Understanding The Buyer’s Journey

One of the most important steps in running a successful business is understanding your customers and their journey to making a purchase from you. While “journey” might sound like a long and grand adventure to the end product, the reality is the process happens fairly quickly. Buyers do not always complete their journey, depending on how the steps in their process go. Understanding and personalizing the steps to the buyer’s journey can go a long way in making sales and improving customer satisfaction.

What Is The Buyers Journey:

The buyer’s journey consists of three steps in the customer’s buying process, which is sometimes compared to a funnel. These steps are the Awareness Stage (top of the funnel), The Consideration Stage (middle of the funnel), and the Decision Stage (bottom of the funnel). Each step plays an important role in the customer’s decision to purchase from you, so understanding them is crucial to helping them make their best decision.

Awareness Stage:

During this stage, buyers identify an issue that they have and recognize that you might be able to help them solve it. In order to understand your buyer, ask yourself questions such as: How is the buyer educating themselves? What is their goal? Is there a common misconception about your product you can help clear up? Being aware and ready to answer these questions will help the buyer appreciate and trust you, and help you to connect with them. Some content ideas to consider for buyers in this stage include well-written blog posts, social media content, or badges displayed on your website. Since buyers in this stage are looking to educate themselves on your product,

Consideration Stage:

By this stage, buyers have clarified their goals and have committed to addressing it. They are now seriously weighing the benefits of each method available to solve their challenge. Make sure to be aware of the categories they are searching, how they perceive the pros and cons of each option, and how they are looking deeper into each option. Optimize your product and category pages to make it easier for buyers to find the information they are looking for. Be sure to use high-quality images and videos to grab their attention, in addition to an easy to navigate website and product descriptions. This is also the best stage for them to find social proof from former happy customers by having an easy to find review section.

Decision Stage:

During the final stage, buyers have an idea of what they want and if you can offer it to them or not. See what they like or don’t like about your company compared to your competitors and what their expectations are. This is the step where buyers will determine what it takes to become one of your customers, or if one of your competitors is offering them a deal that they like better. Having a call-to-action ready to go at this point of their journey helps take them from a lead to a sale, and can have a dramatic impact on your conversion rate.

Once your customer decides to make a purchase with you, do not stop trying to keep their business. Interact with them on social media, offer small loyalty discounts or flash sales, and really listen to what they like as well as what they are unhappy with. Your business should sculpt your sales funnel to your buyer’s unique journey. Although that will look different for every company, having a solid understanding of your customers and your industry will help you create a smooth and successful journey.