Customer Journey strategies can help your business gain happier customers and drive revenue growth, while at the same time providing your teams with a shared understanding of customer experience requirements and delivery methods.
Retaining customers is five times more cost-effective than attracting new ones, so keeping customers satisfied with your product or service is of critical importance – that is why Retention stage of Customer Journey should always come before Acquisition stage.
However, there’s a lot of moving parts to the process, so let’s get into it.
What is the Customer Journey?
The customer journey is like a roadmap of someone’s experience with a product or service, from when they first hear about it to when they might buy it and even recommend it to others. It’s a way to see all the steps and interactions a person has with a business along the way.
The major elements of buyer journey are:
- Awareness Stage: Introducing the buyer to your brand or product through marketing efforts.
- Consideration Stage: Providing information and options to help the customer evaluate your offering.
- Decision Stage: Encouraging the buyer to make a purchase by highlighting value and benefits.
- Purchase Stage: Facilitating a smooth transaction process for the customer to buy your product or service.
- Post-Purchase Experience: Ensuring customer satisfaction and support after the sale is complete.
- Loyalty and Advocacy: Building long-term relationships and turning satisfied customers into brand advocates.
Also read: How To Use Social Proof To Increase Customer Loyalty in Shopify Store
Different Customer Journey Stages
Awareness
Awareness stage marks the initial phase of customer journeys, when customers first become acquainted with your brand through its website, social media pages, advertising or word-of-mouth recommendations.
Your goal in this phase should be to inform potential customers that your product can help solve their problems or fulfill their needs.
At this stage, customers often explore multiple solutions. They might search online or offline, ask friends and family members, read reviews on sites like Google, G2, Capterra, Yelp or Facebook and more to make decisions on products or services to buy.
It is crucial that marketing and sales teams collaborate closely in providing an optimal customer experience across all channels – this ensures a uniform message and brand image and that products/services are readily available when customers need them.
As soon as customers become aware of your product, they’ll begin investigating further by visiting your website, reading product reviews, watching videos and reaching out to customer service for additional information.
It is also important to remember that customers may move between stages of the customer journey in various ways – for instance they might research one product but decide they’d rather try another option instead – making flexible strategies with personalized touch points essential.
Digital journey maps allow you to gain a holistic overview of your digital customer journey and identify any problems that need attention.
Session replay and other tools allow you to review customer actions, behavioral patterns and technical errors causing customer difficulty on their path to purchase; using this knowledge you can improve digital customer experiences, conversions and revenue growth.
For instance, if many shoppers abandon carts quickly you could send automated emails offering coupons for other items in store they might find interesting – potentially prompting them back and encouraging a purchase!
Also read: Top Techniques for Increasing an Organization’s Digital Presence
Consideration
At this point, potential customers become aware of your brand and are open to learning more about your products or services.
They’re looking for solutions to alleviate pain points they are experiencing and are evaluating your solutions against those from competitors.
Marketing and sales must use this phase as an opportunity to effectively deliver content tailored specifically towards specific customer needs with calls-to-action that provide relief from pain points.
Infographics, buyer’s guides and case studies are effective ways of providing customers with information at this stage in their customer journey.
Client testimonials also demonstrate how your solution outshines competitors; podcast interviews with clients or SME’s can provide unique content at this juncture of customer engagement.
Once customers have narrowed down their choices, they conduct research to compare product specs and features. This could involve visiting competitors’ websites, social media or product reviews and reviewing the cost of your product or service as it impacts their budget.
Now is an excellent opportunity for you to highlight value-added services like 24/7 support or free trial periods to demonstrate why you are the superior option available to prospective customers.
Step two of a customer’s journey (seen here) involves making an informed decision. Customers assess both benefits and risks when considering products or services they are considering; sometimes consulting with sales reps for guidance in making their choice.
At this stage, marketers have an opportunity to provide valuable content that supports these purchasing decisions, such as demo videos or webinars to increase conversions and drive customers down their path towards purchase.
Customers may become distracted at this stage of the journey, so it is crucial that a clear call-to-action and ease of progress is offered.
One effective approach would be sending out automated emails when someone abandons their cart to encourage them to complete it and finish purchasing, as well as offering discounts or free shipping incentives – this will both entice customers to buy and keep them returning!
Also read: TikTok Branding Strategy for Startups
Trigger
Buying triggers are events that move customers from passive-looking to the active-searching stage of their shopping journey.
Once experiencing such events, customers become actively searching for solutions to their problems and are more likely to buy from brands that provide these solutions.
Acknowledging your customer’s buying triggers is an integral component of building their trust and creating loyalty loops – unlike demographic and psychographic attributes which simply give you a competitive edge against others.
An interest in a particular product or service is one example of a buying trigger, with customers typically attending industry conferences and reading thought leadership content to gather inspiration and attend to grow their business.
A glitch in current systems such as poor performance or rising customer complaints may also prompt consideration of alternatives as a buying trigger.
At this crucial stage in their buying journey, customers can either be won over or lost to competitors offering more attractive solutions than your own. That is why it is vitally important to get in front of customers at this phase using customer journey mapping processes in order to identify which are most likely to influence target audiences and gain their business.
Understand your customer’s buying triggers to craft highly targeted marketing messages that reach them at just the right moment and place.
By using data from your CRM system to analyze customer behavior, trigger campaigns can be automated so they activate when certain events take place.
These could range from purchases to life events such as birthdays or relocation. By identifying these trigger points and creating relevant messaging to communicate with customers during these moments, you can build their trust and loyalty and keep them coming back for more! This way, your customers are likely to choose you again and again.
Decision
At this stage, customers have identified their need for a product or service and begun the pre-purchase research phase.
While they may already have some brands in mind based on prior purchase experiences or marketing campaigns from them, they’re likely to continue searching the market for more information and comparing options before making their final choice.
Brands can provide content to help consumers move through this phase by providing thorough product and service descriptions, product demonstrations in action, testimonials and case studies, customer support experience, streamlined purchase process and smooth customer support, to guide purchasing decisions.
Consumers have become adept at quickly and cheaply purchasing what they need and want, using multiple touchpoints and channels to achieve this feat.
Marketers have therefore focused more on devising indirect marketing strategies to understand customer journeys through which decisions are being made and gain an understanding of these journeys. This is due to their typically-low overhead costs.
If you are interested in learning more on indirect marketing strategies then I will recommend subscribing to the Magnetic Marketing email newsletter to get some useful tips.
Customer journey analytics and data-driven marketing are the keys to providing personalized experiences for each of your customers, regardless of their individual needs or preferences.
But understanding all the factors driving customers’ purchasing decisions requires taking an in-depth look into each one and their influencers on one another.
Consumer Decision Journey (CDJ) provides an effective means of deconstructing this complex issue and helping marketers better understand how they can influence conversions, loyalty and advocacy from the start of the customer journey through post purchase stages.
Utilizing CDJ insights allows you to craft more engaging activation strategies. This involves tracking the effectiveness of your own online marketing channels, identifying areas for improvement and finding triggers that encourage consumers to move through your owned digital channels.
Although this requires additional work up front, CDJ discovery and activation enable more tailored messages at more relevant times through more relevant channels that maximize return on investment (ROI).
Moreover, in today’s dynamic marketplace, where consumer preferences and behaviors constantly evolve, staying ahead necessitates proactive adaptation.
Brands must anticipate shifts in consumer needs and expectations, leveraging predictive analytics and market research to stay relevant and responsive.
Additionally, fostering a culture of innovation ensures continual enhancement of products and services, aligning them with emerging trends and technological advancements.
Also read: Best Pre-Order Apps For Shopify
Conclusion
Furthermore, cultivating brand authenticity and transparency fosters trust and credibility among consumers, crucial for long-term relationships.
By communicating brand values and ethics effectively, brands can resonate with consumers on a deeper level, driving loyalty and advocacy.
In essence, navigating the intricacies of the consumer decision journey requires a multifaceted approach, integrating data-driven insights, innovation, and authentic brand communication.
Embracing this holistic perspective empowers brands to not only influence purchasing decisions but also cultivate enduring customer relationships in an ever-evolving marketplace.
