What is the Buyer's Journey?

At its essence, a buyer's journey is the step-by-step process a potential customer goes through before making a purchase. By mapping the process at each stage of the journey, you can help guide your customers toward making informed buying decisions—ultimately helping your bottom line.

This article will explain each stage of a buyer journey and how to map it for your business, laying out the path from awareness to purchase, so you can connect with potential customers at the right times and through the right methods.

Understanding the buyer’s journey

The buyer’s journey is the process a customer goes through from the moment they realize they have a need to the point they decide on a solution and make a purchase. Understanding this journey is important for businesses of all shapes and sizes because it reveals the steps a buyer takes before committing to spending any money. The path isn't always linear but it can be; a buyer gathers information, weighs their options, and then makes a choice.

Today’s customers are super informed. They conduct their own research and evaluate options independently. Think about the last time you bought something new and all of the research and steps you took before actually buying it.

Knowing your business’ buyer journey allows you to insert touchpoints at strategic points in this process. Provide relevant content or information at each stage, nurturing the customer relationship and building visibility and trust for your product or service.

A well-understood buyer’s journey helps you:

• Identify where and how you engage with potential customers.

• Tailor your marketing and communication efforts to different needs and decision stages.

• Close sales or gain new clients more effectively by meeting their needs in real time.

3 key stages of the buyer’s journey

Etapa 1: Concientización

Overview: At the awareness stage, potential buyers realize they have a problem or need but may not yet know what solutions exist. Here, they’re gathering initial information and starting to understand their needs.

What happens: The customer may search online, read articles, and watch videos that highlight or explain their issue. They’re looking for educational content that helps them make sense of what they need. This might result in them searching for broad terms, like “birthday gift ideas” or “how to choose a photographer”.

Example activities you can take: Publishing blog posts, sharing social content, and creating videos that discuss common problems or needs related to your product.

Read the guide to creating a marketing strategy

Etapa 2: Contemplación

Overview: In this stage, the buyer has defined their need and is now exploring various solutions. They start comparing products, researching brands, and evaluating the options available to them.

What happens: The buyer might download guides, compare product features, and read reviews from other customers. They’re looking for content that differentiates options and provides insights into what might be best for them. This is when someone might search for something like “ceramic pasta bowl” or “headshot photographers in Austin” to make comparisons.

Example activities: Engage potential customers with email marketing, case studies or reviews featuring happy customers, webinars or online courses, testimonials, and detailed product comparison guides.

See example marketing emails

Stage 3: Decision

Overview: At the decision stage, the buyer is ready to choose a solution. They know what they want, but they need reassurance that they’re making the best choice. Here, trust, clarity, and ease of purchase become top priorities.

What happens: The buyer may review final details, look for discounts, or seek that last piece of information or advice that confirms their choice. This is where they’re likely comparing the best-fit options and thinking about their purchase experience.

Example activities: Display clear pricing, offer product demos or free trials, provide a straightforward purchase process, and give options for consultations or live chats to address any last-minute concerns.

How to apply a buyer journey to your own customers

Mapping out your customers' buyer journey is the first step in guiding them from discovery to purchase. Here’s how to apply this journey to your business.

1. Identify key touchpoints. Think about each stage of the buyer’s journey and identify where your customers engage with your business. Are they finding you through a search engine at the awareness stage or through social media? Did they see your ad on their favorite website or get a word-of-mouth recommendation? These touchpoints vary depending on your audience, product, or service.

2. Align your marketing strategy with each stage.

• Awareness: Focus on broad visibility. Create content that educates and raises awareness about the benefits of your product. Examples include blogs, infographics, social media posts, and online ads or partnerships.

• Consideration: At this stage, provide deeper insights and comparisons to differentiate what you offer. Include reviews, examples of past projects, and testimonials. Consider hosting webinars or Q&A sessions to go in-depth, if that fits your target buyer.

• Decision: Highlight what differentiates your product or makes your solution stand out. Include compelling calls to action, provide free trials or consultations, and ensure that your purchase process is smooth.

3. Use multi-channel strategies. Different buyers will find you through various sources, so consider posting in more than one place to reach customers where they’re already hanging out. That includes your website, the most relevant social media platforms, email, search engines, or paid advertising. 

How to measure the performance of your buyer journey

Tracking the effectiveness of your buyer's journey will give you insights into what’s working well and where you can make improvements. Here are some key metrics to focus on at each stage.

1. Awareness: Track website traffic, social media engagement, and organic search rankings. High traffic and engagement levels show that your content is reaching your audience and is connecting enough to convince them to visit your site or posts.

2. Consideration: Track your leads, such as form completions, email sign-ups, and engagement with your content (e.g., product pages, blog posts, or project details). This stage reflects interest and intent, so more leads means your consideration content is resonating.

3. Decision: Track conversion rates, completed sales, and abandoned cart rates. This stage is about action. Monitoring these metrics helps you gauge whether you’re closing sales effectively.

There are a few different tools you can use for tracking your performance.

• Google Analytics: Offers insights into website traffic, page performance, and user engagement

• CRM systems: Software that tracks leads and customer interactions across the journey, providing a comprehensive view of the buyer journey

• Heatmaps: Provide data on where customers spend the most time on your website, helping you understand their behavior

• Website analytics: Built-in data to help you see which pages or products are popular, track the buyer’s journey on your site, and see where your site traffic comes from

Set up regular performance reviews to look at these metrics. A continuous feedback loop allows you to adjust your strategy as needed and optimize each stage of the journey.

Learn how to use Squarespace Analytics for your site

How buyer personas are connected to the buyer’s journey

Buyer personas are useful in personalizing each stage of the buyer journey. A buyer persona is a detailed profile representing a segment of your target customers, describing their preferences, needs, and pain points. It’s helpful to include demographic information like age, gender, job title, etc., so you’re developing a holistic view of each type of customer. 

When you create content and messaging with a specific persona in mind, it helps you to think and act as they might think and act. You can use as many or as few personas as is helpful, depending on the various types of customers you may have. Understanding your personas ensures that you’re addressing the specific motivations and challenges of your ideal customer.

This way, you can ensure that messaging at each stage resonates with the right people, guiding them effectively through the decision-making process. For example, if one persona values affordability while another values quality, you can address these needs in your awareness content and emphasize details that cater to each persona’s priorities.

Creating persona-specific journeys

You may find that each persona follows a slightly different journey to becoming a customer. Mapping out each unique path enables you to choose the right touchpoints, messaging, and channels for each customer type.

Example personas and their journey paths:

1. A budget-conscious freelancer might look for "affordable design software" and compare options based on price and functionality.

2. A small business owner focused on growth may look for tools that offer scalability and advanced features, requiring more in-depth information on product capabilities.

Read the guide to creating buyer personas

Example buyer’s journey for a fictional business

To illustrate how a buyer’s journey might look in action, let’s consider how a fictional freelancer might end up choosing a website platform like Squarespace. This freelancer wants to be able to create a professional-looking site without doing too much heavy lifting, share their work, and have options to add things like a newsletter, paid content, or client intake and invoicing if they want to.

1. Awareness stage

• What’s happening: The freelancer realizes they need a website to showcase their portfolio but isn’t familiar with website-building platforms.

• Touchpoints: They do a search for “how to create a portfolio website” and come across blog posts and guides that mention Squarespace.

2. Consideration stage

• What’s happening: The freelancer now understands they need a website builder and begins comparing options.

• Touchpoints: They read comparison articles, watch tutorial videos, and read blogs and web pages that outline each website builder’s unique features and tips for creative professionals.

3. Decision stage:

• What’s happening: The freelancer decides that Squarespace’s portfolio templates, ease of use, and tools for managing clients are a good fit.

• Touchpoints: They sign up for a free trial, receive a discount code via email, and decide to buy a subscription.

For each stage, Squarespace has targeted content, addressing possible objections and helping the freelancer move from awareness of their need to a confident decision and ultimately a purchase.

Understanding the buyer’s journey can transform the way you approach marketing, sales, and customer engagement. By mapping out each stage and aligning your content, marketing efforts, and customer interactions accordingly, you can create a smooth path from awareness to purchase, turning prospects into lifelong customers and fans.