The Perfect Customer Lifecycle
A blueprint for how any business can attract, convert and retain paying customers without needing an MBA
A lot has been said about the perfect customer lifecycle. Many marketers push their blueprints as a plan that apparently any business on Earth can implement, and lo behold! They’re suddenly turning over millions a month.
This blueprint is not prescriptive. It’s not even something I created. All I did here was pattern recognition and reading insightful articles by successful business owners (not marketers) who were kind enough to document what worked for them. This was inspired by people & companies like Dane Maxwell, Ryan Deiss and Keap (formerly known as Infusionsoft).
A word of warning. It can be easy to skim an article like this, roll your eyes, and say “Yeah, I’ve read this before.” Well, yeah. There’s no rocket science here. Small business ownership doesn’t require a degree. The psychology of humans hasn’t changed in thousands of years.
So why do most businesses still get marketing wrong?
The answer is simple most of the times. They’re too busy being stuck in their business to zoom out and realize that the answers are staring them in the face. Or they fall into the trap of thinking their business is a special unique snowflake and none of these rules apply to them because “Our business model is so different!”
That’s why hiring business consultants is so important. They help you see the forest for the trees, point out your blind spots, call you on your BS and remind you that 99% of success is just deciding a plan and sticking with it.
Onwards.
Essentially, if you’re a business that sells something online, and want to be tremendously successful, all you have to handle are the following 3 parts of your business strategy:
Acquire
In the acquire phase, you need to magnetically attract the right people into your sphere of influence. You do this by driving traffic to a resource that calls out their specific problem or their required desire and offer to give it away for free or a very low cost, in exchange for their contact details.
You need to capture their contact details, document where they came from & then segment them based on their interests.
The outcome of this process is a database full of leads who are very interested in who you are and what you offer. You’ve demonstrated your authority by showing that you understand their problems and you’re now in the perfect position to continue to deliver value and add trust.
Convert
In the conversion phase, you continue to add value to your subscribers and leads. If people only buy from people that they know, like and trust, then this is where you demonstrate that your product or service is trustworthy, relatable, and more importantly gets them to the result they are looking for. When they are ready to make a purchase decision with the information that they have, you enable them to let them pay you online.
Leverage
Perhaps the most understated phase of the perfect customer lifecycle, and the phase where most businesses go wrong. In the leverage phase, you first wow your customers to create a legion of raving fans by overdelivering on customer delight. You can then use your existing positive relationship with your happy customers to upsell more products and offerings, ask for referrals. This is where the most amount of profits are made (or lost).
Ready to dive deep down? Let’s go!
Acquire
Before you jump into acquisition & driving, it’s really important to identify WHO you’re speaking to. The only people seeing & engaging with your offers are people looking for solutions to specific problems, or people looking for an end result, that your product can confidently deliver.
These are the people you need to reach. Spend some time sketching out customer avatars, create on paper. These questions might help. There are a bunch more resources online on how to sketch out your customer avatar.
- In all likelihood, how old are they, where do they live, what does their day to day life look like?
- What are they afraid of the most? What keeps them up at night?
- What would give them the most pleasure? What are their secret desires?
- Where do they spend time (online and offline)?
- In general, would they resonate with who you are, what you sell, and the services you offer?
The list you’ve compiled above is going to help you in 2 very tangible ways:
- “Writing copy” becomes less of an obscure, arcane skill and more about authentically writing from your core. That is the very definition of copy - writing text that resonates almost perfectly with your target audience.
- You know exactly the kind of people you want to attract into your business. It doesn’t matter if you want to plug this demographic into Facebook, Google or Reddit ads - the platforms might come and go, but your core target demographic is immediately identifiable.
Now that this has been sketched out, let’s jump into the first section: Driving traffic.
Driving traffic (Traffic Sources)
From your customer avatar, you know where your customers spend most of their time online. Is this on Facebook? Instagram? Perhaps they’re ardent Redittors? Maybe they’re on Google, searching how to solve their problems? Maybe they spend their time on a particular financial website, watching stock prices & reading analyses?
Only you know.
Pick the most promising traffic sources from the list above and setup your ad accounts.
Find out how you can most effectively target your demographics. Usually, any ad platform worth it’s salt lets you hyper target down to your exact customer avatar.
Bear in mind, sometimes your ideal prospects are on someone else’s list! There is nothing to stop you from reaching out to these potential joint venture partners and setting up mutual wins.
Traffic is easy. There are hundreds of traffic sources - even if the flavor of the day platforms like Tiktok or Snapchat (or even Facebook) might change or go away, your ideal clients are still out there.
Prepare mentally to spend money to capture their attention and make them aware that you have the solution to their problems.
Grab Attention
Fortunately, the way to grab your ideal prospects’ attention is very straightforward:
💡 Call out what the ideal client wants, in a specific period of time while addressing objections. Then offer compelling free (or very low cost) content on this desire.
This can be in the form of a free PDF report, or white-paper. It could be a video, or a full video course. It could be a webinar. Or a video training. Or downloadable audio recordings.
As long as this content solves a specific problem (in a specific amount of time) effectively.
Marketers call this either a lead magnet or an ethical bribe.
It needs to immediately hook them, capture their attention, and stop them scrolling.
Think about it: your first duty as a business owner is to allow your prospective customers to establish whether they resonate with you and your core message.
So this “gift” needs to be a low-risk, high value offering for the prospect. It’s a way for you to introduce yourself to the prospect and solve some of their immediate problems.
Here are the attributes of the highest converting lead magnets that we’ve worked with:
- They solve an IMMEDIATE Need.
- They are almost immediately actionable
- They are short, and to the point
- They are either free, or priced very low
- They under-promise but end up over-delivering
- They don’t create information overwhelm (in fact, they eliminate it)
In our experience, the following lead magnets are the highest converting:
- Free samples (in the case of physical products)
- Free, short consultation (in the case of services)
- Free introductory chapters (in the case of books)
- Free PDFs and guides (in case of digital products)
- Free video training
- Live webinar seats
Capture Leads & Segment
In exchange for the high value gift you’re providing them with, your prospects agree to receive further communication from you. So, typically, you’d collect their names, email addresses or phone numbers. With the advent of new technology, this may even include Facebook Messenger or Instagram DMs. A word of caution with these newfangled technologies - you don’t really own your data here. Make sure you’re collecting data you actually own - email addresses, phone numbers etc. So even if these platforms go away, you can still contact your subscribers.
Typically, you would just have a lead capture form on your website or landing pages that’d collect names & emails, which sends people straight to the CRM of your choice (I love Infusionsoft). From your CRM & Email Marketing software tool of choice, you can send your prospects emails or texts, depending on what they’ve agreed to.
When you’re sending these contacts to your CRM, make sure you tag & segment them according to where they came from. Assign leadsources, which source of traffic they came from, what download they were interested in, which page did they see and when they joined your list.
This helps you track the entire journey of a prospect, measure the revenue they generated as compared to your cost to acquire them. Without knowing your return on investment, you can’t be sure how much you can profitably scale.
⚡ BONUS: Another really good at this stage is to send them to post opt-in surveys or quizzes. Your purpose here is to identify the top qualities of customers best suited to get results. The surveys & quizzes help them self-identify & segment themselves automatically.
Later on, you can also nurture different segments with different messaging, which boosts conversions. More on this later.
The “Field Of Dreams” Fallacy
They say, if you build it, and they will come.
While marketing online, I’ve found this to not be true at all. In fact, you have to pull them to you and show them what you’ve built. And most businesses get really hesitant when it comes to spending money to acquire customers.
“My offering is amazing, and people should find out about in on their own - people will spread the word!”
This is a fallacy.
Here is an important principle to internalize (I didn’t come up with this, I think it was Ryan Deiss):
💡 The business that can outspend their competition to acquire customers usually wins.
Too many people think short term here - the perfect sales funnels has multiple touch points to optimize customer lifetime value. Even if you’re spending $100 to acquire a lead that might have a customer lifetime value of $2000, that’s an excellent deal. My advice for most businesses is to start getting comfortable in spending more money on advertisements.
Convert
“People buy from people who they know, like and trust”
Knowing that people buy from people they know, like and trust enables you to authentically put your message out there in the world, without fear of judgement. There is a tremendous peace that comes from knowing that there will be some people who will realy resonate with your message, and some people that do not need your products & services at at this point in their life at all. And that’s totally okay.
And so starts the art & science of lead nurturing. Let’s go deep on lead nurture.
Nurture & Demonstrate Proof
Lead nurture is basically getting a prospect to the buying stage, for which they have to know, like and trust you first. Here is how you build all three:
KNOW:
Your prospects get to know you through the message in your lead magnet. You solve an immediate need for them and help them see a brighter tomorrow. In their mind, you are now the expert.
Congratulations, you’ve successfully positioned yourself. They are now willing to hear more from you. Follow up by sending them more free value, asking them about what challenges they’re facing, and how you can help further.
LIKE:
When you speak to your prospects’ pains, pleasures, hopes and dreams, you are speaking in their language. You are building rapport with them, and soon, they feel like they’ve known you for years.
In your follow up, speaking to the following points will cement you down as a friend, confidante and mentor rather than a faceless corporate brand:
- Encourage their dreams
- Justify their failures
- Calm their fears
- Confirm their suspicions
- Help them throw rocks at their enemies
TRUST:
The fastest way to trust is a track record & social proof.
You can quickly and easily inspire trust in your prospects by peppering all of your value added materials with snippets of:
- Customer testimonials
- Video snippets
- Case Studies
- Performance Graphs
- Solid, specific numbers or case studies that prove beyond a shadow of doubt that your products and services positively impact the lives of your customers
- Real people behind your testimonials and case studies
They now know, like and trust you.
This is the perfect time to introduce your core offering.
Call To Action & Close The Sale
At this point, where your customer is highly problem aware & solution aware (they understand that the solution to their problem is your product or service), it’s time to drive the offer home & close the sale.
Send traffic to a well crafted landing page or order form with well written copy that reinforces everything we’ve been talking about up until this point.
This can also be in the form of a video sales letter.
A dedicated landing page should once again reinforce features & benefits, demonstrate customer results & social proof, and have a call to action to go to an order form and complete their purchase.
When you’re talking about your core offering, make sure you’re always speaking their language. This phase is the most straightforward of them all - it is your goal to convert them into paying customers.
Talk to them about the bright, shiny tomorrow. Focus on where they are now, and compare it to how much better things will be when they buy. Fear and greed are also powerful motivators
(Hint, some people will need to be asked 6-7 times before they buy from you - so persistence and automation helps)
Take their money!
Sometimes we get in our own way when closing a sale. How many clients have you lost who just wanted to buy from you but didn’t have a direct way to buy?
- Put an option to pay on your main website
- Email them with an order form link
- Give them a call and take their credit card number on the phone
- Diversify your payment options
- Accommodate as many payment methods as possible (cash, bank transfer, credit/debit cards, PayPal, cheques, bitcoin)
- If they can’t pay up front, give them payment plans with reasonable plan charges
Remember to get out of your own way when they want to pay!
Bonus Section: Re-Engagement
“Customers buy when they’re ready to buy, not when you’re ready to sell”
Although the very process of very carefully carving out a process and action plan for your prospects sounds like a very grand and gesture and makes you feel in control, the fact remains is that it’s almost never about you.
You are less in control than you think. If your prospect is having a bad day, they probably won’t buy. You are less in control than you think.
You can only ensure 2 things:
- You’re driving the right kind of people to your funnels
- Even if they aren’t ready to buy, make sure you stay top of mind by providing added value every time.
If (when) customers drop out from their ideal path in your sales funnel, it’s your job to make sure that you are in touch with them as much as you can be.
- Retargeting them on Facebook
- Subscribing them to your weekly blog emails
- “Give-away Mondays” - give away free stuff on a periodical basis
- Long term nurture email sequences that could last weeks, months or years
Remember, the attitude you’re coming from is:
“I want to help you make your life better - even if you end up never buying from me.”
That attitude reflects in your marketing and anyone who doesn’t resonate with your message quickly finds the Unsubscribe button.
Re-Offering:
Using the following 3 components of modern marketing, you optimize non buyers to make a return purchase:
- Retargeting on ad networks
- Cart abandonment email followup & ad serves
- Discount coupon value chains - 5% off to cart abandoners, 10% off the next week, 20% off the next
Leverage, Ascension and Creating ROI
It’s okay to have your funnel losing you money up until this point.
Read that again.
It’s okay to have your funnel losing you money up until this point.
In this phase, we’re going to use our already existing customers to maximize profit.
Deliver Results
Hopefully this should be the most straightforward section of this guide.
Deliver what you promised. Deliver it fast. Get them results.
If they paid you for a video course, a PDF, or any other digital material, ensure it reaches them immediately. Ship whatever needs to be shipped, spend extra money on making sure it reaches them before time.
And when you’re delivering a service, make sure there are clearly articulated steps towards getting the customer the results they were promised.
Your job isn’t done after the sale.
I recommend every week after they purchase your product or service, ask them specifically, “Did you get a result you’re happy with?”
If the answer to that question is a no, it’s time to take a long hard at your offer. A lot of the times, business problems sometimes just boil down to being product problems.
Customer Delight
Customer delight - also known as the WOW Phase. It just means going over and beyond for your customers - even after they’ve bought.
By exceeding their expectations, you’re already in the top 1% of businesses. This also creates powerful emotional connections, deep loyalty, and sets you apart from your competitors.
Upsell
This is the step that separates the average business from the powerlifters. This is the difference between a casual business owner and truly exceptional businesses.
The elites simply offer more.
Offer more to your customer. This is how giants like Amazon and McDonald’s make up for their thin profit margins. Offer more products to buy, offer high ticket items to buy, upsell and cross sell your customers. They are your fans and you’re changing their lives. Don’t deny yourself the opportunity to be of service.
Offer more when their “buying temperature” is high - offer more when they’ve already said Yes to you. Cross-sell them things that they might be interested in.
The power of elite clients is that they will follow you to the ends of the earth. They will be the ones posting rave reviews of you on Facebook and Yelp, they are the ones emailing you back on your marketing emails, they open and click emails from you, they buy most of your products.
By rewarding and nurturing these people, you are creating powerful relationships and loyal fans for life. By not having an exclusive, elite service or high ticket item for thousands of dollars, you are leaving a lot of money on the table and inhibiting your potential to explode your businesses.
By even converting a tiny percentage of your buyers into high ticket purchasers or upsell purchasers will let you outspend your competition when it comes to the cost of acquiring customers. You ensure that you always stay in profit.
Ask For Referrals - Maximizing Growth
The final part of the funnel is to leverage the parts of your funnel that work and have the people going through it encourage other people to fill the top of your funnel.
In other words - FLIP THE FUNNEL.
Testimonials and Case Studies
If you remember, our top-of-funnel efforts were concentrated on building you up as the expert by leveraging customer testimonials and case studies.
The more testimonials and case studies you accumulate, the more “automated” your selling process becomes - you are literally stepping out of the sales process.
Affiliate Partners
Your customers already have a high probability of knowing customers in a similar demographic would could benefit from your product.
It’s your job to ask for business and referrals - and you would be surprised by how many times people are willing to say yes.
A big percentage of businesses have affiliate traffic as their primary source of sales. They have an army of loyal, dedicated partners that drive them business for the sake of mutual growth.
Incentives
Not every business exists in the sweet spot where people are self-driven to send them testimonials (example: bookstores, restaurants) or refer their friends and family to the service (Facebook, Twitter, Gmail).
Businesses like ours find that sometimes, you need to incentivize funnel flips. Here are a few things you can offer to receive more testimonials:
- Free samples
- Discount codes
- Monetary incentives on referral business (commissions, bonuses, etc)
- A chance to be featured on your website
- Contests / Lotteries
- Free giveaways
So put the “flip” into your funnel and watch how many times your business multiplies itself just by this very step.
Finale: Putting It All Together
Measure & Test
Remember - the most skilled people in the world weren’t born into their craft. Your funnel needs to be pieced out one component at a time. Whatever part is the weakest link must be, without ego, attachment or hesitation, removed and replaced with a better functioning part.
You should have cold, hard numbers on every bit of your funnel. Conversions, dropoff rates, customer lifetime value, email open and click rates, and should be constantly working to boost those numbers up as much as possible without becoming inauthentic.
Scale
Once you are confident that you are creating an ROI on your funnel that you’re happy with - SCALE.
Put 10 times the number of people through your funnel. 100 times. 1000 times. The easiest way to 6 or 7 figure businesses is to take a funnel that is creating positive ROI and scaling it hundredfold.
Automate
The final step in creating the dream of margaritas on the beach while your business runs without you. Leverage system, process and automation to boost sales, save time and scale your business.
Powerful CRM systems are doing this round the clock for millions of businesses - generating millions of dollars while business owners sleep.
Big dreams require investment, execution and timelines.
If you want to cement your place among the greatest, you must be willing to spend money on testing, automation and scaling. That sets the casual dabblers (90% failure rate) from the people who build their businesses to 6-7 figures a month and liquidate for hundreds of millions of dollars when the company sells.
They invest in software, consultancy, and scaling to get them from where they are to where they need to be - it is the cost of doing business.
⚡ Does this guide excite you, inspire you and give you the drive to put some of these systems into place? Let's schedule a time to speak to sketch out all the components for your own business - and reap the rewards for years!
