Align Sales Processes With Customers - Charles George

Charles George - "Publish to Thrive"

Welcome to the Publish the Thrive Radio Show. Every business owner can benefit from publishing their knowledge. Today, every business is a publisher. Whether you are creating content for social media, blog posts, videos, podcasts, newsletters, long-form sales letters to sell your products or services, or  premium content like books, paid newsletters, online courses, membership sites. Everyone is a publisher.  Publishing helps you reach new prospects, strengthen relationships with current customers and create additional revenue opportunities.

I’m your host Charles George. I am a digital direct marketer and copywriter. For about 20 years, I have consulted with businesses on creating marketing campaigns that reach new customers and sell more to their current customers. Today, I focus on building profitable online audiences and brands.

On the show we talk about marketing, sales and growth for stage 3 businesses.

You can follow me personally at www.PublishtoThrive.com.

Show Objectives
We are going to discuss aligning the sales process with the customer journey.

How do we lead people through from not knowing about our business or anything about us to becoming an advocate customer who is the most valuable customer in our business?

First, let us define the customer journey.

Suspect – Prospect- First Time Buyer- Multi-Buyer - Loyal Customer- Advocate –
 
The key is to develop systems that allow you to lead people throughout the customer journey. Systems allow you to build your business and lead to predictable, scalable growth.  
 
The whole process starts with the customer. Who you do want to reach and how are you going to serve them? What products and services do you offer?
 
Segment 2 - What You Need to Know
First, this segment we are going to focus on the Suspect and Prospect.
Content you will need for this segment.
 
We are introducing people to our company.
During the introduction stage, suspects are just learning about your product or service. Content is the perfect vehicle to engage your audience. Content provides value and can differentiate your company from competitors.  

Types of content to create for The Introduction Stage
 Blog Posts
Infographics
Social Media Posts
Photographs
PodcastsReports
Print Magazines
Snail Mail
Newsletters

During the introduction stage, people are just starting to get to know you. They may read blog posts, listen to podcasts, look at infographics and pictures, and even engage with your social media posts. This type of content serves two purposes.

 -It introduces you to new people who may be interested in your product or services.
 – It keeps you “top of mind” of current customers 
– It can lead people to subscribing to your email list and purchasing products.  
-Use the introduction stage content to build your audience.
 
Co-Schedule- Allows us to automate a lot of this stage.
We need to create the content, but it will post it to the social media channels for us, and it will repost it on social media to drive even more traffic back to our website.

 Now we can also Build Facebook audiences with each piece of content. I can create custom audiences for people who have engaged with our facebook page, for each blog post, and for specific topics.
 
Segment 3 –
Prospect to First-time Customer

The second stage of the buyer’s journey is The Evaluation Stage. During this stage, people go from a suspect to a prospect. Suspects may opt-in to your email list or spend time on a webinar. They start to learn more about the company’s products and services. Subscribers open emails and click on links. During this stage, people are getting to know your company on a deeper level. They are learning more about the benefits of your products and services. 

Types of content businesses need for this stage are:
Lead Magnets
White Papers
Case Studies
Free Guides
Free e-books
Reports
Landing pages
E-newsletters
Promotional emails
Autoresponders
 
Segment 4- What You Need to Do​
As we move people throughout the customer journey this is really about conversion. As our relationships grow and trust with prospects and customers increase, it gets easier to move them to higher levels of customers.

The third stage is when prospects become customers. This stage can also be when first time customers become multi-buyers, loyal customers, and advocates for your business. Often content in this stage can ascend customers to higher and more valuable customer levels.

The conversion stage focuses on generating revenue.
 Types of content needed for this stage are:
Short-form sales letters
Long-form sales letters
Video sales letters
Webinars
Check out pages
Order forms

Often, the highest skilled copywriters create the content for this stage. Often copywriters spend years perfecting their skills writing long-form sales-letters. One of my favorite quotes for this stage is by Mark Ford. He said, “A tweet won’t sell much. But a long-form sales-letter will.”

So, now you know how to use different types of content to move your audience through the customer journey. The most important thing to remember is to have fun creating the content.

Remember, each piece of content you create needs to have a purpose. If not, then you will be on the content hamster wheel. You will be creating endless content without any direction or reason why you are creating the content. Develop a content creation plan, so you know why you are creating each piece of content.

Finally, each piece of content you create is an asset to your business. Each piece of content can help establish credibility, attract visitors to your website, and can generate revenue. Creating consistent, purposeful content is one of the most powerful marketing strategies you can implement for your business.
 
About Charles George
Charles George is passionate about helping purpose-driven entrepreneurs create a lifestyle business by combining publishing with direct marketing.

One of the fastest and most profitable ways to build an audience is through email. Download Charles' free report 101 Ways to Increase the Size of Your Email List. http://publishtothrive.com/IBGR

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