The buyer’s journey is a progression of steps the buyer takes when making a purchase. Most businesses know that they need to support the customer at all stages, even though a lot of the process is done before a buyer engages with the seller. When buyers are ready to engage, you must be ready. In the article, “5 Tips to Get More Customers and Retain Them Too,” Dhaval Sarvaiya discusses the main stages of the journey: awareness, consideration, decision, retention and advocacy. In the final stage, he reminds us that customers with great experiences will “fall in love with your brand” and that they will not only “promote your brand but will defend it as well.” Imagine customers so loyal that they will defend what you’re selling—all because they so strongly believe in it. Read this entire article for pointers on how to support your customers at all stages of the buyer’s journey.
Awareness
This is the first stage of the journey where customers realize that they have a pain point, but they are not ready to make a purchase yet. As a business, your goal is to create awareness of your product. Your customer is at the top of the funnel in this stage. Creating content that attracts leads is your goal here. Types of awareness stage content that you can create are blog posts, videos, infographics and lead magnets, among others.
At this stage, customers don’t know who you are. Get your audience to know your brand, products and the value that they create. Create buyer personas through existing customer data, research and competitor client lists. Write evergreen content and invest in storytelling to connect with your audience.
Consideration
Here, the customer is in the middle of the sales funnel and is seriously evaluating the options. Your goal at this stage is to make the customer consider your product over others. This is the opportune time for you to show your prospective customer why you are a good fit over your competitors. At this stage, take help of expert guides, webinars, live interactions, whitepapers and comparison reports with competitors.
Decision
At this stage, the customer has already narrowed down her options. This is at the bottom of the funnel where they transform from a lead to a customer. Your customer is well informed at this stage right now about the different solutions that are on offer for them. Nothing speaks about your offerings and service like reviews from current customers do.
Customer reviews are crucial at this stage. Customers want to see your previous success, case studies and video testimonials are the best ways to do it. Offer free trials to prospects at this stage.
Retention
It is unarguably one of the most important stages in the customer journey. It is far easier to retain an existing customer than it is to get a new one. Businesses need to spend their energy on keeping their existing customers happy and satisfied. It is imperative that you have a customer retention strategy in place.
What helps at this stage are follow-up calls, regular surveys to get feedback from customers, testimonials from customers, dedicated helpline for paying customers and Product manuals and how-to guides.
Advocacy
Not every customer will turn into an advocate for you. But some of them will do given that you create enough opportunities for them to fall in love with your brand. They will not only promote your brand but will defend it as well. There are organic steps which you can follow to create a league of followers who will be your brand advocates.
At this stage, give your advocates referral codes or affiliate links, reward them with discounts, offer free consultations and give them exclusive access to products or features before others.
Keep in mind
Even though every buyer’s journey is unique, it can be bracketed into these five stages. The steps that I have outlined here will help you create your own buyer’s journey. Having a set process like these in place helps you create consistent content, measure its corresponding effect and keep improving.