Converting customers in the buyer’s journey

The world of marketing revolves around the customer buying journey. In our industry, there is a very common saying that we all practice and preach, “Customer is the King.” If you think about it for a second, you conceptualize an idea keeping in mind the problems faced by the customer. Later, you create prototypes to check if the customer is comfortable using them or not. All marketing activities under the sun are generally conducted with the customer in mind.

You plan and strategize for months on how to reach out to them and make sure your product or service is readily available for customers to use. Your customers are the start and the end of the process. The journey your customer undertakes to buy your product is the central tenet of this blog. In this blog, we will get into the minds of our customers to map the buyer’s journey and offer ways to engage with customers throughout this journey.

To start with here is a quick and dirty outline of what the buyer goes through “The buyer’s journey is the process buyers go through to become aware of, consider and evaluate, and decide to purchase a new product or service.”

The above definition by Hubspot puts forth an interesting viewpoint. Customers do not decide to buy on the spur of the moment. Instead, they go through a process of being aware of, considering, and evaluating a new product or service before deciding to acquire it. We will look at the buyer journey, why it is essential, and how buyer journey mapping may help your inbound marketing efforts.

Why is the buyer’s journey important?

Traditional marketing was not always centered around assisting people – but often more about selling more products. Strategies that scream for attention and tell consumers they will be faster, smarter, sexier if they buy this product was all the rage back then. In contrast, contemporary inbound marketing provides value to people’s lives by creating demand and educating customers about the product or service in question.

According to Phonetics, 71% of B2B researchers often start with a generic search rather than looking for a particular brand. Inbound marketing will be the way forward for businesses looking to capture new target markets. The buyer’s journey is an integral part of this more evolved type of marketing. It allows companies to assist their consumers by offering educational information that helps them understand their problem and alternatives for addressing it.

Understanding the buyer’s journey gives the brand a chance to get a decent opportunity for engaging with the customers. At each buyer journey stage, marketers need to consider how they will engage with the target market on your website, over social networks, and through direct outreach such as email or phone. Then, you can nurture the lead with value-adding content and excellent customer service until they become a paying client. Simple, right? Let us look closer at how this process unfolds and learn how to tap into the power of an engaged potential buyer at each stage.

Conceptualize stages

The buyer’s journey may be broken down into three phases that define how individuals go along their route to purchasing a product or service. These phases are awareness, consideration, and decision.

Awareness

The buyer becomes aware that they have an issue at this point. The buyer is dealing with a problem or pain symptoms, and they aim to find a solution. They might be seeking information resources to help them better comprehend, frame, and name their issue.

Example: “Why is my stomach aching?”

Consideration

The customer describes their problem and examines solutions. The buyer will have clearly defined and named their problem. They will be dedicated to investigating and comprehending all available techniques and/or methodologies for solving the specified issue or opportunity.

Example: “Is it because I am hungry?” and “Where can I get food?”

Decision

The buyer assesses and selects the best vendor to implement the solution. Next, the buyer chooses a strategy, technique, or approach for their solution. Their next step is to build a list of potential vendors, narrow down the field and make a final purchasing choice.

Example: “I am in the mood for some sandwiches, let me check Zomato.”

The buyer’s journey is critical in the entire brand-building process. You can harness the buyer’s journey to nurture consumers and build a receptive audience for your or your clients’ products or services.

To avoid pitfalls associated with traditional marketing techniques such as forcing consumers to sit through aggressive sales presentations, marketers can use stages of the buyer’s journey to craft specific messages at each stage to inform, educate and entertain their audience.

Detailed stages in buyer’s journey

Within the context of a buyer’s journey, a brand can examine how consumers research and evaluate products and services before a purchase. By looking at the symptoms and issues customers are up against, brands can carefully craft messages that resonate and inspire a purchase. In addition, a detailed study of the buyer’s journey will assist brands in determining content for better engagement and how to nurture buyers toward a sale.

Awareness

“Almost 90% of study participants indicated it is important to influence buyers earlier in their journey.” (Julie Zubak, Power Digital Marketing)

• Customer Perspective

At the early stages in the buyer’s journey, the customer first becomes aware of the pain and challenges faced in his daily life.

The awareness stage of the customer journey is when your potential customer recognizes that they have a need or an issue. Then, they begin studying information and actively seeking solutions to try to address their problem or need. As a result, awareness is a crucial phase in the buyer’s journey.

• Brand Perspective

At the awareness stage in the buyer’s journey, brands need to focus on attracting the right audience by sharing customer problems, solutions and shared sentiment using social media, advertising, sponsorships, and public relations.

Interest

“70% of buyers fully define their needs on their own before engaging with a sales representative, and 44% identify specific solutions before reaching out to a seller.” (The Marketing Blender)

• Customer Perspective

The customer, in this phase, gets interested in finding a solution. Further on, he goes on to hunt trends, products, and brands for the same.

During this phase, the mapping of the buyer’s journey shifts from knowing the problem to finding a solution. The buyer goes on a hunt to find a solution through the internet or word of mouth. He gathers his research and jots it down to evaluate in the next phase. Within such communications, utilize keywords such as service, tool, and provider.

• Brand Perspective

Once the customer is in the interest phase, the brand can start focusing on tapping the demand and providing solutions by educating customers with whitepapers, eBooks, webinars.

Consideration

“65% of buyers spend more than 16 minutes comparing before making a decision-stage purchase.” (Peep Laja, CXL)

• Customer Perspective

A lot of brands will have gained customer attention by now. The customer will now sit back and consider the specific products and becomes willing to engage with sellers.

The customers compare your product or service to other options on the market in this phase. Before making a decision, they undergo a thorough analysis by checking prices, reading customer reviews, researching competitors, and learning more about the specifics of your product. This is to determine if your product can give them what they are searching for.

• Brand Perspective

With a lot of brands to compete with, the brand will now have to answer the question ‘Why us?’ This is answered by demonstrating and highlighting the competitive edge using datasheets, trials, pricing, references, vendor comparisons.

Purchase

“97% say customer reviews influence their purchase decision.” (Larisa Bedgood, Right Time Marketer)

• Customer Perspective

The customer is in your bag! He has chosen your brand and is committed to the solution you are providing. But this doesn’t mean the process has ended. Read on.

After comparing your product or service to other options on the market, they chose you. They underwent thorough analysis and now are showing promise to your brand. It is now time to return the favor. How will your brand ensure customer engagement when the customer is already convinced?

• Brand Perspective

The brand must validate the customer buying decision and make the contract process for them. Start with easy service pages, live training on how to use the product, recorded webinars for the services, user guides, and inviting them to kick-off events.

Post-purchase

“89% of companies say that excellent customer service plays a huge role in customer retention.” (Elizaveta Pavlovskaya, Semrush)

• Customer Perspective

After the sale, the customer expects good product performance and excellent customer service. The customer does not wish to end the relationship after one purchase and the brand must maintain it.

If your brand passed the test and made it this far, you did some things right. However, now that your customer is onboard, it is vital to retain them post-purchase. This is perhaps the most crucial step of the whole experience. It takes faith in a brand to convert a prospect into a first-time customer, so after you have earned their confidence and their business, you should work hard to keep it.

• Brand Perspective

Brands can keep in contact with the customer by regular follow-ups, collect their feedback on the product or service they bought from you and acknowledge them for their continued patronage via emails, phone calls.

Re-purchase

“Existing customers are 50% more likely to try your business’s new product.” (Elizaveta Pavlovskaya, Semrush)

• Customer Perspective

After a satisfying brand approach to all of the above-mentioned stages, the customer may become interested in expanding and re-purchasing the goods and services of your brand.

The consumer becomes an active advocate for your brand at this point in the customer journey. They refer their friends & family to you and produce the most effective kind of promotion your business can have: word-of-mouth. The best way to sail through this is by treating customers with worth, care, and respect at every stage of their development.

• Brand Perspective

Stay in touch via newsletters, emails, phone calls. The brands can keep the customers updated on new offers or discounts they can take advantage of. Look for opportunities to upgrade and keep your customer in the loop about your plans in the tunnel.

Are you ready to map the buyer’s journey?

To create a marketing approach and enhance customer engagement, it is necessary to know what your customers are going through at every stage of their buyer’s journey. Understanding customer expectations not only concerning products but also on how to reach out to customers. Along with the customers’ journey to purchase the product, brands can work with their customers to build trust. The process is in awareness, interest, consideration, purchase, post-purchase, and repurchase. By creating an effective buyer’s journey, you can generate better returns on marketing and create an effective buyer journey mapping template, get in touch with us now at info@vantageites.com