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Customer Path to Purchase Mapping
Identifying the path to purchase is our way of anticipating the steps the consumer takes leading up to a purchase, engaging with them, and influencing their decision in our brand’s favour.
If you understand how your customers reach the point of purchase, you’ll know their journey along the path to becoming paying customers.
Some brands litter their customers’ journey with a random dump of messaging touchpoints intended to lead potential customers down a one-size-fits-all path, ultimately confusing and often redirecting them to a competitor’s off-ramp.
Do your customers understand where to go next?
Where do I start with Path to purchase mapping?
Consumers require different types of information as they move through each phase of the journey, and you need to understand the different types of buyer personas you deal with and what information is meaningful to them at any given time.
Giving consumers the right message ultimately increases conversion rates and sales.
Start with your buyer personas and retrace their steps along your path to purchase
Take into consideration location and convenience.
Consider targeting your path-to-purchase by location to reach people while they’re on the go, based on where they are at a specific time. You can then highlight your delivery options in your messaging at relevant junctures and show your product inventory online so customers can easily see what’s in stock and where to get it.
Understand that you are dealing with an informed consumer
Ads don’t always have to centre on a transaction. Be helpful throughout the research process your customers have undertaken to get to this point, and lock in your brand as a trusted resource for them early on.
If your consumers are searching for something, help them discover it
As you refine your understanding of your customer’s journey to purchase, consider the exact moments and touchpoints you want to capture at every step.
Look at your industry to other pathways your target customer might be travelling along.
Look sideways from your category.
Think about your customers’ journey holistically, and know that a seemingly unrelated search in a complementary category could trigger interest in your brand. Consider partnering with related brands in different (but connected) verticals to reach a similar but broader audience. Keep an eye on the customer journey and maximise your presence in those places where people may change course and consider related products.
What is the best way to start Path to purchase mapping?
As a consumer embarks on the purchase path, you need to educate them to progress through each phase. Your path to purchase consists of six steps: awareness, consideration, preference, action, retention and finally, advocacy.
Awareness
At this stage, a potential buyer is just realising a want or need for a product and/or service. They are Googling to better understand what they are looking for. Most potential buyers in the Awareness stage seek information to answer questions or resolve their pain points.
Consideration
With a clearly defined goal or challenge and a commitment to address it, the Consideration phase is about a buyer’s evaluation of different available methods. At this stage, you are still delivering critical, informative information to help your buyer make the best possible decision.
Preference
At this point in the journey, a buyer has decided on a solution category. They have a strategy to address their pain point, but are still deciding on a specific tool or vendor.
Action
A customer is converting in the action stage, purchasing or ordering an item or booking a service.
Retention
It retains a customer at a cost five times lower than acquiring a new one. It isn’t straightforward to turn a prospect into a first-time buyer, so it’s imperative to have a strategy to keep them.
Advocacy means word of mouth for your brand
Advocacy
The perfect customer is one who not only buys your product or service but also goes out and actively recommends it to others. This word-of-mouth recommendation isn’t the last stage of your path to purchase. Instead, this shortens the journey into consideration or even a preference for other future customers’ journeys. Use sites like Facebook Business, True Local and Google places and embrace the importance of ratings and consumer perception online. Consider building these into your ads and messaging.
What are the benefits of Path to purchase mapping?
- Helping you see exactly where customers interact with your business
- Focusing the business on particular customer needs at different stages in the buying funnel
- Identifying whether your customer journey is in a logical order and, if not, reordering it accordingly
- Giving a broader perspective on your brand engagement process
- Showing the gaps between the desired customer experience and the one received
- Highlighting development priorities and the lowest-hanging fruit for building your brand
- Allowing you to concentrate efforts and expenditure on what matters most to maximise your brand
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