The Black Panther is just complaining all the time:
“… And that is when they finally left. I’m telling you they cannot do anything by themself. And what’s so good about honey anyway?”
Why are they here for again?
“Stop right there!”
Just in front, there are a bunch of… tiny wolves. They’re quite cute, unlike the other one. The biggest one of them (as high as your knees) takes one determined step forward.
“I see you’ve come so far… And that you brought your friend with you…”
Awkward silence
“Come little remote freelance, I shall show you the way.”
Tililitilili *epic song*
A journey is all the steps we take to do something.
You might browse it on Google, ask a question on a Facebook group or talk about it with a friend. All those little things that make us take that one big decision.
Are they gonna buy from you? To understand that, we’ll map all those steps and see where you can help.
Can you reply that question on Facebook? Provide them with that info they so desperately needed on Google? Or get that review from their friend?
So many questions, so many steps!
You list all your contact points with your Ideal Client Avatar. When they learn about you, buy from you, and buy again. Then, you add all those contact points along a timeline. For that, you can:
I like the online tool Uxpressia. They provide many free templates and can be used right away. When I did my client journey, I use 8 parts:
Don’t waste time on this. Don’t try to create a perfect journey from scratch. Perfection doesn’t exist. And your client journey will also change over time. It’s better to create a short and easy journey now and improve it over time than to try making it perfect and never finish it.
To make it easier, I divided those client journeys into 5 steps, the AARRR:
Dave McClure is an American Business Angel who founded 500 Startups. In 2007, he gave a presentation that was called “Startup Metrics for Pirates : AARRR !” It was about Growth Hacking, marketing tactics focused on growth and one marketing funnel, the AARRR. And so, it was called the pirate marketing funnel.
I’ll explain each step taking my own persona as an example. It’s a simple persona and about marketing. While reading, you can replace the parts about marketing with your own product, it’ll be even more relevant.
Where? Social media, blogs, podcasts, emails, events, journalists, Google Search, sales, websites, affiliates, app, radio, paper, TV
Your client, Corale, is a remote freelancer and is looking for help with her marketing. She checks on Google. She checks on LinkedIn. She gets information bit by bit. During her searches, she ended up several times on your posts on LinkedIn and read one of your articles.
Where? Usually your website
Corale then checked your website. She got much more info than in your posts and downloaded a PDF. But she cannot do everything herself. The instructions are clear, that’s not the issue. She just has many other things to do. And, to be honest, marketing is not «her» thing. So she filled in that contact form on your website to discuss with you what she could do.
Where? I’d say it’s a mix of video call(s) and emails
You recontact Corale by replying to her email (that you received from the form.) You discuss a bit and understand that she knows what she has to do, she just hasn’t the time. You plan a video call on Zoom to discuss in more details and set up a goal.
After the call, you decide to work on her social media and build a routine to be more regular. You prepare the invoice and start your project. You meet online every week for 2 months to review what Corale did on social media, set new goals and keep the motivation over time.
Where? Blogs, podcasts, events, emails, messages, texts
Corale has now a good social media routine. Every day, she reads her clients and prospects posts and posts one, and only one (very important!), picture of her work of that day, plus a few sentences to explain what that is. At first, it took time but now it’s part of her everyday. She’s happy and knows she can count on her social media to promote her work.
Now, she wants to keep on upgrading her communication and update her website. You planned a video call to discuss the details, goal, deadline and costs.
Where? Emails, contests
After the video call, you understand that Corale doesn’t need to update her website. It isn’t the priority right now. The priority is to better understand who her clients are and how to attract the best, those who understand her and don’t spend all their time complaining. And so, you’re working on her ideal client avatar and journey.
At the end of one of your workshop video calls, you ask Corale if she’d be ok to recommend you to her colleagues or friends. She agrees and you send her a text template she can adapt as she’d like. The next week, she writes a post about you on LinkedIn.
Pappapappam *reward song*
“Did you really understand little freelancer? Because, if you didn’t understand, I can repeat, again...”
…
“If you say so… Now come, we have no time to waste here. I shall show you the way.”
-- Congrats! You won a bitten cord and a tiny white wolf --
