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What Is the Buyer's Journey?

Monday 17 July 2017

6 minute read

By Sarah Burns

This is the process that an eventual customer would go through from awareness, to consideration, to making the purchasing decision.

As a marketing and/or salesperson you need to know where your business can 'touch base' with the prospective customer as they move through their buyer's journey.

  1. Awareness Stage: The buyer realises they have a problem.
  2. Consideration Stage: The buyer defines their problem and researches options to solve it.
  3. Decision Stage: The buyer chooses a solution.

Example: Education Provider

If you're an educational provider, for instance, the product may not be a purchase but it is still in many ways a buyer's journey. They are the customer, they have a problem, you could be the solution.

Awareness: "My child is 10 years old and needs to choose a secondary school place."

Thrive Comprehensive is a local secondary school that actively engages with local primary schools.

Consideration: "I know I need a school that is local to me and has a good Ofsted rating - but there are so many to choose from."

Thrive Comprehensive also has a website that offers a prospectus and help guides on the courses and facilities of its school. It also offers the opportunity to register for open days for students and their parents.

Decision: "I am choosing Thrive Comprehensive because they are rated 'Very Good' and are only 10 minutes away."

Thrive Comprehensive might never have had a human touch point, but a parent has narrowed down their decision to Thrive Comprehensive (or they're in the running, subject to the open day) because the information has already helped them with their decision.

How has the school made it easier for the buyer? By being able to clarify the answers to the parent, Thrive Comprehensive has positioned itself as a logical choice for the customer.

Find out more about the Buyer's Journey and how to strategise your marketing with our Inbound Marketing Strategy in Six Steps ebook.

Example: Car Dealership

Take a car dealership, as another example:

Awareness: "I have passed my test and need a car from a reputable dealer."

Thrive Garages' website is one that pops up at the top of the search engine results, either via paid or organic means. The company also pops up in the Google Local results.

Consideration: "I know there are six different dealers but which do I pick?"

Thrive Garages has a website, Facebook page and is actively responding to reviews in the online community. It offers information on the cars in stock, testimonials from happy customers and has a 'Chat now' option.

Decision: "I am choosing Thrive Garages because they are rated excellently online, have great cars to view online, their pricing seems fair and I've already spoken to an online rep."

Thrive Garages has uploaded a vast amount of information to now enable the customer to make a choice, without even interacting directly with them.

Car buyers do lots of research before they even set foot in a garage. From what kind of car they need, insurance costs, budget, fuel consumption, second-hand/new, to what garages sell that car. By having that information online where your customer can find it and use in their own time, you're already influencing their purchasing decision. 

Find out more about the Buyer's Journey and how to strategise your marketing with our Inbound Marketing Strategy in Six Steps ebook.

Discover more posts like this via Marketing Strategy.

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