Customer Journeys vs. Random Customer Touchpoints
When a subscriber joins your email or SMS list today, what happens next?
What happens if they don't buy?
What happens after they become a customer?
What happens 60 days after they purchase?
Many small businesses can answer one or two of these questions—but not all of them. This isn't because they don't have the data. Generally, it's because they don't have a customer journey flow and instead rely on disconnected marketing activities.
That's not to say disconnected marketing activities can't work, but having an automated customer journey will work better.
While I'm focusing primarily on small businesses, "random customer touchpoints" isn't just a small business challenge. I see it with larger brands, too. I get why. Email is still one of the least expensive marketing tools available, so sending batch-and-blast campaigns and only getting a small percentage of people to convert likely isn't going to break your bottom line.
However, SMS isn't cheap. It's valuable, but it's significantly more expensive than sending an email. So, when I see batch-and-blast SMS campaigns, my first thought is how much that brand must have spent.
For larger brands, those additional costs may not matter as much. For small businesses, they absolutely do.
A customer journey isn't just about marketing. It's about building relationships and growing your business. It is about sending the right message at the right time and on the right channel.
Many small businesses have a website, send a newsletter, post on social media, and maybe even have a welcome email. That's great, but those are marketing tactics—not a customer journey.
A customer journey is the strategy that connects those touchpoints. It defines what happens next, what happens if someone doesn't take action, and how you continue building the relationship.
What Happens When Lifecycle Flows Are Missing?
New Leads Go Cold - People subscribe and then hear nothing for days or even weeks. The interest that brought them to your brand starts to fade, which makes it harder to convert them later.
Customers Buy Once and Disappear - Without onboarding or post-purchase nurturing, customers often make a single purchase and never return. Think of the money you spent to acquire that customer. Investing in them is critical.
Missed Revenue Opportunities - When you don't have lifecycle flows in place, you’re missing opportunities to educate new subscribers, encourage repeat purchases, and re-engage customers who have gone quiet. Instead of guiding customers through a planned experience, your marketing becomes reactive, and you are creating emails or SMS campaigns from scratch.
The result is often lower revenue and lower engagement.
Every Small Business Needs a Customer Journey
The good news is that building a customer journey doesn't mean creating dozens of complicated automations.
It starts with understanding the major stages your customers move through:
Acquisition → Nurture → Conversion → Onboarding → Retention → Loyalty
Why Most Businesses Get Stuck
Most businesses don't struggle because they lack tools. They struggle because they jump straight into building emails and SMS messages before they have a plan. Without a plan, before long, you have a handful of disconnected flows that may or may not support your overall business goals.
Without a framework, it's difficult to know:
Which flows should be prioritized first
What messages belong in each stage of the journey
How all your touchpoints work together
That's why planning matters.
Planning the Journey Flow
Before you build another automation, take a step back and map the customer experience. Look at the journey from the customer's perspective.
What happens after they subscribe?
What happens if they don't buy?
What happens after they purchase?
What happens 30, 60, or 90 days later?
By answering these questions, you are creating a customer journey designed to support both your customers and your business goals.
The challenge isn't building the emails or SMS messages. The challenge is knowing what should happen at each stage of the customer journey before you start building.
Working with small businesses is my passion.
Over the years, I've helped businesses build sophisticated customer journeys. I've also met many small business owners who simply weren't ready for that level of investment.
What they needed wasn't another marketing tool. They needed a plan.
I'm excited to launch the Lifecycle Flow Planning Framework, a practical tool designed to help small businesses visualize their customer journey, identify missing touchpoints, and create a roadmap for growth without the cost of a fully custom strategy engagement.
If you're a small business owner, I hope you'll take a look at the Lifecycle Flow Planning Framework. And if you know another small business owner who could benefit from it, please share it with them.