Imagine this: You’ve just finished a fantastic presentation. Your audience loved it, and you had a rush of sign-ups for your program. The excitement was high, and you went to bed feeling accomplished. But then, the next day, reality sets in—only a fraction of those excited customers are actually showing up or engaging with your content. Slowly, more people start dropping off, and you’re left wondering what went wrong.

​Sound familiar? If so, you’re not alone. Many businesses struggle with engagement drop-offs even after delivering what they believe is an outstanding product. The key to understanding—and solving—this issue lies in a concept called the Journey Pipeline. Let’s explore how this powerful tool can help you retain customers and boost engagement.

The Journey Pipeline is similar to a sales pipeline but is designed to focus on customer engagement throughout the journey. It helps track where your customers are in the process you’ve mapped out for them and allows you to respond quickly to any drops in engagement. It’s an essential tool for maintaining a strong relationship with your customers and fulfilling your promises.

Here’s a simple breakdown of the Journey Pipeline:

🟠 Clear Start and End: Every journey pipeline begins with a clear start—when a customer signs up, for example—and ends when they’ve completed your program or offer. Along the way, they move through a series of milestones, which are key steps or engagements you’ve designed.

🟠 Milestones: These are specific moments where you want your customers to take action or engage with your product. Think of them as checkpoints that guide customers along their journey.

🟠 Opportunities: Every milestone is an opportunity for your business to further engage customers. For example, at each milestone, you might offer a special resource, an email, or a personal touchpoint that encourages them to keep moving forward.

🟠 Engagement Signals: These are the indicators that show whether or not customers are reaching specific milestones. If they don’t hit certain engagement points, this signals to you that something is wrong, and it’s time to step in with additional support.

​🟠 Nurture Boosts: When engagement drops, a “nurture boost” comes into play. This could be a follow-up email, a personal call, or a special offer designed to reignite interest and motivation.

To illustrate the power of the Journey Pipeline, let’s look at a real-life example. Imagine you’re visiting the Library of Congress. They offer a special interactive exhibit where you receive a booklet called the “Passport to Knowledge.” As you explore the exhibit, you scan your passport at various kiosks, recording your progress.

When you leave, you’re given a token to continue your learning online. Once you log in, the journey continues based on the kiosks you visited. This simple but thoughtful process keeps you engaged, even after you’ve left the physical exhibit.

​The same principles apply to your business. The Journey Pipeline ensures that even after the initial excitement fades, customers are continually engaged, motivated, and supported.

Here’s a practical example from a business perspective: A client recently launched a high-ticket, 8-week program with an initial 80% engagement rate. This was fantastic, but by week three, engagement had dropped dramatically to 30%. By using the Journey Pipeline, they quickly diagnosed the issue—one milestone involved an emotionally and cognitively difficult question that customers struggled with.

To fix this, the client hosted two workshops that week to address the challenge. Engagement immediately jumped back to 65%. In the future, they integrated the workshops into the program to prevent the drop-off from happening again.

​This proactive approach is the essence of the Journey Pipeline—it gives you the tools to spot engagement issues early and take action before it’s too late.