Understanding the process your customer goes through before buying a product is vital to brand success. This article discusses five main stages for decision-making from the perspective of your customer. This process is known as ‘the customer journey. Below we discuss what a customer journey is, and why you should use it in your marketing strategy.

What is a customer journey?

A customer journey can simply be explained as a visual representation of a customer’s overall experience with a brand. It elaborates how a customer reaches their final purchasing decision. It draws a visual map of the stages the customer goes through across different channels. Moreover, it establishes how a brand should communicate with its target market.

The 5 Stages of the customer journey.

Stages of a customer journey mainly represent a timeline that your customer goes through from the very beginning until they make a purchasing decision. To produce a successful marketing strategy, you have to understand your customer’s pinpoints and how your brand will solve them. There’s no better way to do this than to develop a customer journey map!

Stage 1: Awareness

In this stage, your customer becomes aware of your brand and what it offers. Awareness can be achieved through Tv, radio, or online ads, word of mouth, emails, or printed materials. Based on how strong your promotions are, more potential customers will become aware of your brand.

Stage 2: Consideration

In this stage, the customer is aware of your brand but is still considering other options. Persuading content will be helpful for your brand in this situation. Your customer needs to know why to choose you of all other options.

A perfect marketing strategy should include appropriate solutions for these two stages.

Stage 3: Purchase

By reaching this stage, your customer would have already made a decision. Your role now is to make the purchasing process as convenient as possible for your customer. You can do this by providing convenient delivery, a user-friendly website, or a convenient call center.

Stage 4: Service

So now, your customer has confirmed an order. In this stage, you make sure they get the best post-purchase service experience. This includes following up with them regarding delivery time or making the returning process convenient for them if they want to return the order.

Stage 5: Loyalty

This is the final stage of the journey. Your role here is to turn your customer into a loyal consumers for your brand and maintain their satisfaction. You can do this by constantly sending them newsletters, e-mails, and offers during holidays or on their birthday.

When producing your next marketing strategy, make sure you include the customer journey map in it.