What is the buyer journey?
The buyer journey is basically the process a potential client goes through to make a purchase. Your potential buyers do not just buy your products out of the blue.
They go through a process, and this process is what is called the buyer’s journey. A potential client will go through three stages to become a buyer, starting with awareness, followed by consideration, and ending with the decision stage.
The process can be described as having more than three stages. Some define it as having five steps, which are: problem recognition, information and data research, evaluation of other alternatives, purchase decision, and lastly, after-purchase behavior.
A good sales funnel requires a thorough analysis of the buyer’s behavior at each step. You need to know what problems they might face in this funnel.
What are the three stages of a buyer’s journey?
A potential client goes through a few stages before he makes the purchase decision, which include:
- Stage 1: Being aware of the problem.
- Stage 2: The person starts considering his options to solve the problem.
- Stage 3: The person starts deciding the best solution provider.
Stage 1: Awareness
The person starts to experience some symptoms related to the problem, trying to understand the issue. The buyer at this stage is googling the problem, trying to gather some information related to his issue while also understanding the plausible solutions.
At this stage, he might not really have a name for his problem; he might just be googling the symptoms.
Your business goal at this stage is to spread awareness about the existence of your business as a brand and what solutions it offers to customers.
So how do you make the customer aware of your brand?
It is done by offering them suitable content that can solve their issue. By providing content that serves the potential buyer’s problems, you are positioning your business as a trusted source for information. This is also why it is important to have a blog for your business.
At the same time, you are spreading awareness about the existence of your brand in their eyes. By providing more details on how your product can solve that problem, they will become aware of what you offer. But then again, at this stage, the buyer might not really know about the product or service you offer.
Stage 2: Consideration
At this stage, the buyers are comparing all the possible solutions they can find, trying to find which one can be trusted more. They want to find the best solution that can work for them.
They are evaluating the possible options to select which one is more suitable. They might find a lot of options for them at this stage, various solutions, and it can be overwhelming.
From a buyer perspective, the consideration stage involves so much research (depending on the problem they have and the price of the solutions they think they will pay).
The content you need at this stage is a good comparison of the solutions that exist for the problem, what your product or service is, and how exactly it is different from all the solutions out there.
A genius example of the consideration stage content is what wise people do. They show you that they will transfer your money with the best exchange rate out there and with the lowest fees possible.
They show a comparison of all the different fees charged by each big competitor each time you want to estimate how much money you can convert from one currency to another.
On the other hand, they also have very good awareness stage content, as you can find articles about them whenever you search about subjects related to moving to another country or many other related cases when you might be interested in using their service.
Stage 3: Decision
At this step, the buyers have already made up their minds about what product or service they will use to solve their problem. They are confident in their chosen solution, and they would have a list of the possible businesses they might use.
However, no purchase has been made yet. Some details, such as the pricing, the terms of use, and other factors, will be finalized. These details are important to them before making the actual purchase.
What the business should do at this stage is answer the buyer’s questions in a clear way, trying to exceed expectations.
Having a clear, unique selling proposition is also important to make sure the buyer understands why exactly your product is better or unique compared to all other options.
Buyer’s Journey vs. Customer Journey
The buyer journey is different from the customer journey. The buyer’s journey focuses on the process a visitor takes to make a purchase decision.
On the other hand, the customer journey places emphasis on what happens after the purchase has been made to build a long-term relationship with the customer. For example, in terms of goals, the buyer’s journey goal is to pave the path for the visitor to become a customer through the 3 stages of awareness, consideration, and decision.
While the goal of the customer journey is to promote customer satisfaction, loyalty, and encourage repeated purchases, The purpose of the post-purchase stage is to help the customers use and enjoy the products they just purchased. Some possible actions to take are to send them targeted emails, giving them possible coupons or discounts for their next purchase.
According to a Harvard review, it costs five times more to get new customers, while if you work on increasing customer retention by 5%, it would add up to an increase in profits of between 25% and 95%.
The customer’s journey is as important as the buyer’s journey. That is why you, as a business owner, should have a post-purchase stage and other plans to increase the loyalty of the customers and their retention rate.
The value of keeping your customers always right is far more important for your long-term relationship and business profits.
Buyer’s Journey vs. Sales Funnel
A sales funnel is how a company guides customers to make a purchase decision. A buyer’s journey is how a potential customer will make the purchase decision.
In more simplified terms, the sales funnel is the buyer journey, but from a company perspective. While the buyer’s journey is the sales funnel from a customer perspective,.
A sales funnel is a marketing term that businesses use in order to guide potential customers to an actual purchase. As we said earlier, the concept is the same; however, in a sales funnel, it is about the actions a business should take for each of the 3 stages. [Awareness, consideration, and decision]
Why is the buyer’s journey or the sales funnel important?
- A sales funnel, or buyer’s journey, can visualize the stages that you and your team should cater your efforts to improve.
- You will understand how your customers think and what their pain points, interests, and needs are at each stage of their journey to make a purchase. Data is important; the more you know about your potential customers at each stage of the journey, the more you can tailor your strategies to guide them to make a purchase.
- Learning how to create a good sales funnel for your buyer’s journey can take time. However, once you learn it and start implementing it, you will have a good advantage over other new business owners.
- You can create content specific to each stage of their journey. By understanding that people in the awareness stage have no idea who you are or what your business does, you can create content that is related to your industry to drive traffic and then introduce them to what you do as a business. Then you can create content for the consideration stage and make some good incentives for the decision stage.
- The more you know the gaps in your sales funnel, the better you can optimize them to increase your conversion rates and your profit. When you implement a sales funnel, you can start to know where to focus your energy to drive up your sales.