If you’ve done your job getting your Customer Value Journey in place, you should have offers at every point in your customer’s experience, from lead magnets to tripwires to ascension offers that get them to be repeat buyers.

You’ve also got a professional, engaging website that’s doing a lot of the heavy lifting when it comes to letting people know you’re out there.

But once you’ve got new customers joining the Journey regularly and have satisfied new ones coming back, you’ll start to experience the real benefit of those 8 stages…

…creating brand evangelists.

The best spokespeople for your brand aren’t celebrity endorsements and they certainly aren’t your business’s own people.

They’re people who made it all the way through their customer adventure & are so excited about it that they can’t wait to tell everyone.

That’s what it’s so important that every stage of the Customer Value Journey is in place.

Miss just one of those stages & your customers won’t reach the point of sharing your message with anyone who will listen.

Because when you stack up all the stages…they all point to getting your customers to Promote.

Wait…How Is The Promote Stage Different From Advocate?

If you read our post about the Advocate stage of the Customer Value Journey & are wondering this, you’re asking a good question. The difference between Advocate & Promote comes down to one thing: action.

In the Advocate stage, your customers take a small step toward sharing their feelings about your brand.

They might write a review on Amazon, post on social media or participate in a contest that involves posting a picture of their purchase & using a hashtag.

These are significant steps…but they’re largely a one-time thing.

These customers aren’t going to spend several hours a day posting about you online. In fact, they may never do it again.

But in the Promote stage, your customers are on a mission to tell everyone they know about the transformation they experienced from your product.

Brand evangelists are the moms who become consultants for the organic shampoo company that made their daughters’ hair full & beautiful so they can get free products.

They’re the people who fall head over heels in love with a particular clothing brand, so much so that they start & monitor a Facebook group for people to learn more about it.

They’re people who call everyone they know trying to get referrals so they can win special members-only packages.

Chances are, you know someone who falls into the brand evangelist category. You may have even been the target of their phone calls or social media posting frenzies.

Having advocates for your brand is great—actually, something magic happens when a customer leaves a review & we’ll get to that in a minute.

But it’s when customers reach the point of being so fired up about what you do that they carry the message everywhere they go that you’re truly built your brand evangelist army.

It’s because telling people about your brand has become their mission.

Why Brand Evangelists Are Your Best Promoters

So, why is reaching the Promote stage a sure-fire way to arm your customers to build awareness for the customers of tomorrow? There are a lot of reasons, but here’s a quick rundown.

Their Circle Of Influence Trusts Them

If you think back to the beginning of the Customer Value Journey, the first 4 stages are all about establishing trust with your new customers & proving the authority of your business & products.

Since people don’t give their email addresses out to just anybody & they’re even less likely to just make a purchase from a company they know nothing about, you need to take steps to establish your credibility.

This can take some time, which is exactly why the Customer Value Journey is an effective model. Remember—it takes time to build a customer relationship through engagement that happens at every stage.

It’s the same reason why you don’t just walk about to someone you just met & ask them to marry you.

However…if the person creating awareness of your brand tells their friends, family & other people in their immediate circle, it makes it possible for people to more quickly advance to the point of making a purchase.

There’s simply less persuading to do because their relationship with the promoter carries a lot of weight.

Quite simply, the Customer Value Journey makes it possible for the authority of your customer’s relationships with others to be a crucial tool as their journey begins.

The Advocate Stage Creates Loyalty

Even though the Promotion stage is where your customers become full-fledged evangelists, a lot of the groundwork for that is laid in the Advocate stage.

There’s a couple things that happen here. For one thing, it’s the first time your customers really put their feelings & experiences with your brand into words.

What they write on Yelp, Amazon or your website could eventually become a part of the testimony they share with friends & family to entice them to buy.

But more importantly…writing a review creates even more loyalty to your brand.

The process cements their experience with your brand in something they share with the internet, which makes them even more invested in your product or service.

They’re already pretty enthusiastic about your brand given that they had a memorable experience in the Excite stage AND have gone on to become repeat buyers.

But now that they’ve used language to express their relationship to your brand, things get serious.

The Power Of Personal Stories

Which packs more of a punch in marketing? A bunch of facts about how awesome a product is…

…or a true story about how it transformed someone’s life?

Both have their place…but when customers see someone talk about the results they got from using a product or service, it appeals to people’s emotions in a way that facts usually don’t.

It allows them to picture themselves in the place of that customer & presents the possibility of them getting the same results.

Sure, customer reviews can present stories like this. But the best testimonials come from people who started out in the Awareness stage & made it all the way to the end of the journey.

That’s why it’s critical that you use the experiences & testimonials of real customers to shape your content. Use them as the basis for blog posts, social media graphics & content on your website.

Whether it’s your promoters telling friends about you or their own words making an impact in your online content, their influence will go a long way toward making more sales & bringing in new customers.

Want to learn more about the Customer Value Journey & how to use it in your business to turn more strangers into brand evangelists?

Click here to learn more about Cirius Marketing’s services or just drop an email to hello@ciriusmarketing.com with any questions.