If you work in sales or marketing, or are an entrepreneur, it’s crucial to know who your customers are – and when they’re most likely to buy your product or service.
That’s where the consumer decision journey comes into play. Understanding it is key to ensuring you target the right people, at the right time.
What is the consumer decision journey?
The consumer decision journey is a framework that helps marketing professionals better understand the process consumers go through when making purchase decisions. It’s rare that a customer thinks of purchasing something and does so immediately. Rather, it’s usually a much longer process that is impacted by several contributing factors.
For example, someone might think of a product they need – or see a social media ad that piques their interest. Rather than buying it there and then, they may do some research to find out what product is best for them or what price fits their budget. They may speak to friends and family about the product, until finally, they decide what to buy and where from.
The customer decision journey maps out the typical stages customers go through when making a purchase, from initial awareness to research and consideration, to post-purchase evaluation.
Funnel model vs consumer decision journey
The concept of the consumer decision journey was popularised by McKinsey & Company in 2009 in an article titled “The Consumer Decision Journey”. The article proposed a new framework for understanding the buyer journey, in an update to the traditional funnel model of buying stages.
The traditional funnel model depicts a linear path, in which customers move through sequential buying stages. The top of the funnel starts with awareness, getting progressively narrower as customers move through interest, desire and action as they make a purchase – all of which implies a one-way flow. But as anyone who’s ever bought anything can testify: that’s rarely how it works.
The consumer decision journey recognises that the path to purchase isn’t usually linear. Customers can enter and exit the purchase journey at any point, and they may revisit stages depending on their circumstances and individual needs.
The consumer decision journey is more dynamic than the traditional funnel model. As such, it better reflects how consumers actually behave, especially in the digital age where many of us are more likely to shop online rather than in brick-and-mortar stores.
“Understanding your consumer on a one-to-one level is so important.” – Jo Malone CBE
How do consumers make decisions?
Customers go through several stages when choosing whether to buy a product or service, and there are various factors at play during each step. The stages of the customer decision journey are, typically, as follows:
1. Trigger
An individual realises that they have a problem or a desire, and they need a product or service to solve it.
2. Awareness
At this stage, consumers become aware of a product or service. They might find out about a product through word of mouth, or their awareness might be triggered by advertising, online, on TV, or on billboards. At this stage, it’s best for brands to focus on building brand awareness and recognition. It’s important that consumers know who you are and what you can offer them.
3. Research
Once a customer is aware of a product, they enter the consideration phase, during which they research the solutions to their problem. Here, it’s important that you’re both visible and useful to consumers, through paid ads on search engines and social media, as well as an informative website that’s search engine optimised (SEO).
4. Evaluation
After conducting their research, consumers should have a good idea of what they need from a product – and it’s time to research the different options on the market. At this stage, they may look at competitors to understand whether they offer better features or a lower price point. You should be ready to persuade prospective customers that your product or service is the best option for them, with marketing material that convinces them your product is superior to the competition.
5. Purchase
Finally, it’s time for customers to make a purchase. To get to this stage, they may look at reviews from previous customers – and they may also spend time looking for discount codes. It’s important to give consumers a good experience when checking out so that they’re more likely to become repeat customers.
6. Post-purchase experience
Some brands make the mistake of securing a purchase and then not following up with their customers. But it’s important to follow up with customers to gauge whether they had a positive or negative experience when shopping with you. Positive experiences can lead to brand loyalty and repeat purchases, while negative experiences may result in dissatisfaction, and potentially result in a reluctance to buy from you again. Post-purchase engagement could include things like follow-up emails, newsletters and money-off codes to encourage repeat purchases.
7. Advocacy
In some purchase journey models, there’s an additional stage of advocacy. In this stage, satisfied customers become advocates for your brand by sharing their positive experiences with others. This could look like writing reviews on Google, other review sites and social media, or through brand ambassador schemes.
Why is the customer decision journey so important?
Understanding how your customers – and potential customers – behave is a silver bullet for businesses. It can help you get ahead in your marketing, allowing you to better understand how to effectively reach and engage with customers at each stage of their purchase journey.
It also supports you to target your audience more effectively with a better understanding of what the key touchpoints are in a buyer’s journey. Understand where you can have the most impact – and invest your budget there for the biggest return on investment.
A good understanding of the customer decision journey can also help you to personalise marketing efforts at each of the buying stages. For example, at the awareness stage, you can use targeted advertising, while at the research and evaluation stage, you could send personalised discounts and do retargeting, then offer referral programmes and loyalty schemes to encourage additional purchases.
A positive customer experience throughout the purchase journey can help to build brand loyalty. Customers who get to know your brand and have a good experience at every touch point are more likely to become repeat buyers who recommend the brand to others and contribute positively to the brand’s reputation through advocacy.
Unlike the traditional funnel model, which ends with purchase, the consumer decision journey emphasises the post-purchase stage, which is critical for customer retention. When it comes to selling, the chance of closing a sale to a new customer is just 5-20% – but for existing customers, the odds are far higher, at 60-70%. So it makes far more sense for brands to focus their efforts on retaining existing customers rather than attracting new ones.
With a good grasp of the customer decision journey, you can over time, identify strengths and weaknesses in your customer engagement strategies. This can help you to make more informed, data-driven decisions to continuously improve your marketing and sales processes.
What’s more, businesses that understand and effectively navigate the customer decision journey have a competitive advantage. By aligning strategies with customer needs and behaviours, companies can differentiate themselves in the market and position themselves as customer-centric.
How to use the customer decision journey
Effectively harnessing the consumer decision journey may take a little trial and error as you get to know more about your customers, how they behave, and what strategies they respond well to. Some things to take into consideration include:
- Customer research: Conduct thorough consumer research to understand who your target audience is, as well as their preferences and behaviours at each stage of the buyer journey. You could gather insights through surveys, interviews and by analysing your existing data.
- Content mapping: Develop a content strategy per marketing channel that is tailored to each stage of the buying journey. Address the needs and concerns of potential customers at each stage with engaging and informative content that’s likely to make them take notice of your brand.
- Multi-channel engagement: Customers don’t do all of their research through a single channel, so don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Through research, understand where your potential customers are, and then use a variety of channels such as social media, email marketing, content marketing and advertising to improve your visibility across various touchpoints.
- Personalisation: Use customer data to create more personal interactions, giving your customers a more tailored and engaging experience with your brand.
- Data analysis: Regularly look at your customer data to identify trends, patterns and areas for improvement. Use your data to understand what tactics are working and which ones aren’t, and tweak your strategies accordingly.
- Customer feedback: Don’t underestimate the power of customer feedback. Get in touch with your customers to understand whether they’re satisfied with the experience and if there were any pain points – and then use that data to make improvements.
- Customer service: Ensure you offer an excellent customer service experience whenever a customer encounters your brand. From social media platforms to posting out orders, ensure you respond to customers quickly and proactively resolve any issues.
Level up your business
Understanding how and why people make purchase decisions is critical for businesses today – after all, the choice to buy something isn’t a straight line, but it can be a long and winding road. It’s important that businesses pay attention at each step of the journey, from ensuring you’re visible when they’re researching their options, to making sure they’re happy when they make a purchase.
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