The road less travelled: A walk through the consumer journey

Whilst we would love the consumer journey to be the number 52 bus to your shop front, it is not that simple. It is the full experience that they have with your business, covering each different interaction, no matter how small, and it all starts with their awareness of your brand.

At some point they will need to discover your brand. Whether it is on Google, in an advert or seeing a product on a shelf, that moment constitutes the first point of contact and the beginning of their journey with you. Once they know that you exist, the consumer will then enter a phase of consideration where they decide whether they like what you offer, compare you to others and weigh up the benefits. Hopefully, this will lead to the purchase phase of the journey, where the decision has been made and the customer finally parts with their hard-earned cash for something that you offer.

It might be easy to think that the journey ends here, but in most cases, you will want to retain that customer so that they use you again. This might be through answering queries and finding ways to stay in touch with offers and useful information. If you get all of this right, then the consumer will enter the advocacy phase, which is one of the most powerful marketing tools you can get: word of mouth. If they are happy, they will tell others about you, write reviews and engage with your marketing and social media, and a whole new set of journeys will begin.

Each of the stages of the consumer journey hangs finely in the balance, and should just one of them be neglected, the whole thing can fall apart. It is important to think about all the ways a consumer can come into contact with your business and how that is likely to impact on their journey. Each phone call, delivery and social media post can be a deciding factor, and each stage of the journey needs a different approach.

You first thoughts will need to be about awareness and how you let the consumer know that you are there, which will need a carefully thought-out marketing strategy. Once you have made that first contact, you will need to plan how you can sustain that contact and be an active part of the consideration process. What can you do to influence their decision making?

After the purchase takes place, you should not take your eye off the ball. If the customer does not receive something or has a complaint, how you handle this will determine whether they ever consider you again. If their journey with you has been a successful one, it is important to think about how to stay in touch in order to lure them back in again at another time.

All of these considerations are part of a much wider marketing strategy that can include pay per click advertising, social media and email marketing to name just a few of the tools at your disposal. At Koobr, we know what it takes to make the consumer journey a successful one, to ensure that it is less of a long a winding road, and more of a busy motorway of traffic to your door. Give us a call on 01332 419803 to find out more about how we can put you on the path to success.