They learn about you. They buy from you. And they buy again.

A journey is all the steps we take to do something.

You might browse it on Google, ask a question on a Facebook group or talk about it with a friend. All those little things that make us take that one big decision. Are they gonna buy from you?

To understand that, we’ll map all those steps and see where you can help. Can you reply that question on Facebook? Provide them with that info they so desperately needed on Google? Or get that review from their friend?

So many questions, so many steps!

You list all your contact points with your Ideal Client Avatar. When they learn about you, buy from you and buy again. Then, you add all those contact points along a timeline. For that, you can:

1. observe your own situation
2. interview your clients and prospects
3. use many post-it’s
4. add images, pictures, graphs or videos

I like the online tool Uxpressia. They provide many free templates and can be used right away. When I did my client journey I use 8 parts:

1. Goal -- What does your ideal client want?
2. Background-- Where are they coming from?
3. Channel -- Where is the contact happening?
4. Pain point -- What is their frustration?
5. Solution -- What can you offer them to relieve their challenge?
6. Feeling -- How do they feel? (Before and/or after this step)
7. KPI’s -- What does success look like?
8. Quote -- I like to sum up the steps with one sentence (not necessary at all and totally my own thing)

Don’t waste time on this. Don’t try to create a perfect journey from scratch. Perfection doesn’t exist. And your client journey will also change over time. It’s better to create a short and easy journey now and improve it over time than to try making it perfect and never finish it.

To make it easier, I divided those client journeys into 5 steps, the AARRR:

1. Acquisition

2. Activation

3. Revenue

4. Retention

5. Referral

Dave McClure is an American Business Angel who founded 500 Startups. In 2007, he gave a presentation that was called “Startup Metrics for Pirates: AARRR !” It was about Growth Hacking, marketing tactics focused on growth (a bit like startups,) and one marketing funnel, the AARRR. And so it was called the pirate marketing funnel.

I’ll explain each step taking my own persona as an example. It’s simple and about marketing. While reading, you can replace the parts about marketing with your own product. It’ll be even more relevant.

Acquisition -- Grab the attention

Where? Social media, blogs, podcasts, emails, events, journalists, Google Search, sales, websites, affiliates, app, radio, paper, TV

Your client, Corale, is a remote freelancer and is looking for help with her marketing. She checks on Google. She checks on LinkedIn. She gets information bit by bit. During her searches, she ended up several times on your posts and read one of your articles.

Activation -- Your crash test

Where? Usually your website

Corale then checked your website. She got much more info than in your posts and downloaded a PDF. But she cannot do everything herself. The instructions are clear, that’s not the issue. She just has many other things to do. And, to be honest, marketing is not ?her? thing. So she filled in that contact form on your website to discuss with you what she could do.

Revenue -- Close that deal

Where? Usually a mix of video call(s) and emails

You recontact Corale by replying to her email (that you received from the form.) You discuss a bit and understand that she knows what she has to do, she just hasn’t the time. You plan a video call on Zoom to discuss in more details and set up a goal.

After the call, you decide to work on her social media and build a routine to be more regular. You prepare the invoice and start your project. You meet online every week for 2 months to review what Corale did on social media, set new goals and keep the motivation over time.

Retention -- Stand by me

Where? Blogs, podcasts, events, emails, messages, texts

Corale has now a good social media routine. Every day, she reads her clients and prospects posts and posts one, and only one (very important!), picture of her work of that day, plus a few sentences to explain what that is. At first, it took time but now it’s part of her everyday. She’s happy and knows she can count on her social media to promote her work.

Now, she wants to keep on upgrading her communication and update her website. You replanned a video call to discuss the details, goal, deadline and costs.

Referral -- Love it, share it

Where? Emails, contests

After the video call, you understand that Corale doesn’t need to update her website. It isn’t the priority right now. The priority is to better understand who her clients are and how to attract the best, those who understand her and don’t spend all their time complaining. And so you’re working on her ideal client avatar and journey.

At the end of one of your workshop video calls, you ask Corale if she’d be ok to recommend you to her colleagues or friends. She agrees and you send her a text template she can adapt as she’d like. The next week, she writes a post about you on LinkedIn.

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This article is part of a series about digital marketing for remote freelancers.

In total, they are 7 articles, 7 steps. Each step is one digital marketing tactic. They have an order. The earlier, the more basic and necessary. They build on each other. You need the earlier steps before starting the later ones.

You can read the other articles here:

Step 1 Your Ideal Client Avatar -- 4 ways and 13 questions to work with only the best clients

Step 3 Comment on Social Media -- You can get your next client on social media, you're 5 steps away from it

Step 4 Document on Social Media -- Too busy to post on social media? I got something for you.

Step 5 Contact Influencers -- I'm not a big brand, how do I start influencer marketing?

Step 6 Build your Website -- But isn't building your website too much for a freelancer?

Step 7 Send your Newsletters -- Don't depend on social media algorithms, send an email

Those articles are part of a project called 'The Freelancer Jungle'.

You can check the Steps on its website.

You can subscribe to the Jungle Letters and receive all the Steps right in your inbox.

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