What does ‘buyer’s journey’ mean?
The term ‘buyer’s journey’ refers to the steps a customer takes before finally making a purchase. The better you understand how your customers arrive at the decision to buy from you, the easier it would be for you to figure out more efficient ways of successfully guiding them towards that end.
If you wish to learn more about this topic, check out the FAQ section below:
Question #1: What are the different parts of the buyer’s journey?
The buyer’s journey can be broken down into three stages: awareness, consideration, and decision. Let us take a look at each one in more detail:
In the awareness stage, the customer acknowledges a problem that they have (also known as a pain point). They may also start doing research about it during this time to better understand, frame, and name the issue. Their main goal is to make the problem go away.
In the consideration stage, the customer has already clearly identified and framed their problem and is now looking at the different ways they can solve it. The main goal, however, remains the same: making the problem go away.
Finally, in the decision stage, the customer has already decided on an approach to solving their problem and is now looking for someone to provide them with the product or service they need to implement it. Their main goal is still the same during this time.
To better understand how each stage works, let us take a look at an example:
Say you have been editing videos using Adobe Premiere Pro for quite some time now but are tired of how slow and buggy it is. You want to be able to speed up your editing process.
In the awareness stage, you acknowledge that you are no longer happy with the app’s performance. You do research to check if other users are experiencing the same thing or if your machine is just not powerful enough to handle the workload.
In the consideration stage, you already know that the app is just too resource-hungry for your machine, so you consider either switching to a different app or investing in a more powerful PC.
But in your research, you come across the new M1 Macs and Apple’s video editing app Final Cut Pro X, which runs ridiculously fast on this machine, thanks to Apple’s excellent optimisation and brand-new processor. As a bonus, this app is so much easier to use than Adobe Premiere Pro and does not require a month-to-month subscription to use. You just pay for it once and you can use it forever.
In the decision stage, you decide that the best, most cost-effective way to speed up your editing process is to just get an M1 Mac and switch to Final Cut Pro X. Your next step is to find the best store to purchase these things from.
Question #2: What is the difference between the buyer’s journey and a sales funnel?
The main difference between the buyer’s journey and a sales funnel is the perspective. The former, as its name suggests, considers the point of view of the buyer while the latter considers that of the seller.
We already covered what the buyer’s journey is, so let us talk about what a sales funnel is in this section.
Simply put, a sales funnel is the model a business uses to acquire new customers and get them to make a purchase. For example, if you are selling one-on-one guitar lessons online, your sales funnel might look something like the following:
- You post free guitar tips and other valuable guitar-related content on social media
- You use your free content to drive potential customers to a free class (to get them to try your product before buying)
- You use the free class to sell your more in-depth paid courses/classes
- You get new paying students
The beauty of using a funnel like this is that the prospect’s level of interest grows more and more the deeper they go, making them more willing to make the purchase once you are ready to pitch your paid offers.
The goal here is to tailor your sales funnel to the buyer’s journey of your target customers.