Video Transcript: Customer Value Journey Part 1

Welcome back to our second module in our marketing course. In this particular  course, we're going to continue our discussion of marketing fundamentals, and  we're specifically going to focus on the psychological aspect of the customer's  

value optimization journey is what we call it in the marketing field, whenever  someone develops an awareness of you, of your product, of your service, of  your business, of your ministry, there is a very distinct path from having that  awareness of a product or a service to becoming probably your most ardent  supporter. And there's a whole series of psychological steps that a customer or a 

client or a target prospect is going to follow on this journey, and we call that  journey the customer value optimization process. And there's eight particular  steps that we're most concerned about here, that's this is kind of a simplistic  layout of the marketing journey, the value optimization journey, and no surprise  that the first step actually starts off with becoming aware of the Ministry of your  ministry opportunity. But here's why this particular journey is important. People  at each step of this journey are going to have different needs and wants, and  they're going to form specific impressions, specific perceptions of you at each of  these steps at each level. And this is very true, especially earning early in the in  the process on their pathway journey, the message in the content that you're  putting out, the strategy that you have at each step of this value optimization  journey is going to change. It's going to morph as they are nurtured further along the path. Let's so what we're going to do here is we're going to take a quick look  at each one of these steps. And this is something, this is actually a very  important concept, and you're going to want to be aware of this particular  journey, the psychological growth that people have as they continue to interact  with you and whatever it is you're doing, the first step, as I said, is for someone,  in some way, in some fashion, to become aware of you. Become aware of your  business, become aware of your product services, or your ministry, or whatever  it is that you're involved with, that's the most basic thing. And it'll start with  there's happened because of the messaging that you're putting out, the content,  whether you're renting billboards, you're doing direct mail, or the marketing, your stuff on Facebook, whatever, they'll develop some sort of an awareness, and  something will click, and they'll say, You know what? We need to find out a little  bit more about that. And they advance to the next step. Some of them will  advance to the next step. At each step of this process, a large majority of people will drop out, but some of them will continue on to the next step, and in this  particular case, it's about engaging. So in this particular like I said, there's eight  steps, the journey is completed with the promote or the advocate steps at the  very end, the amount of time that's spent on each of these steps depends on the individual and your content and your messaging strategy, and it's really your  responsibility, I might add, that you develop the content and the message that  moves them to the next level. You always have to be thinking about what sort of  things you got to say, what sort of things you need to do to bring these people to

that next level of involvement. We talked a little bit about awareness. Many of  you are have shared on the different forums here at the Christian Leadership  Institute of how you've come to a saving knowledge in Christ. And it begins with  this awareness, and in some fashion, it or the message was really just sort of  out there, and somehow you got magnetically drawn to that message. In some  fashion, your strategy here is really to kind of understand the need, in a  marketing context, for someone to investigate what it is that you're doing, and  then you need to begin to carefully begin planting the right seeds in the right  places so that you're discovered. So we're going to talk about that a lot more,  obviously, much more. In our future modules, the second step, as I said, is the  Engage. They're aware they've heard of you, and there's at least a few people  that haven't, quite yet slammed the door in your face, and it's during this  particular step where your prospects are checking you out. Are you legitimate?  What are the perceptions that they're getting from you? Do they add up with the  fact that you are legitimate, or you're not a fly by night, thing that you're going to  take advantage of the area or the community or whatever, and exactly what  needs do they perceive that you are going to meet for them, be aware that this  isn't a sales pitch that you send off that's getting deep or shallow, but it's an  honest hey, here's who we are. This is what we're doing, and this is how we're  doing it. The next step along the process is what we call subscribing, and there's a very distinct decision point at this step that people reach when they become  aware of you and they've checked you out and they haven't found a reason yet  to discount you or blow you off, And they're reading some preliminary stuff about you, your goals, your project that you're working on, and they just haven't yet  found a reason to turn off the sound. And perhaps they subscribe to you and  your blog. They might stop by your office or your storefront or your church or  your daycare center. They're slowly making the decision. They're becoming  more and more motivated to become involved in what you're doing. And this  step really makes a very distinct shift towards nurturing or growing. The fourth  step in the journey, customer value optimization journey is when they actually  convert. And I'm not talking about necessarily, necessarily converting to  becoming a Christian or accepting Jesus as their Lord and Savior. What I'm  talking about is they've made the decision to buy whatever it is you're selling,  whether you're selling your ministry, your product, service, whatever it is when  people have had the chance to investigate you and your product or your service  or your ministry, and when they've had that opportunity to qualify those  impressions and perceptions that you're creating their needs and so on, that  you're meeting and you've consistently and carefully nurtured their growth,  they're going to convert, and they will acknowledge you, and they will believe the interesting thing about this step is that this is a this is a very tangible event that  takes place, and when we're in the secular marketing world, the secular Sales  word world, and we're selling products or selling services, it's most noticeable 

when the prospect starts changing their pronouns, the I's and me, and we did  that, and they start using the plural pronouns, where they start talking about us,  we, and that type of thing. It's a very distinct shift. And if you pay attention to  that, you'll pick up on that. It's no longer all about me, it's all about us. It's a very  distinct shift, and you'll pick up on that. And this is a, probably one of the most  critical steps in the in the whole process and the whole psychographic marketing pathway here is this conversion step, because now they've made the  commitment, they've made the decision that they've heard what you're saying,  they see what you're doing, and they want to be part of it. So once they kind of  come through that step, now they start getting excited about this. Hey, have you  heard about this particular thing that I've gotten involved in? It's really cool. It  takes place on Sunday. It takes place on Wednesday night, or whatever the  case is. And they start getting really excited. And you can start to see this  excitement build. You can usually identify a new believer pretty quickly. We  describe them as being on fire for the Lord, so to speak, people at this stage of  the journey always provide a big part of your people resources. They're quick to  get involved in activities and provide, you know, whether nursery or whatever  kind of services that you need to have. They'll quickly get involved in that, and  they have a lot of energy for your ministry, and they're eager to share those  experiences other people in their demographic group. And the nurturing  process, however, does continue, and you need to be aware of that, and you  need to be aware of the new, I should say maybe the higher pace of activities  that are knowledge or content that you need to be delivering to these people to  take them kind of to that next level. It always kind of puzzles me when these  people that are on fire for the Lord where they sort of disappear to and then it  kind of occurred to me, they just kind of graduate to that next level on their  journey, don't they? People at this particular level have provided a lot of the day  to day, hands on involvement in your ministry in the weeks and months and  years past prior. They've got the experience and they have learned what sort of  things work and what sort of things don't work. These are the people who inhabit this particular level on the value optimization process pathway, and providing  them with continued personal growth opportunities continues to be really  important for them. They because at this point, they're aware of the fact that  they're ascending on this level they kind of want to reach. They have this need  to reach the next level of personal growth, but they're now at the point where  they have the expertise, they have the experience, where they can maybe be on a leadership council or help you with some sort of decision making and strategic decision making processes. Once they move past the the ASCEND stage, they  get to a point where they start at becoming one of your best advocates. I think of advocates as being at least somewhat synonymous with Ambassador and the  advocate level of the value optimization journey or the psychological pathway  here, can usually be the end point of the journey for many people, whether it's in

a secular marketing context or in a ministry setting, and these individuals know  what they believe they're sound in their faith, and they actively and ardently  support the product or your your cause or your service or your ministry, and this  is where the financial support dramatically increases as they have less time in  their life because they're getting older, and perhaps have more personal  resources or financial resources that they're able to allocate in your general  direction. The final step on the value journey, the pathway here is the Promote  stage, where someone has progressed to a point where they're actually  promoting that. And an example of that would probably be most of the people  who are taking this course, they're past the point of advocating to say, you know, I need to get hands on. I need to promote some aspect of this ministry, or this  business, or whatever it is. I need to get involved, and I need to start this  process rolling. And it's safe to assume that each one of you that, like I said, that are taking this course and other courses here because you've felt the call to  promote the gospel, and you're equipping yourself with the fundamental  knowledge here and the deepest level of faith, and with the tools necessary to  take your Calling in ministry and to make it into a reality. And like I said in the  last module, I'm really honored and blessed to help you achieve that to achieve  those goals. So in our next module, we're going to look at specific message  strategies that you're going to use at each level of the customer value journey.