Deep Dive Into Grow And Give

Show Notes

This is the final episode in our Deep Dive podcast series, which explored the 5 customer journey states. Previous episodes examined See, Think and Do.This episode is all about the importance of personalized content for the end phase of the buying journey: Grow and Give.  We will discuss the goals, appropriate content, targeting methods, and measurement for the current customers that comprise the Grow and Give states.

Overview of Previous States (04:55 – 07:42)

• Find a high-level overview of all 5 journey states in Episode 16
  • A Deep Dive Into See State (Episode 23) – the audience is qualified, but not thinking about purchasing your product/service or changing vendors.
  • A Deep Dive Into Think State (Episode 27) –  the audience is qualified AND thinking about purchasing or changing vendors, BUT has no timeline or commitment to do so
  • A Deep Dive Into Do State (Episode 31) – the audience is qualified AND has a commitment to themselves or someone else to purchase within a specific period of time
  • Grow – the happy and loyal customer
  • Give – the happy and loyal customer who believes in your product or service so much they would refer a friend or family member
• Read Steve’s blog, “See – Think – Do: A Framework for Understanding Your Prospect’s State of Being” as a reference.

The Importance of Targeting Grow and Give (07:45 – 12:00)

The first rule of many businesses is to retain current customers and build a loyal following. Yet, many companies focus solely on customer acquisition rather than customer retention — even though it can cost 7 times more to acquire new customers.  Oftentimes, companies stop nurturing their newly acquired customer after the sale. This is a huge mistake because the probability of selling to a current customer is higher than a new prospect. Plus, it’s cheaper.

The Goals For Grow and Give  (12:05 – 14:40)

• Goals For Grow
  • Reinforce the brand and its key message and create “stickiness”
  • Increase revenue through upsells and cross-selling
• Goals For Give
  • Give customers the tools and messaging to spread the word of our products/services by using language in alignment with our brand, and motivate them to do so.Charity Break – Set Up For Students  (20:45 – 21:40)

Appropriate Content For Current Customers (14:45 – 26:15)

• The purpose of content for Grow:
  • Reinforce the brand’s personality and core values so that customers remember why they love our products or services. Examples include:
    • Mailchimp email newsletter
    • Zoho product suite blog post: Our Product Strategy: How Zoho Services Fit Together
    • Sony PR: Six things you didn’t know you could do with PlayStation VR.
• The purpose of content for Give:
  • Reinforce the brand’s personality and core values so that customers know how to talk about us and use the correct verbiage. Examples include:
    • Mailchimp email newsletter because it demonstrates product features while reinforcing that core brand philosophy
    • Nimble regularly asks its users to leave reviews on sites like G2Crowd
• Content and call to actions can differ between the Grow and Give states.

Charity Break – Books For Africa  (26:30 – 27:20)

Targeting Methods for Current Customers (27:25 – 39:10)

• Email Marketing
• Direct Mail
• Mobile Messaging (SMS)
• CRM to target social media advertising (Facebook, Twitter)
• CRM to target web/mobile display advertising (AdRoll)
  
• Targeting current customers varies depending on the sales model.
  • Direct – easy because existing databases can be leveraged
  • Distributor – more complicated, but offer rebates, coupons and discount codes work well.  Warranty registrations are another good targeting method.
• When determining if a customer is in the Grow or Give state, we can detect these signals in our marketing automation and via retargeting based on the content they engage with on a website or social media.

Measuring Success (39:15 – 44:00)

• Grow
  • Attributable revenue from marketing activities
  • Churn rate
• Give
  • Referrals
  • Reviews

Summary (44:05 – 45:45)

• Current customers fall into one of two states – Grow or Give
  • Grow are those customers that have purchased your product and would choose to do so again
  • Give are those customers who have purchased your product and love your product so much they tell others about it
• The content we create to support our current customers should:
  • Reinforce brand personality and core value proposition
  • Make the ask clear and obvious
  • Create a sense of urgency, if possible
  • Reinforce the purchasing rationale so they can justify the emotional decision they made to themselves and others
• Targeting methods will be the same for both Grow and Give and are largely database driven
  • Ability to use your database depends on if you sell directly.
• Measurement
  • Grow
    • Attributable revenue from marketing activities
    • Churn rate
  • Give
    • Referrals
    • Reviews
    • Social advocacy

We hope you want to join us on our journey. Find us on IterativeMarketing.net, the hub for the methodology and community. Email us at podcast@iterativemarketing.net, follow us on twitter at @iter8ive or join The Iterative Marketing Community LinkedIn group.

The Iterative Marketing Podcast is a production of Brilliant Metrics, a consultancy helping brands and agencies rid the world of marketing waste.

Producer: Heather Ohlman
Transcription: Emily Bechtel
Music: SeaStock Audio

Onward and upward!