Learn Along With ISA-UK and The Online Print Coach: Do you want more sales?

Would you like more sales? More clicks on your website? More engagement with your customers?

Let me walk you step-by-step through the process to create your Customer Value Journey. This represents the different phases each of your customers should go through whilst dealing with your business.

First of all, there are 2 questions you need to ask yourself.

  1. What value do you provide to the market? Why should they buy from you and not one of your competitors?
  2. How can you create a system that will take these customers through the process from cold leads, to repeat customers and then onto customers who will promote you to their network?

Here’s a crazy analogy. How likely would you be to agree to marry someone after just 1 date? Not likely right? You need to get to know that person first. Understand their backstory. Fall in love with them. Then once you’ve done this, it might be more appropriate to ask them to marry you.

My point here is that it’s all about The Sequence!

So why is it that when we’re trying to onboard new clients, we constantly go in for the kill without getting to know each other first? Not only do we need to better understand what they are looking for but they need to build trust in us and know we can deliver.

The process should be the same, it’s all about The Sequence, and in business, we call that sequence The Customer Value Journey. 

Now let me explain each of the 8 stages. 

The Awareness Stage

This first stage pretty much speaks for itself. If a customer doesn’t know about you, they can’t buy from you. So how are you going to put your brand in front of them?

  1. It could be from a Facebook Ad or perhaps from a post you’ve made to a group?
  2. You could reach out to that desired person on Linkedin?
  3. They could find you through a search on your Google Listing?
  4. You might be a member of the same Group or Organisation?
  5. A Partner or Advocate might have recommended you?
  6. They might come across some content they were looking for via your Blog?

If creating content for ads or your blog, you can use the Customer Avatars sheet I’ll give you access to next month to create content suitable to the types of customers, you want to make aware of your business.

The Engagement Stage

So now the customer is aware of you, what next? There is a rule I discovered when I entered the world of networking and started running my own business events. Customers need to Know, Like and Trust you before they will typically buy anything from you. 

Whilst we call this the engagement stage, engagement really is something that should be encouraged at all steps of the journey but for the purpose of now, we want to create some form of content that will provide information that will show them the value of using your products and entice them to want to buy from you. 

The Subscribe Stage

So at this point, you’ve made the customer aware of your business and you’ve engaged with them in some capacity. What next? Well, you need to be able to stay in contact with them, otherwise, the previous 2 stages are a complete waste of time.

You need a way of capturing their details whether it be a phone number, mail address, or email address. You need to be able to carry on engaging with them.

The Convert Stage

Now you want to take the relationship to the next level and show them just how you do business. You want to showcase the quality of your print, your service, and your execution of delivery. In most cases, you’re not going to land a £10,000 print job on your first job and if you do, I’d be asking some serious questions.

99 times out of 100 the customer will want to try you out with a lower-priced item and you want to make it as easy as possible for them. This is typically why I suggest offering a significant discount on your 1st or 2nd order as it gives them tremendous value and makes them feel they are gaining something by giving you the opportunity.

If you do your job right and follow this process, you’ll make this margin back in future jobs so don’t worry. The most important task here is getting them ordering with you and you showcasing the benefits of dealing with your business.


A Newsletter is the most common approach for this. You can have a sign-up form on your website so they can be kept up to date with all the latest company news and offers. Often, these newsletters also have a section where they can pass it on and promote your content too.

Another way well worth considering nowadays is Re-Target Marketing. You don’t need to worry about customers filling out their details on forms for this. By simply visiting your website, they are accepting your cookie tracking policy and allowing you to Re-Target them with various adverts around Social Media.

The Excite Stage

The customer has now bought from you but your job is not over. You need to build up a level of excitement between now and when they receive their job. You want to raise their expectation levels and show them what a great service you offer.

Printers can do this in a number of ways:

  1. Order confirmation highlighting you have received the job, thanking them for placing it, let them know when they can expect their proof if receiving one and when the job will be dispatched
  2. Notification once the job is dispatched, with a tracking link if you can, and tell them how the job has been packaged ie. double-walled cartons, under white label, etc. If you are producing in-house, include a photo of the job all packaged up and ready to leave your factory.
  3. Reach out to them and make sure everything is good with the job. If this is their 1st order, something I have found works well is offering another discount, lower than the 1st one but enough to make them want to try you again. This will certainly reduce your number of one-hit wonders and create more repeat customers. It lets them see that hit is the standard level of service they will receive on all orders from you.

The Ascend Stage

Now you’ve put all the time, effort, and money into making people aware of your print company, you’ve engaged with them, they’ve shown an interest, placed 1 or 2 orders and you’ve showcased how good your products and service are.

You’ve probably not made the greatest of margins with this customer yet but that changes now. Now we need to turn them into a Repeat Customer, someone who buys multiple times from you throughout the year. This is why it’s important we keep that engagement going throughout all stages.

In the coming weeks, I’m going to introduce you to the Post Purchase Email Sequence that will aid in educating your customers on all the different products and services but don’t forget the lists we created about cross-selling and up-selling, as well as these, play a huge part in ascending your customers up this ladder and ordering more frequently with you. 

The Advocate Stage

At this stage, you’ll likely have a very happy customer who’s now purchased from you several times so you want to tweak your marketing message that allows these customers to become advocates for your business.

This doesn’t mean they are going to grab a bunch of your business cards and go start handing them out at networking events but you want to be front of mind if they come across anyone looking to get some printing done.

The use of reviews or testimonials can play a big part here so keep sharing other people’s positive experiences. Quite often this can help potential advocates relate to similar people they know. 

The Promoter Stage

Promoters and Advocates are different as Promoters will be actively seeking to promote your products and services. They may be on an affiliate commission or have a mutual interest to cross-promote each other like the suggestions I gave you earlier in the boot camp.

It’s always better for a new audience to hear about you from a trusted source they have already done business with and it will often fast-track them up the Customer Value Journey.

There’s one important thing to remember here. Your customers will not finish this journey alone. If you leave them to it, they will fall off the path, be distracted, or enticed elsewhere by one of your competitors. It’s your job to guide them along the way and if they do get stuck, give them a boost and encourage them through each step. 

Have a look at your current customers. What stage are they at and where can you take them to?

Learn more from The Online Print Coach.