Customer Communication Plan – What To Say & When to Say It
If your customer communication plan is not structured you end up with a garbled message. You must say the right things at the right time. Here’s how!
Hi Trish Davies here and the topic for today is communication with your potential customers. In many ways I am carrying on from my previous post which looked at three areas of content creation.
That content creation was the foundation to help you sell your training programs. In that post I shared with you some ideas on the formats of media & content that you should be using at particular stages.
These stages create a customer value journey that make the journey a seamless experience. What you must understand is that your message in each stage has a different purpose, has different context.
Your customer communication plan revolves around content. It must make sense; it must be relevant to the mindset that you potential customer has within that stage. You must be strategic with what you say, the language you use, the tone you set.
Each stage of your customer communication plan must have a specific purpose. Also, the message you use must naturally transition the reader/viewer to the next stage.
Think of it like a relay race where the passing of the baton must be effortless to be most effective. Your objective is not to drop that baton and lose momentum. So, let’s look at three areas that you must focus on to create your customer communication plan.
How To Create Your Customer Communication Plan
I said earlier that you must be strategic when crafting your message to create customer conversion. When someone first comes across your content they are a ghost to you in effect. Likewise, you are to them.
Your customer communication plan must take an individual on a journey. A journey that starts with them being a ghost, then a lead, then a customer. You can’t expect to bypass the first two stops on this particular journey.
You must create a relationship with the person who is viewing, reading or listening to your content. A first date is for two people to meet, connect, get to know each other and hopefully like each other. Once this happens the chances of a second date and beyond is much more likely.
Online communication with potential customers works in a similar way. There is only ever one first time meeting which is when they come across your content. This is where you break the ice and start a conversation but at this stage it is just you talking.
You must create a reaction that forces them to respond to you. This is where a connection is made and the foundations for the relationship are laid. A first commitment is then made by both parties.
You make a promise, an offer and they accept that offer because they start to trust you. Eventually the relationship will flourish, and your customer will go “all in” with the knowledge that your support id firmly behind them. Here is how you do it when it comes to creating a customer communication plan.
Awareness/Engagement Phase
Each stage is critical, but I would say that arguably this stage is the most important. This is the first date so to speak. The person on the other side of your computer screen doesn’t know you when they first land on your blog, video, social post or podcast.
They come across your content because they are searching for a solution to a problem. Your content and the context of that content reflects the problem in question.
Now many business owners think that they should go in for the kill at this stage. They have a mindset which says “buy my stuff” which gets them nowhere fast. If you pitch what you have to offer on this first date then the virtual barriers go up.
The individual will stand back, hold their hands up and say, “let’s get to know each other first”. This is exactly what you do at this stage when your are creating a marketing message.
Emotional connections must be created. You must show empathy and understanding to that individual and reassure them that they are not alone. To do this share your story so they can see that you where once where they are now.
Your Story Is Your Secret Weapon
They will relate and resonate to your story which makes you authentic. What this does is create awareness. They become aware of you and the problems you had which in turn makes them fully aware of their own problems.
You content must reflect the pain points you and the individual have in common. This part of the journey will be uncomfortable which is what you are trying to achieve. You want to bring those pain points to the boil while at the same time offering reassurance.
That reassurance comes again from your story and how you overcome those pain points. This instantly creates hope in the minds of the individual. They see that you have come out the other side, they then realise that they can achieve the same outcome.
At this point you have hooked them in through addressing their problems. You have told your story which starts to create the relationship and you have offered them hope. Your offer is that hope so this is where you put it in front of them because they are starting to know and like you.
They then make the first commitment to you by allowing you to take them on another date.
Subscribe Phase
To kick the second date off you have made a promise that you must deliver on. Your offer is the hope that the individual is looking for. The onus then goes on them to make an initial commitment which is to trade their contact details in return for your offer.
This transaction so to speak takes place on what is called a lead capture page. Your offer will include your contact details and they give your theirs in return. Usually this is their name and email address. This is all you need at this point.
Now the message in this stage of your customer communication plan changes. You now longer need to use language and context to make them aware. They already are.
Your message here is to deliver on your promise and tell the individual the benefits they will receive from your offer. Bearing in mind that this offer is low value in regard to cost. It could be just a few dollars and even free.
The low cost doesn’t though reflect the quality they receive which will be high. With that said you don’t want to give away the keys to the kingdom. At this stage the individual is either a lead or low value customer, in monetary terms.
You must give instant relief but not necessarily the total solution. No this is what you offer in the next stage which is the conversion phase.
Conversion Phase
Here you want to show what the complete experience can look like for the individual. Don’t dismiss what you have already provided but highlight what the total transformation looks like.
This is where your story really becomes your secret weapon. Tell them what impact your complete solution has had on your life. Also use examples of other people whose lives have been totally transformed because of your solution.
This messaging can be delivered initially through your sales page. This is the page where you “Buy Now” or “Add To Cart” is placed. This is your call to action (CTA).
Also, this message can be delivered through regular email communication. Take snippets out of your life story and share that with people who are stuck at the subscribe phase.
Not everyone is going to become an instant customer. Some people need more time to make that decision. Your regular value driven email communication will convert a good percentage of people.
This is how you create a customer communication plan and something that I cover in depth within Build Your AU. Audience attraction and conversion is one of the three pillars that my Build Your AU training program is designed for.
I help you build that relationship with potential customers based upon your story. The program will show you how to communicate with your customers so that nothing is lost in translation. Your audience will become lifelong customers if you treat them the right way. Build Your AU shows you how to do exactly that. To learn more about the program click here.
Helping you build your authenticity, authority and audience.
Trish Davies
Build Your AU
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