The Buyer’s Journey – Converting Your Leads To High Paying Customers

Buyer’s Journey is one great concept in digital marketing widely ignored by digital marketers and business owners alike… it’s appalling how the most important concepts in life are the most ignored.

Most digital marketers and business owners complain about their campaign efforts converting less than they expected… it is because they have either misunderstood the buyer’s journey concept or don’t know it AT ALL.

Well… if you are a digital marketer or business owner, you will not have to bother about that anymore. As you know, we are BIG on solving BIG problems for you on our blog because we want you and your business to succeed.

As a business owner or digital marketer and with a complete grasp of the buyer’s journey concept, you will have no point in struggling to make sales in your business because you now understand why your customers better.

Enough said… how do you leverage the buyer’s journey concept for your business? What should know and apply? In this article, I will help grasp the idea and it can triple your sales in 2022.

Introduction

Today, consumers can research a product online, compare brands on cost, and decide which seller is best for their needs.

Now let’s have a case study scenario…

Think about the last online purchase you made. What was your thought process? How did you decide on the product or service before finally making payments? Did it help fulfil your need at that moment?

The truth is…

You went through a buying process before deciding to purchase from any of the brands you find online. Before becoming a customer, a person will first go through a process called the buyer’s journey. 

Most aren’t aware of this journey but they use this process before making a buying decision. But now think about understanding this buyer’s journey process? Yeah, that’s what we intend to show you here.

What is The Buyer’s Journey?

According to HubSpot, (a software company for inbound marketing, sales, and customer service), the Buyer’s Journey is the active research process someone goes through leading up to making a purchase.

It is a “journey” because your prospective customers will be at different points in their journey towards a purchase because sales don’t just happen… it follows processes that I will be showing you soon.

Understanding your buyer’s journey as a business owner will give your prospects the fuel that they need to move them towards making a purchase.

The buyer’s journey (otherwise known as the customer journey) is a fundamental part of an inbound marketing strategy because it helps you identify with your potential customers’ stages.

 3 Major Stages Every Buyer Has To Go Through – Buyer’s Journey Stages

There are 3 major stages your leads or prospects will have to go through before making a buying decision. In this article, we’re going to expound on the three important stages:

• Awareness
• Consideration
• Decision

Buyer’s Journey Stages

1. Awareness Stage

This is the stage where a potential customer identifies his/her problem.

Imagine, for a moment, you’re experiencing a headache and you are unaware of what’s causing it, and you pick up your phone and turn to Google and type “why do I have a headache?”.

Your aim at this stage is to enlighten yourself as much as possible and put a name to your ailment. Having given a name to your ailment, you become aware and begin looking for a solution.

After reading a few articles online, you confirm that it is fever. That’s exactly what happens in this stage.

Oftentimes, a prospect discovers your brand either through organic search or paid traffic.

This is why I encourage brands and digital marketers to go big on SEO. It is the only digital marketing component that guarantees high-converting prospects who are ready to buy.

With SEO, you don’t have to spend outrageous figures running ads on Facebook, Instagram and other social media platforms.

To help you get started, we wrote an article on how you can leverage SEO as an alternative to social media ads here.

At this stage, you don’t push for a sale. You push for nurturing them through your freemium content, lead magnet, social media posts and other nurturing based content. It’s an encouragement stage.

2. Consideration Stage

This is the stage where the audience evaluates different methods available to solve his/her challenge.

Let’s return to our previous headache example, for a moment.

You’ve clearly defined your goal and are committed to addressing it as soon as possible. You’re researching and understanding all of the available methods for solving it.

At this stage, you’re not asking for a purchase, yet. You’re simply inviting further engagement.

So, audiences at this stage only seek to confirm the credibility of the brand or business… content such as testimonials and top mind awareness content fits perfectly for the audience in this stage.

Do you need blogs where you can get content ideas on this stage? We wrote an article on the top 10 digital marketing blogs to follow in 2022. If you need to increase your content game, follow these blogs.

3. Decision Stage

This is the stage where your prospect has defined their solution and is whittling down a long list of potential service providers in their given solution strategy.

Remember this… this is the most important stage of the buyer. How you position your brand for this stage will either determine if the prospects make a buying decision or not.

Back to my previous example. At this point, you start to speak with friends or ask online about good hospitals or a good pharmacy where you can get good medications.

Specifically, they’re looking for information on how your product works, reviews, and what their experience might look like if they decide to move forward with your brand and that includes what happens before they make a purchase.

One great tool that can help in this stage is using the Google Business Profile to generate positive reviews from your customers. This way, your customers can believe your brand through what is said about you online.

A good place to start is How to Setup a Google Business Profile for your business. We wrote this article specifically for business owners who seek to learn how to create Google Business Profile with ease.

Of course, not everyone at this decision stage will make it as far as your checkout and this is in part because many potential buyers want to try your product before making a purchasing decision.

At this stage, aside from making a sale, you can optimize conversions and maximize revenues.

Conclusion

Using the buyer’s journey strategy will help you attract, engage, and delight your potential customers, by meeting them where they’re at in their journey and providing the needed guidance and value they’re seeking.

Also think about how you can use your content as an educational tool, throughout the buyer’s journey.

Use this method as a way to understand what your buyer’s journey looks like. Your entire business needs to be aligned on the different stages of the buyer’s journey.

Finally, remember, authenticity is key in the buyer’s journey.

I hope you find this article resourceful. Do let me know what you think in the comment section. For more valuable articles, visit lekanbanjo.com. Thanks for reading!