As the world is changing, as technologies are advancing, people will have one thing in common. They don’t want to be sold. Whenever you are trying to sell something, buyers will avoid you as this is human instinct. This is because the idea of being sold adds zero value to the buyer. Buyers are looking for additional information about what you are going to offer.

So what can you do as a sales or marketing person? Well, personalizing your sales process to the buyer’s context by understanding the buyer’s journey will change the game. In this article, the buyer’s journey will be defined and understand the pipeline (flow) of the buyer’s journey.

The journey consist of 3 main processes:

1. Awareness Stage: This is where the buyers realizes they have a problem.
2. Consideration Stage: This is where the buyers will define their problem and search for options to solve them.
3. Decision Stage: This is where solutions are decided by the buyers

The graphic below illustrates a sample buyer’s journey for the simple purchasing decision of a doctor visit during an illness.

(Source from hubspot.com)

Bring It To The Next Level

You already know the 3 main processes of a buyer’s journey, now it’s time to bring it to the next level. Just getting the customer to buy is barely enough because you still can get them to consider add-ons and also the most important goal is to convert them into loyal buyers.

That is why it is very important to create a strategy that walks them through these processes and gives them a boost when they got stuck. Remember that encouragement is very important at every step or else they will lose along the way, leave the journey, or what worse is they might even forget that they ever started on a path with your brand.

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1. Awareness

Isn’t this obvious? You need to be out there, you need to be at anywhere your prospects (buyers) will be.

To reach out, there are various strategies such as advertising, joining events, writing blog posts, let your brand be word-of-mouth (best), social media, or any other channel that puts your products, services or offers in front of your targeted prospects.

For this, you can create content that gets people’s attention, something creative, something that your prospects will be searching for often.

2. Engagement

What is engagement, how can you define engagement? There are many definitions for it but what I found best define engagement is as follows, emotional involvement or commitment. It’s about being in sync with someone, growing or deepening a relationship with them.

This stage begins immediately after your first touch with the prospects. You need to continue to be engaged with them through their entire experience with your brand. The best way of engagement is multi-channel engagement. Your brand has to appear at each platform that your prospect will be.

For example:

• Social Media
• Blog post
• Online community (forums, etc) 
• Email
• Instant Messaging Apps (WhatsApp, WeChat, etc)
• Customer Support 

3. Subscribe

Yes, you read it right. Ask your prospects to subscribe. When they like their experience with your brand or business, trust begins to build. Immediately when this happens, it’s time for you to ask a small commitment from them – subscribing and giving you permission to email them.

However, bear this in mind, you have to offer something valuable that makes your buyers think that it is worth their while. This is because people become more conscious about giving out their email address.

For example: 

• Product samples
• Webinars 
• eBooks
• Demos 
• Trial version of your service 
• Reports and Insights
• Guides
• Handbook
• Workbook 
• Cheatsheet

4. Convert

When enough value is given in your free offers (answering questions and solving problems), your buyer is often eager to deepen their commitment to your brand. They just need to know how (you need to guide them along the journey). 

One of the best ways is you can do it through an entry-point offer. What does it mean – a high-value, low-risk offer that lets them sample your wares without putting too much skin into it.

Just remember this, an entry-point offer is not designed to make you a profit. It serves to create a smooth transition for your prospect for being a subscriber to a paid customer. Profits come later in the buyer’s journey.

5. Excited

Did you know that when you’re buying, it generates warm fuzzies and believe it or not, it’s a scientific fact. When you’re buying something, the dopamine produced in your brain gets you excited – which is why the fifth stage of the Buyer’s Journey is to build on that excitement.

To achieve it, you must give your new buyer a fantastic and memorable experience.

For example: 

• Offering a quick-start guide 
• Extra bonus features
• Quick wins 
• Lucky draws 
• 1st purchase freebies 

6. Ascend

Congratulations for coming to this stage, generating repeat buys and real profits will be your main goals in this stage. While your entry-point offer was designed for conversions (changing subscribers to paid buyers), your ascension offers should be geared for profits – because if you’ve been giving a great customer experience to your buyers, they will want to buy again and again from you or your brand.

For example: 

• Upsells 
• Better solutions 
• Personalized Add-Ons

7. Advocate

After having your buyers loving your brand, it’s time to spread the love. Happy buyers love to share their experience, but sometimes a little encouragement is needed to trigger them to do so. The best part is, once they do it, they will become even more loyal to your brand.

So at this stage of the Buyer’s Journey, you need to encourage your buyers to share their positive experience with your brand by writing a review or sharing on their social media about your brands. All of this will be turned into social proof. Remember to thank them once they do so. 

8. Promote

Well until now, you have been generating passive “promoters”. But in the promotion stage, your customers actively spread the word about your brands, telling stories, making recommendations and even sharing your offers because they have trusted your brand.

You can create an affiliate or commission relationship program or just give a free offer for sending some new buyers to your brand. Do not underestimate the power of word-of-mouth. At the end of the day, it’s a win-win situation for both of you.

How to Help Buyers on Their Journey

Digital marketing is about helping buyers move fast along this journey. That’s why you conventional one tactic or an ongoing series of unfocused marketing campaigns won’t work anymore, especially now that we have the New Norms. 

You need a plan that addresses every stage of the buyer’s journey. It starts with analyzing your buyer’s journey, finding the gaps and putting together a strategy that gets excited or rather rushing to be your buyers. Well, still remember those days where people queued for hours before the latest iPhone was launched? That’s what you can aim for.