“Marketing is nothing more than getting the right message in front of the right person at the right time.”
To reach your target audience, you need to understand how they think. Marketers use various tools and formulas to identify and track how customers interact with a brand. These steps go into the creation of sales funnels and consumer journeys. In an ideal world, the sales funnel and consumer journey work together. A sales funnel is how a company collects leads and turns those leads into customers, while a consumer journey describes the path a consumer takes from becoming aware of the brand to making a purchase. When starting a new business, pivoting an established one, or reevaluating your marketing efforts, creating a sales funnel and consumer journey will help you determine what type of content to create. That way, you’ll reach your target audience at the exact place they are in their journey, which is more likely to lead to a sale. We discuss the elements of the sales funnel in a separate post. Below, we break down what a consumer journey is and how to create one for your business.
What is a consumer journey?
The consumer journey is the process of identifying the touchpoints that your ideal customers take when interacting with your brand. This process is essential, but it is sometimes overlooked. The consumer journey helps craft your messaging throughout the sales funnel. For example, you may use different terms when speaking to a consumer who knows nothing about your brand (top of funnel content) than you would with someone familiar with your offerings (bottom of funnel content). Mapping out a typical consumer journey will also identify opportunities the brand isn’t leveraging to its full potential.
Steps in the consumer journey
The consumer journey maps out the various steps consumers take from first learning about your brand to ultimately making a purchase. Working with your team to create a consumer journey map will influence the type of content you create to reach your target audience.
1. Engagement
Engagement is the first step along the consumer journey. Also referred to as the brand awareness step, this is the time that new customers get familiar with your brand. One company that is the king of brand awareness is Coca-Cola, which is recognizable to 94% of the world population. There are various ways that you can let people know about your business. Take a page out of the PR playbook and get your name out there by attending conferences, planning in-person events, and holding press conferences. You can also utilize an online branding campaign that encourages user-generated content (UGC) on social media.
One example of organic engagement is to use exclusive, branded hashtags on social media platforms such as Instagram. Companies can also utilize paid advertising through print media, out-of-home (OOH), and over-the-top (OTT) advertising.
2. Education
This step in the consumer journey identifies the consumer’s problem and how your product or service will provide a solution, whether it’s a computer, sunglasses, or a vacation. At this stage, the consumer starts to wonder how to solve it. Psychologically, they may see it pop up all over the place (have you ever noticed that if you’re in the market for a particular car, you suddenly see that car everywhere?). Hopefully, your brand has done enough during the engagement phase that the consumer remembers your company and contemplates whether your product will solve their problem.
3. Research
Now that the consumer has become aware of their problem, they need to weigh their options to solve it. They may do this in several ways: looking for recommendations from friends, researching products online, or visiting a store. This is a crucial time in the consumer journey for any brand—you need to make sure you have the content in place to get your message to them. Companies will create content like blogs, emails, direct mailing campaigns, and pay-per-click ads to reach consumers at this step.
4. Evaluation
At this point, the consumer has everything they need to make a purchase decision. Now, they will assess which option will work best. Consumers will break down their desired features and compare the available products at this stage. For example, if someone is purchasing a car, they may compare the torque, speed, safety rating, and space of different models. If it’s a piece of furniture like a couch, consumers will value the comfort, style, and ability to fit into their living rooms. These factors create an emotional connection with the product, which drives their decision-making.
5. Justification
This is the phase where the consumer finalizes their decision. They have probably narrowed it down to one or two choices but have a gut feeling about which one to choose. At this stage, it’s common for consumers to quantify the positives of the purchase or check in with others for reinforcement. They will need to have a “ buy-in” moment, whether it comes internally or from someone else.
6. Transaction
The quickest part of the consumer journey should be the transaction. This is where you close the sale, and the consumer makes a purchase. You need to make it as easy as possible for consumers to purchase from you, which is why having a great user experience is essential.
7. Adoption
This step refers to the consumer’s implementation of the product or service. For a complex product, adoption may come in the form of training. Or, it may be encouraging the consumer to join an online community after they purchase to gain advice or insight in how to use it. Guest service is critical at this stage—how does the brand react when the consumer has a problem or issue with the product? The future of the consumer’s association with the brand hangs in the balance here. If the consumer is unhappy, the journey will end at this step.
8. Retention
Happy consumers shout it from the rooftops. They’ll rave online, give you five stars on Google, and (most importantly) tell their friends. Your company should also encourage this with feedback, surveys, testimonials, and reviews. One way companies do this is to utilize tactics that get consumers to reshare their content. The goal at this step is to make the consumer advocate for your brand.
9. Expansion
“Do you want fries with that?” This step is about upselling and cross-selling consumers on complimentary products or services. What is a Big Mac without fries? If you purchased a computer, do you need a warranty? A great brand example is a Disney vacation. Consumers have purchased tickets and booked a room, but they want to get the most out of their trip. What other services can they add on? Disney meets consumers at this step by offering anything from dining reservations to front-of-line ride access.
10. Advocacy
You are now at the end of the consumer journey. Hopefully, you’ve gained a happy and loyal customer who will think of your brand for future related purchases. You can also reward customers for loyalty in the form of rewards, earning points, or nurturing a sense of community.
Build a consumer journey for your brand
Whenever you develop a new product or service, it is beneficial to complete a consumer journey map. This will pinpoint the programs and content you need to implement to create a streamlined and smooth consumer experience from start to finish. The goal is that the consumer doesn’t realize they’re going through these steps. Reach out to us if you have questions about developing a consumer journey for your business.
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