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- [00:00]
Client Testimonial
I was like this. I found it. I found it. This is what I've been looking for, I can honestly say has genuinely changed the way I run my business. It's changed the results that I'm seeing. It's changed my engagement with clients. It's changed my engagement with the team. I couldn't be happier, honestly. It's the best investment I ever made.
- [00:16]
Marketing Representative
What you just heard was a testimonial from a recent graduate of the Duct Tape Marketing certification intensive program for fractional CMOs, marketing agencies and consultants just like them. You could use our system to move from vendor to trusted advisor, attract only ideal clients, and confidently present your strategies to build monthly recurring revenue. Visit DTM World Scale to book your free advisory call and learn more. It's time to transform your approach. Book your call today. DTM World slash scale.
- [01:03]
John Chance
We've always said strategy before tactics. AI really is just another tactic, but it's one that affects really the whole system. And I think that's probably one of the greatest differences. A lot of the tools and technologies that have come along have given us more access to, to potential customers, have given them more access to us. I think we need to rethink or not rethink it, just revis and then intentionally think about each of those stages of know, like trust, Try, buy, repeat and refer in an AI driven world. Hello and welcome to another episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast. This is John Chance and I'm doing a solo show today. I want to talk about something that I've been talking about for about 20 years maybe, and that is the buyer's journey, the customer journey. So with each impending new platform or new technology, you hear all kinds of people talking about, oh, this changes everything. Marketers have to do this, marketers have to do that. Now, certainly the websites came along, social media came along, mobile came along. I mean, all these things created this seismic change. Well, AI is clearly in that category of creating change. But what I've always found interesting is most marketers talk about the changes in marketing. And I think the thing we sometimes forget to think about is, you know, the way that somebody buys or chooses to buy now has changed every bit as radically as anything to do with how we do marketing today. And so I think we have to consider that idea with every decision we make is not just how do I master this technology or how do I use this new tool, it's how is the buyer using this? You know, buyers, customers are using AI every bit as much as the marketers that are trying to market to them. So I've been talking about this idea of the customer journey and the buyer journey as being really a significant element that frames what we do as marketing. Really. Since I wrote duct tape Marketing back in 2005, I created something I called the marketing hourglass, which I think was a better representation of the customer journey in that the traditional customer journey that had stages of awareness and interest and desire and conversion and usually stop there was really incomplete. And that we didn't drive people in this linear path that, you know, with. Once websites came along, the linear path I think kind of went away because the buyer all of a sudden started having the ability to find information and to know everything about an organization before they ever reached out for a sales call. And so I think that's the day that the buyer journey really changed. And I created the marketing hourglass, our seven stages. You've probably heard me say them here before, know, like trust, try, buy, repeat, refer. And I was trying to do two things with that idea, is that we have to intentionally think about what the buyer is doing, what they want to do, the questions they have, the goals they have at each of those stages, and that we guide them. We can't necessarily move them in a linear path. In fact, I've used in many presentations a slide where I've got all these lines running all over the place that the buyer journey is not this straight line that it is people revisit. There's almost this continuous loop of going back in one stage and then backing up to another stage and that. That we have to just put ourselves there in the. In the path, I guess that they're going to eventually travel. But I also spent a lot of time in the hourglass. And the kind of the idea behind the shape of the hourglass is that post purchase, you know, once somebody becomes a customer, there's a whole lot that we can do to build momentum to retain those customers, to turn them into repeat customers, to turn them into advocates and referral sources. And I think that's where a lot of people leave a lot of money on the table, is by not even thinking about those. Well, that from 2005, say to 2020 has really been the thinking that I've had at least around this idea of the journey and something that we've brought to hundreds of businesses. I think we're in another change as well. I think the stages are fundamentally the same. Fundamentally true. But I think AI is rewriting that journey. Most buyers, B2B, B2C, I think, are today going to a chat GPT type of tool before they ever visit our website in a lot of cases. Or Maybe they're asking AI to summarize reviews, to compare features, even write RFPs, you know, based on, on what they want to see. And I think that what that means is that we have to rethink everything that's going on at every one of these stages. How find us, how they come to know about us is changing dramatically. What are we doing to make sure that we're showing up in the new ways that they're doing research? What are we doing to make sure that the brand mentions of our brand are allowing us to be favorably compared to competitors? That's one of the things, I think that, that a lot of these tools that make research so much easier, analysis so much easier for the buyer are really allowing people to do a lot more comparison shopping, I think, than they ever did. Because let's face it, it's, it's fairly easy. It's changing the way that I think, you know, buyers still need this content. But I think that the AI engines and the, you know, even the traditional search engines and the way they're using AI are really going to change how people consume and find that content. You know, recommendation engines now I think are going to become the norm. People are going to have or want to have. They've already demonstrated this, a frictionless, maybe self service type of buying experience. We're starting to see people buying very expensive B2B type of services without a salesperson involved. And I think again, we have to think in terms of does that mean we need to have price estimators? Does that mean we have to allow people to get put together their own packages, you know, all the way down to the point where they then just need, okay, what's the link to buy this or you know, how do I sign the contract?
- [07:07]
Marketing Representative
Let me ask you a few things. Do you feel like, you know, what differentiates your business from every other business out there? Can you confidently charge a premium for what you offer? Are you working from a plan, a marketing roadmap that allows you to know precisely what to do next? Look, don't worry if you can't answer yes to any or all of these questions. You're not alone. See, marketers today get so focused on the tactic of the week staring them right in the face that they forget to look at the big picture. The overarching strategy needed to consistently grow their business. Over the years, I've worked with thousands of businesses helping them do just that. Create the perfect marketing strategy and Plan that gives total clarity about what to do next, confidence to charge ahead and charge more, and complete control of the marketing tactics they choose. I would love to help you and your team do the same. Look to find out if our Strategy first program is right for you. Visit DTM World Grow and request a free consultation. That's DTM World Grow.
- [08:17]
John Chance
So I think that we have to make a point of really revisiting this entire idea of a journey map for your business. Where are buyers using AI today in their process? What are they asking? What tools are you asking yourself? Ask ChatGPT what it says about your business and about your competitors. You can get some real insight to what that customer is going to find when they're out there. We got a rethink SEO. You know, ranking is not the key anymore for keywords, it is answering. Today's SEO is about answering questions and the content that is going to drive SEO is about answering questions. So tools like they also ask answer the public. Even Chat GPT can really help in formulating what the those questions are that are being asked so that you can be an answer engine. I think that's how we have to think about it. That's why, you know, for a number of years I've been saying every one of our web pages needs to have FAQs on it because that's the content that the search engines really want to turn up because that's how people are using search today. All right, so I've been talking about technology and parts of the journey that involve self service and I think that's going to be a real key. It's like we have to actually get people to the certain point with this ability to do self service, ability to do research, just knowing that they are doing that. But then you know, how do we add the human touch, the stories, the differentiators, emotion, trust. I mean these are things that AI can't really replicate. I mean it can replicate your voice, but it can't replicate the true stories that the true emotion, the human touch that really exists only in your business. And I think we have to double down on those things. So it's not a matter of saying oh we need to be more authentic and we need to use stories. I mean we've been saying that for a long time. I think we now have to actually double down on bringing small communities together, doing more things, more one on one video, more one on one meetings that with clients or with prospects are going to need to be part of it. It's like they want to come up to that certain point. But once you've built that trust, they actually want to take the next step. I think it's that human touch that's going to be a key part of it. So, you know, we've always said strategy before tactics. AI really is just another tactic, but it's one that affects really the whole system. And I think that's probably one of the greatest differences. A lot of the tools and technologies that have come along have given us more access to potential customers, have given them more access to us. But I think AI actually impacts the entire system. So I think we need to rethink or not rethink it, just revisit and then intentionally think about each of those stages of know, like trust, try, buy, repeat, and refer. In an AI driven world, it's already part of your buyer's world. So, you know, the question is, are we adapting? Do we need to overhaul what we're doing? Maybe not, but we definitely need to start testing. And not just testing, testing and asking, testing and engaging prospects and customers. Is this the approach that they want? Because I think we're all learning and of course, things are changing. Dramatic. So this is something I love to talk about. As you know, I've been talking about it for years. I think that it is something that I know that it's something we're going to continue to talk about in the very near future. And I appreciate you coming along this journey, no pun intended. Anybody who is bought into this idea of the customer journey needs to really start analyzing every single one of these stages and start thinking about, you know, ways that you need to, a, make it a better experience for the buyer and B, add that human touch that is quickly going away in a lot of what we do. All right, that's it for today. I appreciate you tuning in. Love those reviews. Let me know how I can help you. It's just johnuctape marketing.com.
- [12:13]
Marketing Representative
Let me ask.
- [12:14]
John Chance
You a few things.
- [12:15]
Marketing Representative
You feel like you know, what differentiates your business from every other business out there? Can you confidently charge a premium for what you offer? Are you working from a plan, a marketing roadmap that allows you to know precisely what to do next? Look, don't worry if you can't answer yes to any or all of these questions. You're not alone. See, marketers today get so focused on the tactic of the week staring them right in the face that they forget to look at the big picture, the overarching strategy needed to consistently grow their business. Over the years, I've worked with thousands of businesses helping them do just that. Create the perfect marketing strategy and plan that gives total clarity about what to do next, confidence to charge ahead and charge more, and complete control of the marketing tactics they choose. I would love to help you and your team do the same. Look to find out if our Strategy first program is right for you, visit DTM World Slash Grow and request a free consultation. That's DTM World Growing.