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.
- Reinforce the brand’s personality and core values so that customers remember why they love our products or services. Examples include:
- 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
- Reinforce the brand’s personality and core values so that customers know how to talk about us and use the correct verbiage. Examples include:
- 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
- Grow
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 [email protected], 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!
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