.

Once you’ve established this, then you have the first and the last steps and can fill in the stages in between.

Let’s go a little deeper with this.

What are Sales Funnels?

You’ve probably heard of sales funnels before and maybe even felt a bit overwhelmed by the topic. While it might sound complicated, a sales funnel is simply the sales process a buyer takes. It’s their customer journey.
At the start of your funnel, there will be a lot of people signing up for your email list because they are attracted to your free offer. As your prospective customers move through the sales funnel, there will be fewer prospects at each stage. They will eventually dwindle down to a much smaller number of high paying customers at the end of the funnel.
With a sales funnel, not all subscribers will complete all stages of the journey. Don’t be discouraged though because some will, and they will become your biggest revenue earners and brand supporters.
The customer journey allows you to develop purposeful interactions that build a relationship between you and your potential customer. Your email list is one of the easiest ways to start this process. It will help you take the customer through the sales funnel as far as they want to go.

The 4 Stages of the Sales Funnel

The customer journey is comprised of 4 key stages, from your first interaction to their conversion (aka the sale).

Stage 1: Discovery. Whether they came across your website, read one of your blog posts, or were referred directly to you, this is where your ideal customer first becomes aware of you. At this stage, your customers haven’t established enough trust with you, so it’s too soon to try to sell anything. It is, however, a great time to promote free content because doing so establishes you as the thought leader in your field and gives you an opportunity to continue to build relationships.

Stage 2: Relationship. Now that you’ve built some rapport with your subscriber, during this stage you’re getting to know each other better. This is a great time to introduce them to your product or service but resist the urge to jump directly into selling. Continue to provide valuable, targeted content in all of your emails to consistently nurture your relationship.

Stage 3: Purchase. Now your prospect is ready to make a purchase and become a customer. When you’ve reached this stage, your subscriber knows exactly how valuable your products or services are and is ready to decide whether or not they will make a purchase. This is the ideal time to highlight the true benefits of what you have to offer. You can give promotions or special discounts or even create a sense of urgency for subscribers to complete their purchase. Avoid anything that comes across as ‘pushy’ or a hard sell, which tends to turn people off.

Stage 4: Follow Up. The sales funnel doesn’t stop when a customer makes a purchase. You need to follow up with them. In fact, if you don’t follow up, you risk losing customers and all the hard work you put in to creating your funnel. Build loyalty by following up with your customer. Continue to provide value by offering information about the product/service they purchased and answering their questions. This is all part of giving great customer service and when you do so, it will help you get referrals and more sales.

At each stage, you are nurturing your relationship with your client and this will generate more business for you. Remember to be genuine, relevant, and to offer something that is meaningful to your target audience. People don’t like to be sold to but they will make a purchase once they see the value.

Here’s an example of a customer journey working with a coach. There are five stages and at each stage the customer’s commitment (time, motivation, and financial investment) increases:

1. Sign up for lead magnet such as a free checklist or guide
2. Sign up for small priced offer (an eBook, an email course, a Facebook challenge)
3. Buy an online course
4. Sign up for the group coaching package that accompanies the online course
5. Sign up to work one-on-one with the coach

Create a Reason for Subscribers to Act

To help subscribers along their customer journey, each stage needs a clear “call to action.” A call-to-action is the specific action you want a customer to take next so that they can get more help from you with their challenge. Your first call-to-action will be for them to ask for your lead magnet. A lead magnet is something of value that is free and utterly irresistible to your email base. (In the next module, you’ll learn how to create an enticing lead magnet that people will want to sign up for.)

Encourage subscribers with these call-to-action examples:

• Sign up for a free course
• Download an eBook
• Commit to a business coaching session
• Watch a video series
• Enroll in an online program
• Attend a webinar, Facebook live event, etc.

Without a meaningful call-to-action, your subscriber may not know what to do next. And they may end up doing nothing. They’ll click off your page and get on to something else and your chance will be lost. It’s one thing to offer free, valuable content but it must be followed up with a very clear action step.

Conclusion

The customer journey goes beyond the traditional view of the sales process, since it doesn’t end at becoming a customer, and the income generated rises with each stage.

You may not have all the stages totally clear right now, but you do need to have some idea of where you’re planning to take your ideal customer. Don’t wait for your subscriber to dictate your next step; have a simple plan in place. Your plan may evolve over time as you learn more about the process and that’s to be expected.