One of the biggest struggles with a traditional funnel is that it doesn’t account for all aspects of the Customer Journey. I’ll explain why after we talk about the Customer Journey first.
There are a number of different definitions of the Customer Journey so if you’ve come across it before you might see something different from what you see here. You might also see different stages represented.
None of them are right or wrong. It’s just different interpretations of the same thing.
Here is how I like to break it down:
- I have no idea what is possible
- I know what’s possible but I have no idea how to achieve it
- I know how to achieve it, but something keeps getting in my way
- I’ve achieved it, but I don’t know what’s next
This is the simplified version.
Now, everyone in your audience goes through the Customer Journey. The problem is that they don’t go through it at the same time. And that’s why Feel Good Funnels exist as you’ll see in the next lesson.
For now, it’s important to understand this Customer Journey to get an understanding of why so many Creators struggle with their business.
I Have No Idea What Is Possible (Unaware)
I have no idea what is possible. This is the popular content on social media. The aspirational stuff.
Today, I made $2,000 selling knitting supplies without knowing how to knit.
What? That’s possible! I didn’t know. That’s exciting!
I Know What’s Possible, But I Have No Idea How to Achieve It (Problem Aware)
I know what’s possible but I have no idea how to achieve it. Okay, so you can make money selling knitting supplies. That’s amazing. I wonder how you do it?
I Know How to Achieve It, But Something Keeps Getting In My Way (Solution Aware)
I’ve followed all of the steps but for some reason, my stuff isn’t selling. I can’t seem to rank well on Etsy. This is where your offer comes in.
People don’t usually buy unless they are at this stage because they don’t know what the problem is. When they are at this stage, they’ve encountered the problem and are frustrated with everything that they’ve tried to get past it.
It’s just not working.
That’s when you swoop in like a superhero to show them why they aren’t able to achieve the goal and how you’re going to help them do it.
When we start to build out some email sequences you’ll begin to see how you can craft a story around the Customer Journey in a way that makes your audience feel as though you’re holding their hand to the promised land.
Where Traditional Funnels Get Tripped Up
If you want to run a highly effective traditional funnel (for this example let’s say social media -> landing page -> email sequence selling the offer) then your best bet is to target people that are close to the problem.
And that makes perfect sense.
The trouble starts to happen when you want to expand your audience. The content that works on someone that is unaware isn’t going to be the same content that works on someone that is solution aware.
This is where the idea of a Feel Good Funnel excels as it takes into account how you can provide paths for a customer at any part of the journey.
And one of the best ways to handle that is through story.
A Story Framework
The Customer Journey above is itself a story framework in condensed form. In 1949, Joseph Campbell wrote about the Hero’s Journey. I’m not going to cover all of the steps, but there are 17 of them that can be broken down into three Acts:
- Departure: This is understanding what is possible and what paths one can take.
- Initiation: The problems that one encounters that one must overcome to continue moving forward.
- Return: Now that they’ve found success (through your solution) they are changed for the better.
By integrating the Customer Journey in everything that you do you are constantly telling a story to your audience in which they are the Hero. The more you do this, the more they see you as the Guide that is helping them on their adventure.
The power of this can not be overstated.
The idea here is that over time you should be putting out content that tackles each part of the Customer Journey. The reason why you want to do this is because of timing.
We’ll talk more about storytelling when we get to content creation.
Is The Time Right?
One of the biggest challenges of making money online is timing. You don’t know when someone is going to need your solution and you don’t know if their life allows them to buy it at the moment.
(And no, the answer isn’t to lower your prices.)
So what do you do? One of the benefits of opening your world as much as possible is that you allow your customers to dictate their own journey. Instead of telling them that they have to show up at a specific time you simply give them a map and let them go exploring.
This site is a great example. I create content on social media that brings people here. From there they can go through the free courses, blog posts, and other pieces of content at their own pace.
They’ll know what content interests them. They’ll know when they are ready to buy.
These are the things I don’t know about each individual person and so I make it easier on me by putting a lot out there that shows them my world.
When you do this your only goal is to ensure that you’re there for the person when the timing is right for them.
Active vs Passive Distribution
In The Pocket Course, I talk about the importance of using both active and passive distribution. The biggest challenge of social media is that content isn’t forever. If you’re lucky it might lasts a couple of days.
But usually it’s “gone” in 24 hours. However, social media is awesome for getting in front of people right now. It’s just unfortunate that you don’t know if the message is hitting the right person at the right time but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t use it.
This is also why it’s important to incorporate some type of passive distribution channel into your systems. SEO (blogging), Pinterest, and YouTube are great examples of this.
These work well because they are search engines so when people have a problem they go and search for the solution. If you’re doing things well you’ll be the one that pops up for them.
You didn’t know the timing, but you showed up at the right time.
Next Lesson: The Improvement >>>>>