When working on online marketing strategies, have you come across the term “Customer Value Ladder” as an online engagement and buying journey?

If you are not familiar with the term yet and are just starting out to discover digital business strategies, this article will help explain what it means and why we should look into preparing one as part of your digital enablement and online sales and marketing funnel plan.

In general, a value ladder is a visual representation of your product and service offerings and its different tiers of engagement. It co-relates to the lifetime value of a client and continued transactions with you online and offline.

By working out a customer value ladder for your business as a key marketing plan is to determine the journey a potential customer takes to become a loyal and potentially high value advocate.

The customer value ladder as a process

A value ladder is a process of mapping out what you offer visually and thinking of ways to introduce them to your customers with the ultimate goal of increasing the value exchange. In a simple sense, as the customer or client ascends the ladder, the value of the product and services increases, and your level of engagement ultimately increases too. Through a value ladder, you can create a map to nurture prospects into customers to follow, plan the level of service value they will receive as they move through your sales funnel.

In the process of the customer value ladder, you are building a prospect and customer’s trust, as they move up the ladder.

Here’s a short description of how the ladder works when plotted visually:

• At the bottom of the ladder, the customer or client learned about your products or services. You may offer a free “taster” or samples at a low-cost fee to capture their interest. This could be a podcast, a free discovery meeting, a low-end product.
  Here, they became aware of your business and they either engage or subscribe to continue to receive something of value like an email or a free online course or service delivered online.  
• When the customer or client has seen the value of what you offer, you can start by offering ongoing promotions and other offers via email marketing or group calls, product sales webinars, or in-person consultations.
  During this time, they have an interest in buying a higher level of service or engage your services at the next stage to help them solve their problem or achieve a higher need. At this level, you start to convert customers to have gotten to know, like, and willing to dive deeper into your offering. 
• When a customer or client reached the top of the ladder, they have entrusted you and engage and experience your offering.
  They start to make repurchases, move to higher level partner program or service offering. They could also potentially be an advocate or affiliate partner who co-promote your products or services to others via their testimonial or referer you to their networks in person or online.

Putting time and effort into creating a good visual representation for your value ladder is something worth investing in.

This will ultimately help you determine your steps in building customer trust and eventually increase your product or service value. Here, you can identify what works best in terms of conversion. This will also help you build long-term relationships with your customers.

How we can help

Revive Me Web & Marketing is always ready to help you build your customer value ladder, if you are interested to have one for your business, send us a message and we can review which area of building your online marketing funnel that we can be of assistance.