There is a crucial point in every business that will determine if you’re going to make it big or you’re going to struggle.
You’ve already got some customers, you’ve got an email list, and you’re traditionally “successful” at least in comparison to most other businesses.
But you’re still not pulling big boy numbers.
Even if you’re bringing in new leads, new JVs, etc, it just seems like it’s not significantly moving the needle.
You feel like you need *something* to take you to the next level, just not sure what that thing is exactly.
Well, my friend, this is exactly the article you need.
You see, there’s an easy way to increase your yearly profit…
And it has nothing to do with increasing your ads or even acquiring new customers.
Instead, the key is to focus on revenue expansion aka increasing your CLTV (customer lifetime value) via engagement.
In simpler terms:
Instead of focusing solely on acquiring new customers, you’ll just make more money from the customers you already have.
If you want to maximize your customer value, you need to first engage your customers and turn them into loyal fans & evangelists for your brand.
Our goal is to turn your lukewarm semi-interested customers into raving fans who
- Tell their family and friends about you…
- Who wait in excitement for every piece of content
- Who get giddy when they receive a new SMS or email update from you
- And most importantly… Who buy every single item you offer them
And that’s what we’ll discuss today.
The best thing about this?
This will COMPOUND on itself because :
Every new lead that you bring in, furthermore, will also be more valuable…
Which means…
You can spend more to acquire customers…
Which means…
You can get more market share…
Which means…
You’ll be able to pull those big numbers you’ve dreamed of!
On top of all that, generally, you’ll have a much better more enjoyable business.
With this plan, you’ll be able to engage your customers so well that you won’t even need to sell them… Because they’ll automatically want to buy nearly every offer you put in front of them.
A Quick Warning Before We Begin
I want you to keep in mind that there’s no hack for anything we’re going to discuss today.
These are all things you’ll want to do consistently within your business.
And IF YOU DO you’re going to see massive compounding effects.
The work you do today you may not see until 3 months from now… But the results will be massive.
So with all that being said let’s get into the 5 things you can do to instantly increase your rapport with your customers and increase brand equity.
1) Nail The First Purchase Experience
Look, marketing your coaching business isn’t getting any easier. There are new competitors entering the market every single day thanks to the low barrier to entry.
So how do you stand out from the crowd?
By doing things differently and by doing things that your competitors aren’t willing to do.
And the first, most vitally important thing you can do is to start with the current customers.
This needs to start right after your customer enters their credit card information and makes their first purchase from you.
So here are a few things I’m doing at my coaching company Skup to create an awesome purchasing experience:
Our front-end product that we use to acquire customers is a $997 course.
Welcome / Onboarding Call
When a customer makes a purchase we immediately have a customer success rep call them unless it’s out of business hours and then we call them the following work day (this can be you if you’re not at scale or starting out)
We use this as an opportunity to welcome the customer, tell them a bit about our brand, set expectations and ensure they received access to the products/software/community
We also let them know that we’ve sent them some things in the mail and that they should be expecting them… Which brings me to my next point
Real World Physical Stuff
We send all new customers items in the mail. This is a great way to make them feel like a part of your community… Make a big deal around swag you send out and get people to show off the items you send them…
We typically send out a t-shirt, a tumbler and a copy of a book I wrote (it's not a long book).
Make sure your stuff looks good so people actually want to wear it and share it…
Even better if it’s a powerful message your customers will align with.
At Skup it’s “If Nothing Changes, Then Nothing Changes”.
We also send a hand-written postcard with thanks.io at the VERY least do this last part as it requires zero work on your end and doesnt hurt margins.
Continue “Pitching” What They Already Bought
If you’re selling courses, customers may get a moment of post-purchase regret.
The initial dopamine hit of the purchase wears off once they realize “oh man work is actually involved.”
You have to help them get through this because what they really want is on the other side of the “work.”
So you can diffuse this feeling by showing how people like them have changed their life. This also works to fight refunds.
I highly suggest “re-exciting” the customer as they first get into the course with case studies.
2) Let Customers Get To Know & See The REAL YOU
A lot of the time I see people putting on a facade or a mask when they interact with their customers. They feel they must come across as superior or professional.
However, I find the opposite is true in the type of business we are in.
Here’s the thing… You are the “master” and your students SHOULD LOOK UP TO YOU AND KNOW YOU are the professional.
You are still, however, a person… Who has values, opinions, stories, real-life interactions and a personal life outside of work.
Let your customers know this side of you.
If you asked me four years ago if you should keep your politics out of your business I would have 1,000% said “Hell yes, there is ZERO PLACE in your biz for politics”
And what’s funny is I actually don’t find this true anymore if you want to truly attract your perfect customer who is a raving fan.
And it’s also worth noting that if you aren’t willing to shun a % of customers to attract TRUE DIE HARD SUPERFANS… Do everything but the politics part… But the politics part is powerful and will work.
So how do we share these things?
Think of your real life as a tv show that your customers are subscribed to and are looking forward to the next episodes.
That means you’re sharing stories from your life.
That means they “know the characters” aka your wife, friends, dogs and such.
That means they know your ups and downs in life and that you’ve had struggles like them… And how these struggles helped forge your character and values.
My Mirror Moments
For instance, when talking to my customers I tell them about my “mirror moments”
AKA moments where I had to look at myself in the mirror and ask “is this how it’s going to be? Is this what I’m going to settle for?”
And in one of those stories I mentioned how I was drinking a pint of liquor every day… And I had a cleaning lady who would come clean my house weekly… And every week she’d have to throw away 7 new pint bottles of Jim Beam from the trash can under my desk.
Then I talk about how I had to look at myself in the mirror, and how I told myself I deserve more in life… I will NOT settle for this… And I become sober and completely changed my health
This is powerful because people can relate to it.
And they can see that I’m being vulnerable and transparent.
In a world of fakes, this is more powerful than you can imagine and the trust factor I get with my user base goes up 1000x.
And their bond with me also goes up because I shared something personal. It’s human nature.
And imagine if someone else was also sharing the struggle I shared…
Now their bond to me has skyrocketed, they’re super fans and will buy more frequently from me.
And I didn’t have to do any sales magic or try to use copy to convince them.
I did it by just being real and being myself.
People want to be led by people like them, with similar beliefs and values, who say and believe the things they’re thinking as well.
Be that person and you will build a base of highly loyal customers.
Wanna dive deeper into this? Look into parasocial relationships.
3) Help Your Customers Overcome Mental Roadblocks & Have Epiphanies
Want a way to get people to love you? Help them become the best version of themselves.
People have mental roadblocks about a lot of different things:
- Money
- Health
- Sex
- Fitness
- Success
And there are all these different reasons why someone might have them.
An easy way to help with this is to do mindset calls and help them have huge epiphanies that will stick with them for life.
To do this you must mix stories with emotion.
The story is the vehicle in which you teach them how to overcome a roadblock
The emotion is what makes them remember it.
Without a strong emotion, even the best breakthrough can and will be forgotten.
So… Try to make your customer be filled with emotion, such as sadness, happiness, fear, anger, surprise, and disgust.
So for instance… Let’s pretend your audience leans conservative.
You tell a story about overcoming mental blocks about money… And then you seal it with a pretty bow on top by talking about how NOW IS THE TIME TO GET RICH BECAUSE DEMOCRATS ARE RUINING THE ECONOMY AND IT’LL NEVER BE POSSIBLE AGAIN.
For these epiphanies see the last step and tell stories from your own life like I did about my alcoholism.
4) Engage Your Customers Often… “Don't be a selfish lover”
Your relationship with customers shouldn’t always be a monetary transaction.
Yes, you want them to keep giving you money.
Best way to do that?
Do things that don’t necessarily reward you but do reward your customer.
Offer them 2-4 free training calls per month where you get on and engage.
You can do anything you want on these calls - but they should be free and engaging.
You could do seasonal training, behind the scenes, or even mindset content that helps overcome those mental roadblocks (like I mentioned in #3).
But let your customers know that you have their best interest in mind and it’s not all about the money to you.
Oh and heads up… SMS will literally increase your webinar show-up rate by an average of 25%+ (and sometimes a LOT more as we’ve seen recently).
So if you’re doing these free training calls or even sales webinars
Don’t be a dummy… Use Roezan, send them text messages, and skyrocket the number of people who actually show up to your webinar so you can make more money.
5) Have Ethics, Care About Your Customer's Success & Think LONG-TERM
If you take a look at the software world the most IMPORTANT STAT that indicates long-term success isn’t customer acquisition…
It’s customer churn, AKA how many customers you lose each month.
Here we’re referring to revenue, but it can apply in other areas as well, even down to email subscribers.
There will be a time when the churn is the same rate as acquisition… and that’s when your business stalls and can’t grow anymore, even though you’re bringing in more people all the time.
Typically software companies want a churn of 1% and a negative revenue churn (even if you lose customers, old customers pay more so MRR from existing customers increases).
So… How do you accomplish this?
By getting your customers results and not bombarding them with stupid shit that distracts them and actually lowers their chances of success with your solution.
Do that and they’ll love you forever and will believe in everything you do.
So when it comes to promoting new products to your customers, have ethics about it. Make sure it’s actually USEFUL FOR YOUR CUSTOMERS.
Because if it's not and your customer realizes that… They won't stick around.
And sure you’ve got the money from that sale, but you won't get another sale from that user down the line, and now you need to replace them if you want your revenue to keep growing.
In fact, if you discover an opportunity is there but you don’t want to recommend it to your audience, it could become a great piece of content as well.
You can share WHY you don’t think it’s a good opportunity.
You’re there to guide them - Whether that is to good opportunities, or even AWAY from bad opportunities.
Make customer success a priority.
And when it comes to promotions just ask yourself “Does this make sense long-term, or am I only doing this because I want quick cash?”
Quick cash always sounds nice, but are you in this for the long haul and trying to generate millions of dollars in profit? Then it might not be the best move.
6) Segment Your Customers
A lot of your customers will be at different levels and be interested in different solutions.
If you have super successful customers, chances are they won't be interested in “newbie” products that you might also offer.
They just want the advanced stuff.
And if you’re constantly emailing them about your beginner courses, they’ll eventually associate you with that and look elsewhere for more advanced solutions.
A very simple way to do this is simply to use tags in your email software.
Start to tag your audience by products they have purchased.
Run surveys and figure out who they are (what is their avatar) when they self-identify.
Then you’ll be able to speak directly to your audience.
Track where your customers are at.
Track what types of products they’re interested in.
And ensure you’re only sending them relevant offers so they don’t unsubscribe and go find a new mentor.
Conclusion
There you have it, 6 ways you can grow an engaged audience that dramatically increases your customer lifetime value.
I want to reiterate that these are easy to write, but often hard to execute. And these are not things that will immediately show up in your sales. It might even seem like a waste of time at first.
But I promise if you do these things, everything will start to get better. Your customers will be happier, they’ll buy more, and your business will grow.
Every big coaching business that I know does these things.
Have any additional ways that YOU engage your audience? Let me know in the comments!
Cheers
Devin Zander
