Get your nature venture from good to great

A big thank you to our sponsors who keep this newsletter free to the reader:

My promise: I only let follow biodiversity heroes sponsor here, so that their offers are relevant to you.

Gilles is host of the Mission First Podcast.

1. On Wednesday he gives a free webinar about his Linkedin journey. “3 key steps to reach 7250 Impact-driven Followers on LinkedIn: with No Ads, No Spam, In my own voice”. You can still sign up here for free.

2. Changemakers & startups with a positive missionary invited to write him to be future in his next newsletters. You can find more info here.

One of my credos that I like to repeat is that we ecopreneurs need to learn from the best companies in the world to make this world wilder again.

Corporates like Apple, Disney, Netflix, Nike and co. create compelling stories that lure us in and keep us in their grip.

Imagine we would have that power and use it to get people excited about nature again.

So, in this newsletter, we will take your biodiversity business or NGO to the next level by introducing you to the topic of a customer journey.

Why a mesmerizing customer journey matters

Apple is well known for its iconic products, but that's just one part of their success. The other is their incredible skill to design customer journeys that are unmatched.

When you see a billboard, you immediately know that it is Apple.

When you enter their stores, you know it is Apple.

When you see the shape of their products, you know it is Apple.

When you unbox your product for the first time, you know it is Apple.

You could take their logo away and still recognize them. These are great signs of branding and a strategically planned customer journey.

You can skip this newsletter if your nature venture is acting in a monopoly. Most of us, however, find ourselves in very crowded markets.

Designing an incredible customer journey can be the secret key to getting to the top of the market.

If you have an excellent customer journey, your product can be mediocre.

We are also easily biased because we work 24/7 on your products and services. So we know the ins and outs. But customers experience everything that is out there of what we create.

If this experience is mediocre or confusing, they won't bite.

So it is worth investing your time in it.

The 8 steps of a mesmerizing customer journey

Tony Fadell, the builder of the iPod & iPhone, wrote a great book about creating iconic products: Build - An unorthodox guide to making things worth making.

He dedicates an entire chapter to the customer journey he used at Apple & Nest.

To make this newsletter as actionable as possible, take up the perspective of a donor or customer of your nature venture.

Take the time to write down what you currently do in each step and how satisfied you are with each step's performance.

Give it 1-5 points. 5 points are great. The maximum amount of points is 40 points.

Let's take it step by step.

Step 1: Awareness

Before the customer can get anywhere near your nature product, you must get their attention.

You can do this via public relations, search engine optimization, search engine ads, social media, out-of-home campaigns, paid ads, partnerships, etc. Paint a picture of how you positively influence their lives.

How many points do you give yourself? 1-5?

Step 2: Education

After they become aware of your company, the fun is not over. Now, you need to educate them so they get all the information they need to decide.

You do this via your website, email newsletters, blog articles, demos, free trial, etc. Back up their positive first impression with structured and engaging content.

How many points do you give yourself? 1-5?

Step 3: Acquisition

Perfect, your education worked, and now they want to buy your product. How easy do you make it for them?

This part is often overlooked, but you can set yourself apart here.

This shouldn't be a moment of a cold transaction of money.

It should be a moment to celebrate, full of joy, and the first milestone of a long relationship with your nature venture.

The payment models influence this step, the ease of the checkout, the delivery, the partners you work with, up-selling, cross-selling, etc.

If you nail this part, your conversion rate will increase. So don't neglect this step.

How many points do you give yourself? 1-5?

Step 4: Product

Time to show what you got.

Now, you need to keep the promises that you made earlier. In this step, the user experience, the design, and the performance are the most crucial aspects that your customer will judge you on.

I spent an entire article on this part. You can read it here: Hooked On Nature. How To Build Habit-Forming Products That Boost Nature.

How many points do you give yourself? 1-5?

Step 5: Onboarding

Okay, the person bought your nature service or product and got it in their hands. Now what?

Please don't leave them alone, but take them by the hand, no matter how easy you perceive your product to be.

I personally always like to think of my grandma as a customer. Products and services should always be inclusive. So, did I do everything I could to make it easy for the person to start their journey with my product?

You can improve this step by working on easy account creation, onboarding videos, step-by-step guides, interactive product tours, how-to videos, or tips and tricks.

How many points do you give yourself? 1-5? 

Step 6: Usage

Now they put your product really to the test.

You can make this step joyful by improving your reliability, usability, powerful updates, and long lifespan.

Unfortunately, it is trendy to create products that break easily in our current world. So that people have to buy again. Please don't be one of those.

How many points do you give yourself? 1-5?

Step 7: Support

Shit can happen; we are not perfect, and things can always go wrong even if we try to create the best nature services or products.

So now it matters how you bounce back from it.

Similar to the acquisition step, this step is often neglected and outsourced. But this is where competitors are born. People get frustrated with your nature product, can't find the support they seek, and leave you for someone else.

You can avoid this by building an extensive FAQ, an easy-to-reach call center, customer service, or a community that helps one another.

I wrote an entire piece about that here: Improving Customer Experience: 8 Kicking Hacks For Your Nature Organization.

How many points do you give yourself? 1-5?

Step 8: Loyalty

Last step! You almost made it.

Now, if you are doing a great job in all these steps, you will likely succeed. And success attracts others. Copycats and competitors.

So, you want to ensure that customers or donors stick with you.

You do this by creating new and better products, informing them via newsletter, offering promotions, making testimonials, getting their ratings, giving them more benefits, or letting them earn from referrals.

If you don't have a newsletter, I highly recommend you set one up. I wrote about it here: The Benefits Of Newsletters, Why They Aren't Dead & Why You Should Start One Right Now

How many points do you give yourself? 1-5?

Your turn: Let's create a mesmerizing customer journey

Here are 5 Actions you can take to create a unique customer journey:

1. Take 1 hour next week to reflect on this and do the exercise as proposed. How many points did you give yourself?

35-40 points. You are such a star. Please share your nature venture with me so I can take it as a best practice case for one of my following newsletters. I am serious.

20-35 points. Okay, cool, you are already building this customer journey. Here and there are some aspects to improve, but you got this.

0-20 happens! You got knocked out, so now you need to get up again. Go through the following steps I propose, and you will get there!

2. We can easily be biased (in a positive and negative sense). So, to ensure these points are correct, get someone from your operational team to do the same exercise.

3. Each single step is crucial, but do they come together? Does it feel like a journey? Or is every single step separated from the other? Connect the dots.

4. Take the step you scored the least points. Improve it and see with your customers if it is better now.

5. Contact me ([email protected]) if that is too overwhelming here and you would prefer to have someone to co-design your customer journey. The first 30-minute intro call is for free.

Cheat sheet to improve your customer journey

In a nutshell: A well-tailored customer journey gets your nature company from good to great.

Book: Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making by Tony Fadell

Tools: Miro is a great tool to visualize your entire customer journey and quickly improve it with your team.

Before you go.

If you think this newsletter is helpful, please share it with 1 ecopreneur in your network.

This will help me massively to keep these tips free.

It is easy to get biased and think what you do makes sense to the outside world. Tailoring a one-of-a-kind customer journey can help you get the customer's perspective. 

They experience the entire world of what you put out there. So make sure that every step is an incredible experience and that they can quickly move on in their journey.

Creating such a custom journey can set you apart in crowded markets.

See you next week. Have a wild one!

Best,

Oliver

🦧 Whenever you are ready, there are 2 ways Wild Business Mates can help you grow and double your impact:

1. 1-to-1 business consulting. Detailed and personalized consulting to double the impact of your biodiversity organization in the shortest possible time. Not sure how to improve your customer journey? Let's jump into a call.

2. Wild Business Mates in Action. Wild Business Mates help you execute in areas you are struggling with. Tech, Marketing, Sales, Communication, etc. We can realize all the steps I mentioned above.