Do you know that moment when someone explains something, and suddenly everything just clicks? Like finding the missing puzzle piece that brings the full picture together?
That’s how I felt the first time someone explained the customer journey to me. Suddenly it made sense why my campaigns weren’t converting the way I thought they would.
So today, I want to dive deep into a topic that can never be discussed too much.
The customer journey
The customer journey is a visualization of the “journey” a potential customer goes through before buying your product.
You might also hear people refer to it as the “buyer’s journey” – it’s the same thing, so don’t worry.
The simple customer journey
When we talk about the customer journey, you can make it as complex or as simple as you want. Just to keep things straightforward, we’ll go with the simple version here.
In its simplest form, the customer journey has four stages:
Awareness, consideration, decision, and retention.
Let me take you through the customer journey you might be on right now.
Awareness – people need to know you exist
The awareness stage might be where you are right now – you’re discovering that I exist because I’m offering help with a problem you’re facing. You’re looking for information related to what I sell (support with online marketing). But I’m not trying to sell you anything yet because you’re not looking to buy (not yet, at least).
But now you know who I am. You’re aware of me. And maybe you’re ready to move to the next stage in your journey.
Consideration – you’re thinking about buying
Maybe you read a blog post about spring trends or why dashboards are absolutely essential, or something else entirely. So now you’re considering…
…and thinking “maybe I should do that.” But you’re not ready to buy just yet. You need more convincing. So I write a blog post about how to set up dashboards yourself.
You see a whitepaper where I explain the benefits of hiring an online marketing consultant or something similar. And your interest grows.
Decision – you’re ready to buy, but from whom?
At this stage, the customer (maybe you) is ready to make a purchase. But from who? They’re weighing their options, checking prices, browsing case studies, or researching who’s the best fit.
At this point, the person is ready to make a decision – this is where we try to make the sale.
The two previous stages were just about getting them here – now we can go for the conversion.
Once you understand this, it becomes much easier to plan your campaigns and marketing efforts based on how a potential customer has interacted with you.
The fourth (and overlooked) stage – retention
Retention. The art of keeping a customer after they’ve converted.
Why is it overlooked?
Because it often feels way more exciting to get a new customer than to hold on to an existing one. But you know what?
It’s way easier to sell to someone who’s already done business with you than to chase down a brand new lead.
That’s why it’s so important that your customers don’t forget about you. You’ve provided value. They acknowledged it and paid for it. Now don’t let that effort go to waste.
If you run an online store, send them emails, give them exclusive offers, or show them articles and content that provides value – so they remember you the next time they’re ready to buy.
If you’re a B2B company, send them helpful blog posts, whitepapers, or offer further consulting. Stay relevant.
Kilde: Superoffice.com
How to work with the customer journey
With the knowledge above, you can now apply this in your marketing. If you sell to B2B clients, you probably already know that people don’t convert on their first visit.
So instead of pushing for a hard conversion, you work on providing value during the awareness stage and help move people along their journey.
This awareness allows you to create campaigns focused on softer conversions (moving people through the buyer’s journey) instead of unrealistic hard sells.
A small disclaimer
Keep in mind that a customer journey can be long and complex. It can easily take more than six months from when a potential customer first discovers you until they’re ready to buy.
I’ve had clients who visited my blog, went through the entire customer journey, and were ready to buy – but didn’t have the budget. So it took half a year before they reached out.
I’ve had clients who knew about me for years before becoming customers.
These are people who jumped back and forth in the customer journey multiple times. So while the customer journey diagrams look neat and simple, what we’re dealing with here is an ultra-simplified version.
A real customer journey is usually messy and unpredictable, with potential customers jumping between stages more than once.
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