The Buyers Journey .[What is the buyers journey and why is it important]

Ever wondered how you can take a specific interest in a particular brand and they somehow seem to cater to your every need without "trying "to? Well that is because those brands have a proper understanding of the buyers journey and uses this concept to their advantage.

What is the buyers journey?

So what exactly is a buyers journey and why should every business owner understand it in order to market their brand? It is the process a customer goes through when trying to make a purchase . In my previous post we dove into consumer behavior and how it plays a huge role in this journey . (Check it out if you have not already)

Why is the buyers journey important ?

Your buyers journey will help you as a business owner to put out the right information at the right time to your audience and making yourself useful to them.

Before we go into the theory of what it might be lets use a case study to help you get a rough idea of how a customer journey may look like.

Cake Baby Bakery

I want you to visualize yourself for a minute . You have an upcoming birthday party and you had totally forgotten about the cake and you are in panic mode because you need a cake ASAP . This leads you to head over to google to look for a bakery near you . As always your search engine delivers your desired results . Typically you will gravitate towards the first result right ? In this case it is cake baby . You have never heard of it before but you are willing to give it a look.

This means you have become aware of its existence.

You click on this website and scroll through and the user experience is amazing , the quality of images is "chefs kiss". To top it off they have videos showing the process of making their cakes and links to their social media platforms which are personable and actively being used.

Pretty impressive right? However you need that extra confirmation so you scroll through a little it more and find testimonials and the fact that they offer free deliveries and a money back guarantee incase of faulty scenarios … So on top of some delicious looking cakes you are sold on the fact that they look credible and give off a good impression .

You decide to order the cake and before you check out of the site you get a notification that tells you to sign up to their newsletter where you get monthly recipes on easy do it yourself cake recipes . I know for sure I'd want to signup .

Fast forward they deliver the cake on time and it is exactly as you had ordered . To top it off they have the most fascinating packaging out here . You open the package and you receive a thank you note that is personalized and has their Instagram handle on there telling you to share on you stories if you love the cake. This surpasses your expectations and the cake is tasty too. A few weeks later you get an email with the promised recipe newsletter and there after you get email notifications if they have festivals , discounts etc. You are very much impressed and a few months later your cousin is needs a cake for his anniversary , so what do you do? You recommend cake baby.

LETS BREAK IT DOWN.

Out of this case study you will clearly see a buyers journey in play . It is divided into

1. Awareness

2. Consideration

3. Decision

Awareness

This is the stage at which the buyer becomes aware of the fact that they have a problem and are looking for a solution to this particular problem. In this particular case you were in need of cake and went ahead looking for the solution.

Consideration

In this particular stage you as the consumer has come across a couple of solutions and the debate is which one will you consider. In this case cake baby positioned itself in such a way that it increased the chances of consideration.

Decision

By this particular point the consumer has done their research and are looking for the best fit for them . In this case cake baby had take the liberty to make sure that you were sold on the idea even before you had time to look for other options.

In a nut shell it is really essential to understand who you are targeting and where they are in the buyers journey so as to curate the most relevant content that is meant to nurture your audience who will inevitably be a paying customer and in the long run an advocate.

Until next post besties , Take the time to understand who your audience is and nurture them accordingly.