buyer journey voorbeeld

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Wat is de buyer journey?

De buyer journey is het proces dat een potentiële klant doorloopt op weg naar een aankoop. Het belangrijkste uitgangspunt hierbij is dat de behoeften en vragen van de koper veranderen tijdens de verschillende fasen van dit koopproces.

Het buyer journey model komt voort uit de content marketing en is later ook geadopteerd in de inbound marketing methode .

Waarom het buyer journey model?

In inbound marketing hebben we een nobel streven: de potentiële klant in -iedere fase- van het koopproces optimaal vooruit helpen. Het in kaart brengen van de buyer journey ondersteunt dit proces.

De behoeften en intentie van een lead veranderen in iedere fase van de buyer journey. In de beginfase is de koper vooral aan het oriënteren en is er geen commerciële intentie. Naarmate het koopproces vordert, wordt de behoefte richting een concrete oplossing steeds concreter en neemt de commerciële intentie toe.

We helpen de buyer persona (representatie van jouw ideale klant) dus optimaal vooruit wanneer we onze content  aanpassen aan -en matchen met- de fasen van de buyer journey. Zo komt vraag en aanbod perfect overeen en ontstaat er harmonie.

Buyer journey fasen

We onderscheiden in de buyer journey de volgende fasen:

Awareness - bewustwordingsfase

De awareness fase wordt in het Nederlands ook wel de bewustwordingsfase genoemd. In deze fase van de buyer journey wordt de potentiële klant zich bewust van een probleem, of de mogelijkheid tot het benutten van een kans.

Aan het begin van deze fase is dit bewustzijn nog niet of nauwelijks aanwezig. Daarom is het belangrijkste doel in deze fase om de klant bewust te maken van de aard en omvang van het probleem (of de aard en omvang van de mogelijke kans).

De behoefte van de buyer persona is in deze fase vooral: informatie inwinnen en meer leren over het probleem (of het benutten van de kans).

Content is daarom in deze fase niet commercieel van aard. Over het product of dienst wordt (nog) niet geschreven. De content concentreert zich rondom alle facetten van het probleem, zodat het bewustwording bij de potentiële koper groeit.

Consideration - overwegingsfase

In de consideration fase van de buyer journey heeft de potentiële klant het probleem gedefinieerd en afgebakend en gaat hij/zij op zoek naar oplossingsrichtingen.

In Nederland wordt deze fase de overwegingsfase genoemd omdat de buyer persona verschillende oplossingsrichtingen overweegt in de fase.

De behoefte van de buyer persona is in deze fase al een stuk concreter. Het probleem is bekend en afgebakend. Nu is het tijd om alle ins & outs te onderzoeken. Een deep dive dus.

De content is in deze fase gematigd commercieel. De nadruk ligt nog steeds op het oplossen van het probleem, of het benutten van de kans. Denk bijvoorbeeld aan het proces of de methodiek (hoe) in plaats van puur het product of dienst (wat).

Decision - beslissingsfase

In de decision fase neemt de buyer persona de beslissing voor een oplossing en vindt dus de aankoop plaats.

Ook hier wordt er in Nederland een vrij directe vertaling gehanteerd, namelijk: de beslissingsfase.

De behoefte van de buyer persona ligt in deze fase compleet bij specifieke oplossingen. Verschillende producten en/of diensten worden in detail onderzocht en met elkaar vergeleken.

Content is in deze fase van de buyer journey gefocust op het product of het in gebruik nemen van het product. Denk in de b2b bijvoorbeeld aan het implementatieproces en de impact en gevolgen daarvan. Zo dicht op de aankoop, is de koper tevens op zoek naar bevestiging van het nemen van de juiste beslissing. Om deze reden worden er vaak case studies en/of testimonials ingezet om de klant te overtuigen.

Promoter - klantfase

De laatste fase van de buyer journey is de fase waarin jouw klant je product en/of dienst actief gebruikt. HubSpot noemt deze fase de promoter fase omdat het ultieme doel van inbound marketing is dat klanten ambassadeurs worden van je bedrijf en/of merk.

Andere marketingspecialisten bekijken deze fase meer vanuit het perspectief van de klant en noemen het de service of support fase. Dit is met name een b2b perspectief omdat veel b2c producten geen service of support fase kennen.

De behoefte van de klant ligt in de klantfase rondom het beter gebruiken van de oplossing.

Goede content vervult deze behoefte. Denk aan handleidingen om het product efficiënter of effectiever te gebruiken, of content in de support sfeer, zoals een serviceportaal of FAQ pagina’s.

Buyer journey vs customer journey

Er is veel verwarring over het verschil tussen de buyer journey en de customer journey. Dit is niet heel vreemd, want de woorden lijken al op elkaar, maar ook qua inhoud zijn er overeenkomsten.

Het korte (maar onvolledige) antwoord is:

• De buyer journey focust op potentiële klanten (leads) en hun koopproces.
• De customer journey focust op klanten en hun ervaring met het bedrijf, product en/of dienst.

Niet twee journeys, maar één

Door de jaren heen kwamen er echter nieuwe inzichten en is de scheidingslijn tussen de buyer journey en de customer journey vervaagd. Zo heeft Avinash Kaushik van Google het See (Awareness), Think (Consideration), Do (Decision), Care (Promotor) model in het leven geroepen en voegen ook steeds meer andere marketingexperts de klantfase(n) toe aan het buyer journey model.

Wanneer je dit alles vanuit het oogpunt van de klant bekijkt, is het niet meer dan logisch om één model te hanteren. Voor de klant is er één doorlopende “reis”, niet twee afzonderlijke.

Bij Bright Digital adviseren we daarom om één journey model te hanteren. Dit is klantgericht en pragmatischer dan twee afzonderlijke. Of je dit buyer journey of customer journey noemt, dat laten we aan jou over ;-). Als het eindresultaat maar is dat je jouw klant keer-op-keer optimaal van dienst bent.

“De term ‘customer’ (in customer journey) is eigenlijk niet goed gekozen, want ook potentiële klanten behoren tot de reis die leidt tot de aanschaf van een product of dienst.” - Bart van de Kooi, De Customer Journey in kaart in 60 minuten.

Het kan echter wel een zinvolle exercitie zijn om de klantfase uit te diepen. Een klant wordt niet zomaar van ene op de andere dag een promoter namelijk. Om je een idee te geven van dit proces, verwijzen we naar de customer fasen in het boek: ‘ De customer journey in kaart in 60 minuten ’ (ook in dit boek één reis van potentiële koper naar klant).

De klantfasen die in dit boek uitgediept worden, zijn:

• Leveringsfase bij een b2b project bijvoorbeeld de implementatieperiode.
• Gebruiksfase waarin de klant het product actief gebruikt.
• Loyaliteitsfase waarin loyaliteit ontstaat. Eerst transactioneel, daarna emotioneel.
• Ambassadeursfase waarin klanten reclame maken voor jou en je bedrijf promoten.

De rol van marketing automation

Marketing automation helpt je niet bij het in kaart brengen van de buyer journey, maar het helpt je wel in de uitvoeringsfase.

Zoals je hebt gelezen is het streven van inbound marketing om leads en klanten optimaal te helpen in iedere fase van de buyer journey. Dit betekent dat je ze de juiste content (passend bij de buyer journey fase) aanbiedt op het juiste moment. Dit noemen we lead nurturing . Met marketing automation bereik je dit en is dit proces tevens onbeperkt schaalbaar.

Tips buyer journey in kaart brengen

We sluiten af met een paar gouden tips op het gebied van buyer journey mapping:

Link een buyer journey altijd aan één buyer persona

Een buyer persona is een realistische afspiegeling van jouw ideale klant. Deze buyer persona heeft een bepaalde rol in de organisatie die bepalend is voor een groot deel van het handelen. Om deze reden is een buyer journey altijd gelinkt aan één bepaalde buyer persona.

Stel bij je buyer persona onderzoek ook buyer journey vragen

Bij een buyer persona onderzoek interview je klanten en leads om inzicht te krijgen in onder meer: hun doelen, behoeften, problemen en angsten. Alleen dan ben jij in staat om content te (laten) schrijven die perfect aansluit bij de behoeften van je potentiële klant.

Waarom zou je deze gelegenheid niet gebruiken om meer te leren over hun koopreis? Structureer daarom het interview naar het buyer journey proces. Begin met vragen over de bewustwordingsfase en vervolg met vragen over de overwegingsfase en de beslissingsfase. Interview je een klant? Stel dan ook vragen die betrekking hebben op de klantfase van de buyer journey.

Op deze manier krijg jij niet alleen inzicht in de behoeften van de klant, maar krijg je inzicht in de behoeften van de klant in relatie tot de buyer journey.

Doe zoekwoorden onderzoek

Zoekwoorden onderzoek wordt vaak -geheel onterecht- gekoppeld aan zoekmachine marketing. Een dergelijk onderzoek biedt ook inzichten in de vraag en het terminologiegebruik van de buyer persona.

Veel zoekwoorden hebben een intentie die duidelijk te linken is aan één specifieke buyer journey fase. Wanneer iemand bijvoorbeeld zoekt op ‘ Wat is SEO? ’ dan is het duidelijk dat het om een informatiebehoefte gaat in de bewustwordingsfase. Googelt iemand op ‘ inbound marketing bureaus vergelijken ’ dan zit hij/zij waarschijnlijk in de beslissingsfase. Ook de klantfase is gemakkelijk te herkennen. Wat denk je bijvoorbeeld van de zoekopdracht ‘ handleiding Hubspot workflows ’, of ‘ Hubspot Academy ’?

Verwerk de buyer journey in inbound marketing campagnes

Wanneer de buyer journey helemaal in kaart is gebracht, weet jij welke behoeften jouw potentiële klanten hebben en wanneer ze dat hebben (in welke fase van het koopproces).

Gebruik deze kennis. Schrijf content die toegewijd is aan de behoeften van één buyer persona in één bepaalde buyer journey fase. En zorg dat je voor iedere fase in de buyer journey content hebt die de lead vooruit helpt. 

Zet vervolgens marketing automation in om de content op het juiste moment aan te bieden aan je leads en klanten.

Lees verder over buyer persona’s

Buyer persona’s en de buyer journey zijn onlosmakelijk verbonden. Uitleg, tips en advies hierover vind je op onze buyer persona pagina .

Advies nodig?

Heb je na het lezen van deze pagina vragen? Of wil je eens vrijblijvend brainstormen met een van onze inbound marketing consultants? Schroom dan niet.

Bright Digital is dé partner voor bedrijven die versneld willen groeien met HubSpot

Vosselmanstraat 300 7311 VV Apeldoorn Bekijk locatie Bel +31 85 - 760 8181

Prins Bernhardplein 200 1097 JB, Amsterdam Bekijk locatie Bel +31 85 - 760 8181

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B2B Buyers Journey: betekenis, fasen + [Template]

Heb je geen goed inzicht in de reis van je potentiële kopers?

En speel je daardoor niet optimaal in op hun wensen en behoeftes? 

Breng de B2B buyers journey in kaart en breng hier verandering in!

Maar wat is de buyers journey precies? Welke fasen zijn er? En waarom is het essentieel om in iedere fase andere content aan te bieden? 

In dit artikel leggen we je er alles over uit en je krijgt een gratis template om zelf de reis van je kopers in kaart te brengen.  

Lees verder en ontdek!

Inhoudsopgave

• Wat is de B2B buyers journey?
• Verschil customer journey en buyer journey
• Fasen van de B2B buyers journey
• Waarom content maken voor de B2B buyers journey?

Hoe maak je een B2B buyers journey?

• Welke content maak je per fase?

B2B Buyers Journey template

Wat is de b2b buyers journey .

De B2B buyers journey is de reis die jouw buyer persona aflegt om zich bewust te worden van een probleem, hier over te leren en uiteindelijk het  besluit te nemen een nieuw product of dienst aan te schaffen.

Door de B2B koopreis van je klant in kaart te brengen, deel je waardevolle content die precies aansluit bij de behoefte van je klant. Op die manier komen zij vanzelf naar je toe. We noemen dit ook wel Inbound marketing .

Men gebruikt verschillende termen voor de B2B buyers journey. Zo wordt deze journey ook wel de buyer journey of de buying journey genoemd. Al deze termen betekenen gelukkig hetzelfde. 

Verschil buyers journey en customer journey

Het onderscheid tussen de B2B customer journey en de b2b buyers journey is eenvoudig. Bij de buyers journey gaat het over het converteren van je lead naar een klant. Bij de customer journey richt je je op de reis die je bestaande klanten doormaken. 

Door zelf een buyers journey op te stellen krijg je een beter inzicht in de reis van je potentiële klanten. De Nederlandse vertaling van B2B buyers journey is dan ook de B2B koopreis. Dit geeft aan dat het gaat om het process voordat iemand klant wordt, namelijk het koopproces.

De customer journey gaat juist over het contact met de mensen die jouw product/dienst al hebben afgenomen.

In dit artikel leer je hoe je beter inspeelt op de reis van je potentiële klanten. Zo vergroot je de kans dat je prospects uiteindelijk klant bij je worden. 

Je weet nu wat het verschil tussen de buyers journey en de customer journey is. Nu gaan we door naar de fasen van de buyer journey voor B2B. 

B2B buyers journey fases

De buyer journey bestaat binnen B2B uit 3 fasen: 

Decision fase Kopers verdiepen zich in de oplossingen en maken een keuze 

Waarom content maken voor de B2B buyers journey? 

Als je bezoekers op je website of blog landen, zijn ze nog niet altijd bereid om met sales te praten of je product te kopen. Ze niet nog niet bereid te converteren naar lead . Iemand die zich aan het begin van de koop reis bevindt, is eerder geïnteresseerd in waardevolle informatie die helpt het probleem te identificeren . Iemand die meer bekend is met je bedrijf, en al besloten heeft dat hij gaat kopen, is wel geïnteresseerd in een gratis proefversie of demo. 

Maar als je niets aanbiedt voor bezoekers die nog niet willen kopen, komen ze misschien nooit meer terug. Daarom is het zo belangrijk om voor iedere fase van de buyers journey een aanbieding te doen die de koper helpt in zijn reis. We noemen dit ook wel de inbound marketing funnel .

Je weet nu wat de B2B buyer journey is en wat het verschil tussen de customers en buyers journey is.

Nu wil je natuurlijk weten hoe je de reis van jouw klant vormgeeft!

Krijg een beter beeld van de reis van je potentiële klant door zelf de buyer journey B2B vorm te geven. Volg hiervoor onderstaande stappen en gebruik de template uit stap 3: 

Stap 1: Stel een buyer persona op

Zorg ervoor dat je perfect in beeld hebt wie jouw potentiële klant is en daarmee wie de reis doormaakt. 

Wat zijn haar of zijn pijnpunten en welke vragen leven er bij deze persoon?

Voor wie is de dienst of het product dat jij aanbiedt? 

Gebruik onderstaande template en geef een antwoord op deze vragen: 

Stap 2: Breng de verschillende fases in beeld

Je potentiële klant is leven ingeblazen. Maar nu is het tijd om de verschillende fases van de klantreis in kaart te brengen.

Zoals al eerder benoemd bevat de B2B buyers journey drie verschillende fases namelijk de awareness, consideration en decision fase. Deze drie fases gebruik je in de volgende stap. 

Later krijg je meer informatie over deze drie fases. Hierin leer je wat voor content interessant is om aan te bieden per fase. Wat voor content je aanbiedt verschilt per fase, want in iedere fase heeft je potentiële klant andere wensen en behoeften. 

Stap 3: Blaas de B2B buyer journey leven in 

Ga in deze stap na welke contactmomenten je buyers met je organisatie hebben. Doe dit per fase.

Interview je klanten/potentiële klanten en vraag hen wat zij goed en minder goed vonden aan jouw diensteverlening. Zo krijg je een beter inzicht in de reis die je potentiële klanten doormaken. 

Voor de awareness fase wil je weten hoe je klant in contact met je is gekomen. Via welk kanaal hoorde hij of zij voor het eerste van jouw organisatie? En via welke zoekopdrachten werd het contact gelegd? En hoe werd het eerste contact ervaren?

Dingen die je wilt achterhalen voor de consideration fase zijn zaken als: hoe je klant tot een lijst met potentiële partners kwam. En waarop je klant de verschillende aanbieders vergeleek. 

Wat had je klant nodig om tot een beslissing te komen? En wat waren juist redenen om geen relatie met je aan te gaan? Dit zijn vragen die je helder moet krijgen voor de laatste fase, namelijk de decision fase . 

Welke content maak je per fase van de buyers journey?

Het is dus heel belangrijk om een waardevolle aanbieding te doen die past bij de aankoopfase van je buyer persona . Maar hoe doe je dit? We leggen het uit aan de hand van de 3 fasen. 

Awareness fase 

In de awareness fase ben zijn kopers zich nog aan het oriënteren . Zij ondervinden een probleem en starten de reis door online op zoek te gaan naar antwoorden en oplossingen. Omdat zij zich in deze fase nog aan het oriënteren zijn, hebben ze nog geen behoefte aan een salesgesprek . Betekent dit dat je dan maar niets moet doen? Nee zeker niet. Door content te creëren die antwoord geeft op de vragen van jouw kopers, komen zij vanzelf naar je toe. 

Laten we een voorbeeld nemen...

Je bent erg vermoeid de laatste tijd en opeens bedenk je je: Hé, ik heb vakantie nodig! Je gaat meteen op onderzoek uit en je reis begint bij een zoekmachine.

In deze fase van de koop reis wil je niet meteen beslissen, maar heb je behoefte aan behulpzame oriënterende informatie. Bijvoorbeeld een blog artikel met de titel: “Zo bepaal je je ideale vakantiebestemming”.

Consideration fase

Eenmaal bewust van het probleem, vervolgen kopers hun reis naar de consideration fase. Ze bekijken de verschillende mogelijkheden en maken de afweging welke oplossing het beste bij ze past. In deze fase wil je je koper ondersteunen in zijn proces.

In ons voorbeeld ziet dit er zo uit:

Je hebt een paar hele handige blogs gelezen en websites bekeken en je bent er helemaal uit; het wordt Mexico! Nu ga je alle mogelijkheden bekijken voor je reis en verblijf. Hoe lang blijf ik weg? Ga ik rondreizen of blijf ik op één plek? En wil ik in hotels of appartementen verblijven? Tijdens je zoektocht download je ook nog even een handige checklist met highlights (conversie!).

In deze fase heb je behoefte aan vergelijkingen, diepgaande informatie over je beste mming en misschien al een aantal grove prijsvergelijkingen. 

Decision fase

De beslissingsfase is een belangrijke fase waarin kopers de aanbieders vergelijken . In deze fase zijn ze op zoek naar informatie die helpen de keuze te maken . Vooralsnog betekent dit geen contact met sales, maar behulpzame content. Denk aan een kosten calculators en gratis proefversies.  

In ons voorbeeld vervolgt en eindigt de reis zo: Je weet waar je naartoe gaat, hoe lang je weg gaat en hoe je reis eruit gaat zien. Nu ga je concreet aanbieders vergelijken . Je zoekt prijzen, ervaringen en hotels op die aan je wensen voldoen. Je vind een website waar je alle aanbiedingen van dit moment kunt vinden. Je vergelijkt alles en uiteindelijk maak je een beslissing. Nu neem je pas contact op met een reisorganisatie, boek je een ticket of reserveer je je hotel. Je weet precies wat je wilt , wanneer je dit wilt en wat de prijzen zijn . De verkopende partij hoeft het alleen voor je te bevestigen. Daarom noemen we dit de decision fase.

Je hebt behoefte aan concrete prijzen, reistijden, reviews en details over je accommodatie.

Oftewel, alles dat jou helpt om een goede aankoop keuze te maken. Jouw doel als marketeer is om je te verdiepen in de reis die jouw klanten afleggen - voordat ze contact met je opnemen - en content maken waar zij op dat moment mee geholpen zijn. 

Wil je zelf de B2B buyer journey vormgeven en zo een beter inzicht krijgen in de reis van je potentiële klanten?

Gebruik onderstaande template en blaas de reis van je buyers leven in. Deze template bevat zowel een lege- nog in te vullen- buyers journey én een ingevulde journey als voorbeeld. 

Beantwoord steeds de 4 vragen per fase van de journey en krijg zo een beter beeld van de reis van je prospects, succes! 

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• Expert advice

What is the buyer journey? Definition, stages, and examples

Step into the realm where choices weave the intricate fabric of consumer decisions — the buyer journey. As we navigate this landscape, we'll uncover the definition, stages of such a journey, and real-world examples that demystify the process. 

Join us on this expedition — no fluff, just the essential roadmap to unravel the buyer journey and decode the patterns that drive purchasing decisions.

Ready to explore the journey that transforms curiosity into commerce? Let's unravel the layers together.

• 1.1 Why is the buyer journey important?
• 2 Buyer journey stages
• 3 Buyer journey optimization
• 4.1 Amazon and its seamless e-commerce experience
• 4.2 HubSpot and its inbound marketing excellence
• 4.3 Buyer journey templates
• 5.1 Key takeaways

What is the buyer journey? Why is it important?

The buyer journey represents the holistic path a buyer takes as they move through the various stages leading to a purchase. It’s a comprehensive process that encapsulates the entirety of a customer's experience, from the initial awareness of a product or service to the final decision-making and post-purchase evaluation. The depth and complexity of such a journey are heightened by the fact that it can be online, offline, or a mix of both. Here are the examples:

• Online journey: A customer discovers a digital product through a targeted social media ad, researches online reviews, and makes a purchase on an e-commerce website. Post-purchase, they use the online product and engage with the brand through email newsletters and online customer support.
• Offline journey: A customer learns about a product through a traditional print advertisement, visits a physical store to explore the item, consults with in-store staff, and makes the purchase. The post-purchase phase involves using the product and potentially providing feedback through physical channels.
• Mixed journey: A customer first encounters a product via an online influencer's review, then visits a brick-and-mortar store to examine it physically. They might purchase online using a mobile app, receiving post-purchase updates through both email and in-store promotions.

Why is the buyer journey important?

Understanding the buyer journey is of paramount importance for businesses for many reasons.

• Customer-centric approach

By comprehending the buyer journey, businesses can adopt a more customer-centric approach. It means aligning products, services, and digital marketing efforts with the needs and preferences of the customers at each journey stage . This customer-centricity fosters a positive and engaging experience, enhancing the likelihood of conversion.

• Tailored marketing strategies

The buyer journey provides businesses with insights into the specific touchpoints and channels that customers engage with during their decision-making process. Armed with this knowledge, organizations can tailor their marketing strategies to be more effective at each stage. For instance, deploy inbound marketing and educational materials to capture attention, especially during the awareness stage.

• Building trust and credibility

Trust is a crucial element in any purchase decision. Understanding a buying journey enables businesses to build trust by delivering consistent messaging, quality content, and positive interactions at each touchpoint. This trust-building process is vital for establishing credibility and driving long-term customer relationships.

• Optimizing user experience

A seamless and enjoyable user experience is critical to guiding potential buyers through the journey. With buyer journey analysis, businesses can identify pain points and areas of improvement in their processes. This could include optimizing website navigation, streamlining checkout processes, or enhancing customer support.

• Data-driven decision-making

The buyer journey map is a valuable source of data that businesses can use to inform their decision-making. Analyzing customer behavior, preferences, and feedback at each stage provides actionable insights. This data-driven approach enables companies to refine their strategies, allocate resources efficiently, and stay agile in a dynamic market.

• Maximizing customer lifetime value

Understanding the buyer journey goes beyond the point of purchase. Post-purchase stages of the journey, such as customer loyalty and advocacy, are crucial for maximizing customer lifetime value. Businesses that continue to engage and delight customers even after the sale are more likely to benefit from repeat business and positive word-of-mouth marketing.

In essence, the buyer journey serves as a roadmap for businesses to navigate the complex landscape of customer decision-making. It empowers companies to meet customer expectations, build lasting relationships, and ultimately drive sustainable business growth.

Buyer journey stages

The buyer journey consists of stages a potential customer goes through before making a purchase decision. All journeys are somewhat different, but it's possible to identify broad stages common to each. Let's explore these stages in detail:

• Awareness stage

This is the initial stage where the buyer becomes aware of a problem or need. They may not be aware of specific solutions yet.

Example: Someone realizes they need a new smartphone because their current one is outdated and struggles with performance.

• Research and discovery stage

At this stage, the buyer actively seeks information to understand and define their problem. They research potential solutions and gather relevant data.

Example: The individual might explore various smartphone brands, read reviews, and compare features to find the best fit for their needs.

• Consideration stage

At this point, the buyer narrows down their options and is evaluating specific products or services. They compare features, prices, and benefits.

Example: The person may be deciding between two or three smartphone models based on factors like camera quality, battery life, and overall performance.

• Decision stage

The buyer is now ready to make a decision and commit to a particular product or service. They might look for discounts, compare final prices, and explore additional incentives.

Example: The individual decides to purchase a specific smartphone model, adds it to the cart, and proceeds to check out.

• Purchase stage

This is the point of transaction where the buyer completes the purchase. It could happen online, in-store, or through various other channels.

Example: The person confirms the purchase, enters payment information, and receives confirmation of the order.

• Post-purchase stages

After the purchase, the buyer uses the product or service and forms their experience about it. This stage is crucial for customer satisfaction and potential loyalty.

Example: The individual starts using the new smartphone, and their experience is positive. They might leave a review, share their experience on social media, or consider the brand for future purchases.

• Loyalty and advocacy stage

There is an additional stage focusing on turning customers into loyal advocates. This involves fostering ongoing relationships, encouraging repeat business, and leveraging satisfied customers for viral marketing. This stage is often overlooked by businesses, and it's a mistake.

Example: The satisfied smartphone user recommends the brand to friends, engages with loyalty programs, and becomes an advocate for the product.

Read also: How to create a journey map step-by-step + examples

Understanding and visualizing these stages allows businesses to tailor their marketing, sales, and customer support strategies to address customers' specific needs and concerns at each step. It helps create a more personalized and effective approach, ultimately increasing the likelihood of conversion and building long-term customer relationships.

Buyer journey optimization

Buyer journey optimization involves refining and enhancing the various stages of the customer's path to purchase to improve overall efficiency, effectiveness, and customer satisfaction and experience. 

By strategically optimizing each stage of the journey, businesses can maximize conversion rates, build stronger customer relationships, and increase long-term loyalty. Here's a detailed exploration of buyer journey optimization with examples and potential outcomes:

• Data-driven analysis

Example: A company collects and analyzes data on customer behavior, interactions, and preferences at each stage of the buyer journey using analytics tools and customer relationship management (CRM) systems.

Outcome: Insights gained from data analysis help businesses identify patterns, pain points, and opportunities for improvement in the buyer journey.

• Personalized content and messaging

Example: Leveraging data insights, a business tailors its content and messaging to match the preferences and needs of specific buyer personas at different stages of the journey.

Outcome: Personalized content increases engagement and resonates more effectively with potential customers, leading to a higher likelihood of conversion.

• Seamless multichannel experience

Example: An e-commerce platform ensures a consistent and seamless experience for customers across various channels, including online platforms, mobile apps, and physical stores.

Outcome: A unified multichannel experience reduces friction, enhances customer satisfaction, and provides a cohesive journey regardless of the chosen interaction channel.

• Optimized website and user experience

Example: A company invests in user experience design , making its website intuitive, easy to navigate, and optimized for both desktop and mobile users.

Outcome: Improved website usability enhances customer satisfaction, reduces bounce rates, and encourages visitors to move smoothly through the buyer journey.

• Marketing automation

Example: Implementing digital marketing automation tools to deliver targeted and timely messages, such as personalized emails, based on customer behavior and interactions.

Outcome: Marketing automation streamlines communication, helps to nurture leads, and ensures that potential customers receive relevant information at the right moment in time, increasing the chances of conversion.

• Streamlined checkout process

Example: An e-commerce platform simplifies its checkout process, minimizing the number of steps required and offering various payment options.

Outcome: A streamlined checkout process reduces cart abandonment rates and friction during the purchase stage, leading to higher conversion rates.

• Post-purchase engagement

Example: After a customer makes a purchase, a business engages in post-purchase communication, seeking feedback, offering support, and providing additional resources or exclusive offers.

Outcome: Positive post-purchase engagement contributes to customer satisfaction, encourages repeat business, and fosters brand loyalty.

• Continuous iteration and improvement:

Example: Regularly reviewing analytics, customer feedback, and market trends to identify areas for further optimization and adjustment in the buyer journey strategy.

Outcome: Continuous iteration ensures that the buyer journey remains responsive to changing customer needs and market dynamics, maintaining high levels of effectiveness over time.

In summary, journey optimization is an ongoing process that requires a combination of data analysis, personalization, technological integration, and a customer-centric mindset. By strategically implementing these optimizations, businesses can create a more seamless, engaging, and efficient journey for their customers, ultimately driving higher conversion rates and long-term customer loyalty.

Buyer journey examples

Let's consider a couple of examples of buyer journeys in well-known companies, what they do to improve it, and how it works in practice.

Amazon and its seamless e-commerce experience

Even if you don't use Amazon products, you've definitely heard about them. 

Amazon excels in creating awareness through targeted ads, personalized recommendations, and a vast product catalog. For example, if a user searches for a specific product, Amazon's algorithms provide relevant suggestions, increasing the chances of discovery.

The product pages on Amazon are rich in information, featuring detailed product descriptions, customer reviews, and frequently asked questions. This assists customers in making informed decisions during the research stage.

Amazon leverages personalized recommendations and targeted emails to remind users about products they viewed or added to their cart. Special promotions, such as lightning deals, create a sense of urgency, influencing the decision-making process.

The one-click purchase option streamlines the decision-making process, offering a frictionless checkout experience. Amazon's transparent shipping and return policies contribute to the customer's confidence in their decision.

• Post-purchase stage

Amazon invests in post-purchase engagement through order tracking, delivery notifications, and follow-up emails. Additionally, their customer service is readily available to address any issues, enhancing post-purchase satisfaction.

HubSpot and its inbound marketing excellence

HubSpot is a comprehensive inbound marketing, sales, and customer service platform designed to help businesses attract, engage, and delight customers. And they do delight. 

HubSpot built a robust online presence through inbound marketing. Their blog, webinars, and downloadable resources provide valuable information, attracting businesses looking for marketing and sales solutions.

HubSpot offers free tools, such as CRM and marketing analytics, allowing users to explore and understand the platform's capabilities before making a commitment. Their educational content assists businesses in the research stage.

HubSpot's sales team engages with potential customers through personalized email outreach, offering product demonstrations, and addressing specific pain points. This approach helps businesses evaluate HubSpot's fit for their needs.

HubSpot's pricing transparency and scalable solutions cater to businesses of different sizes. They provide flexible payment options and a clear onboarding process, making it easier for businesses to decide.

HubSpot focuses on customer success through continuous education, regular updates on new features, and a vibrant community. They encourage users to maximize the platform's potential, fostering long-term loyalty.

These examples showcase how companies like Amazon and HubSpot strategically engage with customers at each stage of the buyer journey, leading to successful conversions and sustained customer relationships.

Buyer journey templates

Visual aids can often speak louder than words. Therefore, here are some templates for various scenarios. They'll be a great asset to your initiative.

• Case 1: A bicycle buyer journey, where a potential buyer, filled with excitement and a quest for the perfect bicycle, navigates the online realm in search of their two-wheeled companion.
• Case 2: An offline grocery buyer journey, where our persona embarks on the classic journey to the neighborhood supermarket, weaving through aisles in search of sustenance and delights.
• Case 3: A sneakers' buyer journey, where a persona sets out to find the ideal pair of sneakers, exploring the vast world of online options and paving the way for stylish strides.

Wrapping up

In unraveling the complexities of the buyer journey, we've delved into its definition, stages, and real-world examples. This journey is not merely a linear path from awareness to purchase; it's an intricate process that demands a nuanced understanding of customer behavior.

Key takeaways

• Businesses must align products, services, and marketing efforts with customer needs at each stage, fostering positive and engaging experiences.
• Analyzing the buyer journey provides valuable data for refining strategies, optimizing user experiences, and staying agile in a dynamic market.
• Building trust through consistent messaging, quality content, and positive interactions is crucial for establishing credibility and fostering long-term relationships.
• The journey doesn't end with a purchase; positive post-purchase experiences contribute to customer satisfaction, loyalty, and advocacy.
• Buyer journey optimization is an ongoing process involving data analysis, personalization, technological integration, and a customer-centric mindset.

As we navigate the ever-evolving landscape of consumer decisions, understanding and effectively leveraging the buyer journey is not just a strategy; it's a fundamental approach that can drive sustainable business growth. So, let's continue to unravel the layers of this intricate journey, adapting and refining our strategies to meet the ever-changing needs of our customers.

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What Is the Buyer’s Journey — and Why Should You Care About It?

Learn how to map out your buyer's journey to improve the path to purchase.

Erin Hueffner

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Today’s buyers are more informed than ever. In fact, 81% of reps say customers are conducting their own research before they ever connect with sales. Canned scripts and one-size-fits-all methods won’t cut it when dealing with savvy buyers — they want more detailed information, more personalized solutions, and a tailored sales approach. That’s why it’s so critical to understand the buyer’s journey. Once you know what a prospect needs to move from interest to purchase, you navigate the sales road with ease and close quickly.

Here’s how you get there.

What you’ll learn:

What is the buyer’s journey, what are the stages of the buyer’s journey, why is understanding the buyer’s journey important, how does the buyer’s journey relate to the lead funnel, how to tailor your sales process to the buyer’s journey, buyer’s journey example, drive pipe faster with a single source of truth.

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The buyer’s journey accounts for all the steps a customer takes to move from discovery for a product to purchase. This includes their behaviors and attitudes toward your brand and how they interact with your marketing and, eventually, your product or service.

This journey is typically segmented into three stages: awareness, consideration, and decision. Don’t assume, however, that every buyer steps through those three stages in 1-2-3 order every time. Buyers’ journeys often wind up taking very non-linear paths. We’ll get into that below.

As noted above, the buyer’s journey can be summed up in three stages. Each stage factors in the psychological state of the buyer, including their needs, behaviors, and decision-making processes. These help inform the actions a seller can take to move the deal forward. Let’s take a closer look at each one:

Awareness stage

Buyers at the awareness stage want something that solves a problem or meets a need, but they don’t know exactly what that is. They start to gather information about solutions, but this information is driven by knowledge of a specific product, service, or brand. Typically, this research involves online research or conversations with others dealing with similar problems/needs.

Tip: At this stage, it’s all about making a strong and credible first impression that lays the groundwork for a relationship based on trust and value. How? By focusing on solutions. Don’t pitch a product — solve a problem. This is when your marketing content, especially on social media, can shine. Video content is a great way to answer questions, provide examples, share testimonials, and deliver in-depth information that promises a helpful solution. As part of this, you’ll want to gently introduce your product — while keeping the focus on the solution it offers, not the features it includes.

Consideration stage

As buyers move into this stage, they are actively researching, comparing, and considering different options. Online shopping and review sites, social media, and email newsletters give customers multiple channels to explore. Take advantage of these by making them next steps in the buyer journey. If you find the buyer is engaging with awareness content like a blog post, for example, create a promo for a newsletter signup in the post to encourage continued engagement.

Tip: Engage potential customers in this stage by providing detailed, comparative, and solution-focused content like blog posts and personalized emails that highlight the unique benefits and features of your offerings.

Decision stage

By now, buyers understand their problem, have done their research, and are ready to make a purchase — but they haven’t crossed the finish line yet. Everything they’ve explored up to now, including price, value, features, benefits, customer reviews, and brand reputation, will be considered and factored into their final decision. The seller’s job? Package all of these as part of the original solution the buyer was looking for.

Tip: In this crucial stage, you want to address any remaining concerns and help the buyer make a purchase decision. To overcome objections , your interactions with customers should be persuasive, reassuring, and clear. Reinforce the value and benefits of your offering. Remember: Selling a solution rather than a product can help set you apart from competitors.

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More than just a throwaway sales concept, the buyer’s journey lets you see and understand the choices your buyers make at each stage of the sales process so you can meet their needs in the moment. Understanding the buyer’s journey can give you:

• Enhanced customer insights: Studying the buyer’s journey gives you a deeper understanding of your customers’ needs, pain points, and decision-making processes. This data then helps you create content and strategies that resonate with potential customers.
• Improved content strategy: By knowing what buyers think and want at each stage, you can create content that addresses specific concerns and questions. The right content can provide the guidance customers need to make informed decisions and can also help you field objections.
• Increased sales efficiency: With insights from the buyer’s journey, you can anticipate needs, counter objections quickly, and tailor pitches more effectively. You’re not just selling. You’re providing solutions and guidance at the moment the buyer is most receptive.
• Enhanced customer experience: When you anticipate and address needs at each stage of the journey, you deliver a smoother, more personalized customer experience. This not only increases the likelihood of conversion but also fosters loyalty, leading to repeat business and referrals.

Understanding the buyer’s journey is a key part of building lasting relationships with customers. It’s about moving beyond sales to build genuine connections based on trust and value and ensuring satisfaction at every touchpoint. This ultimately redounds to the seller’s benefit; with strong relationships and loyalty often come repeat sales.

The lead funnel and the buyer’s journey look at the sales process from different perspectives. The lead funnel represents the process from a seller’s or company’s perspective. It outlines the stages a seller walks through on the way to a close. In contrast, the buyer’s journey sees things from the customer’s perspective. It’s all about their experience on the path to purchase.

Aligning your sales process with the buyer’s journey ensures that you meet customer needs at each stage and can guide them toward a purchase decision without delays. Let’s combine what we’ve learned so far into actionable items:

Awareness stage actions

• Understand your audience: Identify and analyze your potential customers’ needs and behavior. Pro tip: Use your CRM to help! An AI-powered tool such as Sales Cloud Einstein can do a lot of the heavy lifting for you via prompt-based research.

• Generate awareness: Use educational content to draw prospects in and establish your brand as a credible source.

Consideration stage actions

• Provide more details product content: Offer comparative, solution-focused content that highlights your product’s benefits.
• Personalize communication: Tailor your interactions with information you’ve gathered about your potential customers.

Decision stage actions

• Address objections: Prepare your team to counter any concerns or objections with clear and compelling information.
• Simplify the purchase: Streamline the buying process, offer clear pricing, and be transparent about contracts.

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The buyer’s journey is not linear. It’s a fluid relationship between brand and customer. Here’s an example that illustrates this:

Raina wants to cut down on her bills and realizes there’s an opportunity to cut down her monthly entertainment spend. Rather than pay for streaming services and cable TV, she wants something that consolidates both.

To start, Raina maps out what she wants. She lists her must-watch shows and researches which streaming platforms offer them (awareness). She narrows her choices to two platforms, including one ad-supported and one premium service. She’s also thinking about adding a live sports package but isn’t clear on which packages carry her favorite teams’ games, so she contacts the streaming service companies for more information (consideration). After chatting with several sales representatives, Raina asks for a demo of one of the service’s sports add-ons. She and the rep discuss subscription plans and go over which games will be available for streaming.

Ultimately, Raina decides to subscribe to both streaming platforms without the additional sports package (decision). Lucky for her, she’s offered a free three-month trial of the live sports add-on at sign-up. After realizing how much she enjoys the add-on in the trial period, Raina decides to keep it.

In this case, Raina’s buyer journey doesn’t end after her purchase. Her experience with the streaming services will influence how she feels about the brands and shape her future interactions with them, including future purchases.

Map to the buyer’s journey for better outcomes

If you pay close attention to the buyer’s journey and deliver high value, your customers are more likely to stay loyal and explore other products in your portfolio, which means more sales. Remember, each interaction with a prospect is an opportunity to understand, engage, and nurture. By aligning your sales process with each stage in the buyer’s journey, you can increase sales while building long-term relationships.

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• Ecommerce Marketing

May 24, 2022 | 8 min read

How to Use the Buyer’s Journey in Marketing (+ Examples)

Online search has changed everything. Years ago, acquiring a customer online was easy: reassure the potential buyer your product is the best on the market and push for the sale. Not anymore.

Today, consumers can research a product online, compare brands on cost, reputation and more, and decide which provider is best for their needs.

This progression—from becoming problem-aware to making a purchasing decision—is called the buyer’s journey…

…and it’s one of the most important marketing concepts you need to be familiar with.    

With 67% of the buyer’s journey now completed digitally , it’s become more important than ever to mail campaigns that educate, inform and most importantly, nudge your prospects into taking action (read: purchasing your products).

Identifying the buyer’s journey is a real challenge for most marketers.

A recent survey by DemandGen found 61% B2B business owners cited developing targeted content by buyer stage/interest as one of their greatest challenges in nurturing leads:

Much has been written already about mapping the buyer’s journey to content marketing and paid traffic, but nothing, to my knowledge, has been written about what to do after a visitor has subscribed to your email list .

So, in this article, I’m going to show you how to map your email marketing campaigns to the buyer’s journey, how you can match the right offers to the right prospects at the right time, and of course, how to develop lifelong relationships with your existing customers while doing so.

The Buyer’s Journey 101

What is the buyer’s journey, part 1. awareness, part 2. consideration, part 3. decision.

According to HubSpot , the buyer’s journey is the active process buyers go through to become aware of, evaluate, and purchase a new product or service.

This journey, depending on who you ask, ranges from three to fifteen stages. In this article, we’re going to focus on the three most important stages:

• Consideration

The buyer’s journey (otherwise known as the customer journey) is often represented as a funnel-shaped process that comprises the above stages, from lowest purchase intent (awareness) to highest (decision).

In the image below (courtesy of SingleGrain ), it’s further expanded in six stages, with the first (awareness), third (consideration) and sixth (purchase) stages corresponding with the three in the image above:

It’s important to mention here how you communicate with your prospects will vary depending on which stage of the buyer’s journey they’re in.

What’s more, depending on the market you’re in and how far along a prospect is in your funnel, a potential buyer’s journey can last anywhere from three months to a year.

Offering potential buyers exactly what they’re looking for according to how far along they are in the buyer’s journey gives you the highest potential to convert them.

Let’s discuss how to do that.

Imagine, for a moment, you’re experiencing back pain.

Unaware of what’s causing it, you turn to Google and type in, “Why do I have a bad back every morning?” Your goal, at this stage, is to educate yourself as much as possible and put a name to your ailment.

After reading a few articles online and confirming with a chiropractor, you discover your bad back isn’t the real problem. Rather, it’s a symptom of a bigger problem:

You have a bad mattress.

Having given a name to your problem, you become aware and begin actively looking for a solution.

This is known as the awareness stage of the buyer’s journey. And it’s where each potential buyer begins their journey before becoming a customer.

Often, a prospect discovers your brand either through organic search (they clicked on a piece of content in the search engine results pages) and/or paid traffic (they clicked on an ad).

Some e-commerce businesses, like Birchbox , utilize content marketing:

Others, like M.Gemi , rely on Facebook Ads:

The goal, having acquired a new lead, isn’t to push for a sale (that is unless they’re at the decision stage of the buyer’s journey). Rather, it’s to educate, entertain or inform through interesting and relevant email campaigns.

On a deeper level, it’s to encourage engagement (e.g. increase opens, clicks, etc.), segment new visitors by interest (and where they are on their journey), and increase top-of-mind awareness (TOMA).

Harry’s utilize content to educate their prospects on how to shave properly, thus, positioning themselves as the go-to authority on that subject:

Metrics to be aware of at the awareness stage include:

• Sessions. This is especially important if you’re driving traffic to product pages on your site.
• Percentage of old visitors vs. new visitors. Are prospects returning to your site, thus, becoming more familiar with your brand?
• Engagement. Put simply, are readers opening and clicking through on your campaigns? If so, you’re obviously doing something right (well done you!).

It’s important to mention here not all goals or challenges have urgency.

You might feel like you deserve a new pair of designer pajamas (who doesn’t?), but it’s unlikely to take precedent over something relating to your physical health (like a painful back).

There are a few things to consider before creating awareness emails.

Let’s discuss each briefly.

1. Identify Triggers

Think of a recent problem you experienced.

Nothing major. A minor one will suffice.

What happened before you experienced that problem?

If you’re like most people, it’s likely there was an event that occurred before it happened.

This, in marketing, is known as a “trigger”: the event that begins your progression through the buyer’s journey.

If you’re running an online retailer, for example, a trigger might be your prospect has a black-tie event coming up and needs to learn how to tie a bow tie:

To identify triggers, login to Google Analytics.

If you’re using Google Adwords as an acquisition channel, click, “Acquisition > Adwords > Search Queries”:

Or, if you’re using content through organic search, click, “Acquisition > Search Console > Queries”:

Your prospect is often identified by the type of queries they’re making such as what, who, where, when, why, and how (e.g. “How to tie a bow tie”).

It’s important to exclude brand queries when doing this because you want to identify potential buyers who aren’t yet aware of who you are.   

Analyzing search queries will offer insights into your ideal buyer and help you craft email campaigns that are relevant to their needs and interests.

Seventy-two percent of buyers turn to Google during the awareness stage , so it’s important not to neglect the importance of identifying what you’re already ranking for in the search engine results pages (SERPs).

2. Survey Your Existing Customers

When researching your existing customers, it’s worth gathering a combination of quantitative and qualitative data.

The former is measured in numbers (e.g. the number of purchases a customer makes per month). The latter, on the other hand, is only observable (e.g. the reason a customer didn’t renew their subscription).

While quantitative data is easier to generalize, qualitative data provides more insight into why your existing customers are buying from you rather than a competitor.

Using software like Typeform , you might ask customers:

• How would you describe yourself in one sentence?
• Where exactly did you first hear about us?
• What’s the one thing we’re missing?
• What’s the biggest challenge you’re facing right now?
• What are the top three things that nearly stopped you from buying from us?
• What will happen if you don’t overcome the challenge you’re experiencing?

As a rule of thumb, aim for a minimum of 100 completions. Remember, the more data you have, the easier it is to identify what your customers want to move away from and move toward.

To learn more about surveying and its best practices (including whether to incentivize or not), read my article on e-commerce email marketing .

3. Create a Buyer Persona

With enough quantitative and qualitative responses, recurring patterns will (hopefully) emerge in your data. With that information, as well as your own understanding of your market, you can create buyer personas for each of your ideal customers.

A buyer persona, also known as a customer avatar, is a representation of your ideal customer:

Source: SmartInsights

Having one—or many, depending on how many products you have—will help you determine what kind of content you need in your email campaigns, the tone, and style of your copy, as well as where your audience gathers information and their preferences for consumption.

Source: HubSpot

Let’s return to our previous mattress example, for a moment.

You’ve clearly defined your goal (to replace your mattress) and are committed to addressing it as soon as possible (remember, not all pain points have urgency).

At this stage, you’re evaluating the different approaches or methods available to solve your challenge, which, in our example, involves researching mattresses online.

Otherwise known as the evaluation stage, the consideration stage occurs when your prospect has clearly defined and given a name to their problem and is committed to researching and understanding all of the available methods for solving it.

Casper , an e-commerce company that specializes in mattresses, include playful reviews in their consideration emails to move prospects further along the buyer’s journey:

Source: Really Good Emails

Shopify, knowing their prospects value demonstrations, offer free online training to showcase their product:

You’re not asking for a purchase, yet. You’re simply inviting further engagement, albeit with more investment from your potential buyer.

Anyone who’s clicking through to read customer reviews or attend a webinar is more likely to become a customer than a recipient who’s only opening emails.

Metrics to monitor closely at the considerations stage include:

• Returning visitors. Are certain recipients opening and clicking through on consideration emails more than others? If so, that’s a good indication they’re close to moving down your marketing funnel.
• Webinar registrations. If you’re running an evergreen webinar, the number of registrants should be consistent, if not increasing over time (providing you’re continuously capturing and converting leads, of course).

At the decision stage, your prospect has defined their solution and is whittling down a long list of potential vendors in their given solution strategy.  

Specifically, they’re looking for information on how your product works, how others like them have been successful, and what their experience might look like if they decide to move forward with your company…

…and that includes what happens before they make a purchase.

Take, shipping, for example.

You wouldn’t think it was that important, right?

According to a recent survey by Baynard Institute , 61% of shoppers cite extra shipping costs as their reason for abandoning their cart during checkout (even if they fully intended to make a purchase).

It’s no surprise, then, most e-commerce businesses have cart abandonment emails , specifically for prospects that were close to making a purchase, but need a final nudge of reassurance.

Asics , an athletic equipment company, reiterate the benefits of their free shipping policy in their cart abandonment email, in the event the prospect wasn’t aware of it, to begin with:

Of course, not everyone at the decision stage will make it as far as your checkout (especially if they haven’t decided which vendor to purchase from).

This is in part because many potential buyers want to try your product before making a purchasing decision.

Campaigns geared around free shipping , free trials, case studies and more, are perfect decision stage emails.

Dollar Shave Club is so confident they will acquire a lifetime customer with each email lead, they offer a free trial of their product (including free shipping):

When the offer is too good to say no to, it’s usually for a good reason. A company like Dollar Shave Club knows it’s the customer lifetime value (LTV), thus, it can afford to take a hit on the front-end when making this type of offer.

The secondary goal, at the decision stage, aside from making a sale, is to:

• Optimize funnel conversions. Can you increase email open and click-through rates, reduce cart abandonment, and more by writing better subject lines ?
• Maximize revenue. Can you increase the average order value by offering tiered pricing, upselling , and more?

Metrics you need to pay close attention to include:

• Customer lifetime value (LTV). As mentioned above, knowing your customer LTV will allow you to make irresistible offers (such as free shipping), thus, getting to yes quicker and more easily.
• Customer cost per acquisition (CPA). This is especially important if you’re using paid traffic as an acquisition channel (e.g. Facebook Advertising).

Get the above metrics right, and it’s possible to earn $38 for every $1 you spend .

So, make it count.

It’s tempting to believe the buyer’s journey ends when a prospect becomes a customer, but the reality is you need to continue delivering value after they purchase.

Aside from reducing email unsubscribe rates and improving customer satisfaction, consistently offering value after purchase helps turn customers into evangelists for your business…

And that’s something every business can profit from.

Sam Thomas Davies

Sam is Head of Content at Drip. His work has been featured on and quoted in several major media outlets including The Times, The Economist, and CNBC.

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• Wat is een buyer journey?

lees alles over de (online) buyer journey

Een buyer journey. De kans is groot dat je hier al eens van hebt gehoord. Het is een veelgehoorde term in de wereld van inbound marketing en communicatie. Maar wat is het nou precies? En waarom is het belangrijk om de buyer journey van jouw bijbehorende buyer persona's in kaart te brengen? Daar vertellen we je graag meer over!

De basis van de buyer journey draait om inzicht. Waar bevindt jouw ideale klant zich in de koopreis, op weg naar een aankoop? Hoe meer inzicht je hebt in de verschillende fases van de buyer journey, hoe beter je hier op in kunt spelen met je marketingkanalen. Dit doen we op basis van het buyer journey model, welke bestaat uit drie verschillende fases. Later lees je hier meer over.

Buyer journey in kaart brengen

Wanneer je aan de slag gaat met het opstellen van een buyer journey is het allereerst belangrijk dat je de verschillende buyer persona’s in kaart brengt. Een buyer persona is een gedetailleerd profiel van jou ideale klant op basis van gedrag en doelen. Met de persoonlijkheid, kennis en eigenschappen van deze vastgestelde buyer persona’s ga je de koopreis namelijk afleggen.

Stel, je hebt een klant met de naam Marit. Als je weet hoe Marit denkt en welke wensen, behoeften, uitdagingen, bezwaren en doelen zij heeft, dan heb je een solide basis voor je buyer journey. Je weet precies welke vragen zij heeft en welke vragen jij aan haar kunt stellen om haar behoeften beter in kaart te kunnen brengen. Hoe beter jij tijdens de buyer journey op Marit’s persoonlijke behoeften kunt inspelen, hoe groter de kans dat ze jouw klant wordt!

Aan de slag met het opstellen van buyer persona’s voor jouw bedrijf of organisatie? Bekijk dan ons artikel over buyer persona’s of neem vrijblijvend contact met ons op.

Lees alles over buyer persona’s

Het buyer journey model

Het buyer journey model is opgebouwd uit drie fases. Dit zijn achtereenvolgens de awareness, consideration en decision fase. In het Nederlands worden ze ook wel de bewustzijnsfase, overwegingsfase en beslissingsfase genoemd. Je kunt het model het beste vergelijken met een trechter. Hoe smaller de trechter, hoe minder personen er zich in een fase bevinden maar hoe groter de kans op een aankoop of transactie.

• Awareness fase : mensen krijgen een idee of lopen tegen bepaalde problemen aan, maar weten nog niet hoe of wat ze gaan doen om dit op te lossen.
• De consideration fase : de klant gaat op zoek naar oplossingen om de vraag of het probleem op te lossen.
• De decision fase : de klant verdiept zich nog verder in de mogelijkheden en kiest uiteindelijk voor de partij die het beste aansluit bij zijn persoonlijke wensen en benodigdheden.

We kunnen het buyer journey model goed uitleggen a.d.h.v. een voorbeeld. We gebruiken voor het gemak even Marit uit het eerdere voorbeeld. Stel, Marit ontwikkelt de behoefte om een steentje te gaan bijdragen aan het milieu en wilt graag milieubewuster gaan leven. Dit is een goed voorbeeld van iemand in de awareness fase . Vervolgens gaat Marit op zoek naar informatie over het duurzaamheid en milieubewust leven. Denk aan het plaatsen van zonnepanelen of het rijden in een elektrische auto om de CO2 uitstoot te verminderen. Ze bevindt zich duidelijk in de consideration fase en is nog veel informatie aan het inwinnen zonder de voorkeur te hebben voor één merk.

Ten slotte kan Marit overtuigd raken dat ze in een elektrische auto wilt gaan rijden om het milieu te verbeteren. In de decision fase gaat ze op zoek naar verschillende merken en modellen, maar ook specifiek naar opties en/of mogelijkheden van een bepaalde auto.

Verschil buyer journey en customer journey

De termen buyer journey en customer journey worden vaak door elkaar gehaald. Hier wordt namelijk niet hetzelfde mee bedoeld. De buyer journey is, in tegenstelling tot de customer journey, een stuk korter. Bovendien bestaat de customer journey uit meer dan drie fases. Deze is bedoeld om te bepalen welke communicatiemiddelen er ingezet gaan worden om (potentiële) klanten te benaderen. Een andere uitleg is dat de customer journey meer gericht is op loyaliteit van bestaande klanten, waar de buyer journey meer gericht is op conversie van prospects en leads.

Buyer journey B2B

Wij krijgen regelmatig de vraag of het voor business-to-business (B2B) ondernemingen ook interessant is om een buyer journey in kaart te brengen. Het antwoord is: Ja zeker. Hier geldt net zo goed dat jouw ideale klant ook een bepaald probleem of uitdaging heeft, waar jij met jouw product of dienst een oplossing kunt bieden.

Hoe beter je op de wensen en behoeften van je prospects kunt inspelen, hoe meer van deze prospects uiteindelijk kunnen groeien tot een waardevolle klant. De potentiële klant kan zich immers identificeren met het probleem wat je beschrijft, maar ook de oplossing die jij te bieden hebt.

Samen met G 2 O de buyer journey van jouw doelgroep bewandelen?

Wil je de buyer journey van jouw eigen bedrijf of organisatie in kaart brengen? Daar helpen wij je graag bij. G 2 O is gespecialiseerd in het gedetailleerd uitwerken van een buyer journey binnen alle markten. Naast de buyer journey kunnen wij ons ook concentreren op de vervolgstappen. Denk hierbij aan merkuitingen of de boodschap die jij wilt overbrengen op je klanten. Onze focus ligt hierbij op het DNA van je merk. We geven jouw merk een unieke merkpositionering. Een merkpositionering is niets anders dan de plek die jouw merk inneemt in hoofd en het hart van mensen. Het liefst een unieke plek, natuurlijk. En niet zomaar een unieke plek; een hele waardevolle, onvervangbare unieke plek. Een diepere verbinding. Die verbinding ontstaat door je merk te laden met positieve, emotionele associaties bij de mensen die je wilt bereiken. Hoe sterker die associaties, hoe sterker de verbinding.

Benieuwd naar de mogelijkheden? Of wil je meer informatie over onze werkwijze? Neem dan vrijblijvend contact met ons op. We wandelen graag door de buyer journey van je merk heen, zodat jij meer succes en resultaat kunt behalen!

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Customer Journey Maps: How to Create Really Good Ones [Examples + Template]

Updated: April 17, 2024

Published: May 04, 2023

Did you know 70% of online shoppers abandoned their carts in 2022? Why would someone spend time adding products to their cart just to fall off the customer journey map at the last second?

The thing is — understanding your customer base can be very challenging. Even when you think you’ve got a good read on them, the journey from awareness to purchase for each customer will always be unpredictable, at least to some level.

While it isn’t possible to predict every experience with 100% accuracy, customer journey mapping is a convenient tool for keeping track of critical milestones that every customer hits. In this post, I’ll explain everything you need to know about customer journey mapping — what it is, how to create one, and best practices.

Table of Contents

What is the customer journey?

What is a customer journey map, benefits of customer journey mapping, customer journey stages.

• What’s included in a customer journey map?

The Customer Journey Mapping Process

Steps for creating a customer journey map.

• Types of Customer Journey Maps

Customer Journey Mapping Best Practices

• Customer Journey Design
• Customer Journey Map Examples

Free Customer Journey Map Templates

Free Customer Journey Template

Outline your company's customer journey and experience with these 7 free templates.

• Buyer's Journey Template
• Future State Template
• Day-in-the-Life Template

You're all set!

Click this link to access this resource at any time.

The customer journey is the series of interactions a customer has with a brand, product, or business as they become aware of a pain point and make a purchase decision. While the buyer’s journey refers to the general process of arriving at a purchase, the customer journey refers to a buyer's purchasing experience with a specific company or service.

Customer Journey vs. Buyer Journey

Many businesses that I’ve worked with were confused about the differences between the customer’s journey and the buyer’s journey. The buyer’s journey is the entire buying experience from pre-purchase to post-purchase. It covers the path from customer awareness to becoming a product or service user.

In other words, buyers don’t wake up and decide to buy on a whim. They go through a process of considering, evaluating, and purchasing a new product or service.

The customer journey refers to your brand’s place within the buyer’s journey. These are the customer touchpoints where you will meet your customers as they go through the stages of the buyer’s journey. When you create a customer journey map, you’re taking control of every touchpoint at every stage of the journey instead of leaving it up to chance.

For example, at HubSpot, our customer’s journey is divided into three stages — pre-purchase/sales, onboarding/migration, and normal use/renewal.

1. Awareness Stage

In the awareness stage, customers realize they have a problem. They may not know they need a product or service, but they will begin researching either way.

During this stage of the customer journey, brands should deliver educational content to help customers diagnose problems and offer potential solutions. Your aim should be to help customers alleviate their pain points, not encourage a purchase.

During the awareness stage, you can lean on page view and click data to uncover which web pages and blog posts on your site customers flock to as they become aware of the need to solve a problem.

Some educational content that I’ve created in the past are:

• How-to articles and guides.
• General whitepapers.
• General ebooks.
• Free courses.

Educational content may also be delivered via customer touchpoints such as:

• Social media.
• Search engines.

2. Consideration

In the consideration stage, customers have researched enough to realize they need a product or service. At this point, they begin to compare brands and offerings.

During this stage, brands should deliver product marketing content to help customers compare different offerings and, eventually, choose their product or service. The aim is to help customers navigate a crowded marketplace and move them toward a purchase decision.

Product marketing content may include:

• Product listicles.
• Product comparison guides and charts.
• Product-focused white papers.
• Customer success stories or case studies .

Product marketing content may be delivered via customer touchpoints such as:

• Your website.
• Conferences.

3. Decision Stage

In the decision stage, customers have chosen a solution and are ready to buy.

During this stage, your brand should deliver a seamless purchase process to make buying products as easy as possible. I wouldn’t recommend any more educational or product content at this stage — it’s all about getting customers to make a purchase. That means you can be more direct about wanting customers to buy from you.

Decision-stage content may include:

• Free demos.
• Free consultations.
• Product sign-up pages.
• Pricing pages.
• Product promotions (e.g., “Sign up now and save 30%”).

Decision-stage content may be delivered via customer touchpoints such as:

4. Retention Stage

In the retention stage, customers have purchased a solution and will stay with the company they purchased it from instead of switching to another provider.

During this stage, brands provide an excellent onboarding experience and ongoing customer service to ensure customers don’t churn. During the retention stage, you can rely on solicited data from customer surveys and questionnaires to continually refine and improve the customer experience and your customer journey map.

Retention-stage strategies may include:

• Providing a dedicated customer success manager .
• Making your customer service team easily accessible.
• Creating a knowledge base in case customers ever run into a roadblock.

Retention-stage strategies may be delivered via customer touchpoints such as:

• Live chat .
• Social media .

5. Loyalty Stage

In the loyalty stage, customers not only choose to stay with a company but actively promote it to family, friends, and colleagues. This stage can also be called the advocacy stage.

During this phase, brands should focus on providing a fantastic end-to-end customer experience. This should span from your website content to your sales reps, your social media team, and your product’s UX.

Most importantly, customers become loyal when they’ve succeeded with your product — if it works, they’re more likely to recommend your brand to others. Loyal customers will also likely provide feedback and other solicited data to enrich your customer journey mapping strategy.

Loyalty-stage strategies may include:

• Having an easy-to-navigate website.
• Investing in your product team to ensure your product exceeds customer expectations.
• Making it easy to share your brand with others via a loyalty or referral program .
• Providing perks to continued customers, such as discounts.

Loyalty-stage strategies may be delivered via customer touchpoints such as:

• Your products.

As a former customer support engineer at HubSpot, I can attest to the effectiveness of outstanding support in bolstering customer loyalty and moving customers from the retention to the loyalty stage. In my experience, one of the most gratifying experiences of working in support is knowing you’ve transformed a regular customer into a brand advocate by providing top-tier support and helping them succeed in their business goals using your product.

To find out whether your customers have reached the loyalty stage, try a Net Promoter Score survey . This simple question asks: “On a scale of 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend us to a friend?” You can use customer feedback software like Service Hub to deliver this survey.

Customer journey mapping is the process of creating a customer journey map — the visual representation of a company’s customer experience. It compiles a customer’s experience as they interact with a business and combines the information into a visual map.

This process aims to provide insights that help you understand how your customers experience their journeys and identify potential bottlenecks.

It’s also important to note that most customer journeys aren’t linear. Instead, buyers often experience a back-and-forth, cyclical, multi-channel journey.

Let’s look at the stages you should include in any customer journey.

What's included in a customer journey map?

• The Buying Process
• User Actions
• User Research

1. The Buying Process

1. Use customer journey map templates.

Why make a customer journey map from scratch when you can use a template? Save yourself some time by downloading HubSpot’s free customer journey map templates .

This has templates that map out a buyer’s journey, a day in your customer’s life, lead nurturing, and more.

These templates can help sales, marketing, and customer support teams learn more about your company’s buyer persona. This will improve your product and customer experience.

2. Set clear objectives for the map.

Before you dive into your customer journey map, you need to ask yourself why you’re creating one in the first place.

What goals are you directing this map towards? Who is it for? What experience is it based upon?

If you don’t have one, I recommend creating a buyer persona . This persona is a fictitious customer with all the demographics and psychographics of your average customer. This persona reminds you to direct every aspect of your customer journey map toward the right audience.

3. Profile your personas and define their goals.

Next, you should conduct research. This is where it helps to have customer journey analytics ready.

Don’t have them? No worries. You can check out HubSpot’s Customer Journey Analytics tool to get started.

Questionnaires and user testing are great ways to obtain valuable customer feedback. The important thing is to only contact actual customers or prospects.

You want feedback from people interested in purchasing your products and services who have either interacted with your company or plan to do so.

Some examples of good questions to ask are:

• How did you hear about our company?
• What first attracted you to our website?
• What are the goals you want to achieve with our company? In other words, what problems are you trying to solve?
• How long have you/do you typically spend on our website?
• Have you ever made a purchase with us? If so, what was your deciding factor?
• Have you ever interacted with our website to make a purchase but decided not to? If so, what led you to this decision?
• On a scale of 1 to 10, how easily can you navigate our website?
• Did you ever require customer support? If so, how helpful was it, on a scale of 1 to 10?
• Can we further support you to make your process easier?

You can use this buyer persona tool to fill in the details you procure from customer feedback.

4. Highlight your target customer personas.

Once you’ve learned about the customer personas that interact with your business, I recommend narrowing your focus to one or two.

Remember, a customer journey map tracks the experience of a customer taking a particular path with your company. If you group too many personas into one journey, your map won’t accurately reflect that experience.

When creating your first map, it’s best to pick your most common customer persona and consider the route they would typically take when engaging with your business for the first time.

You can use a marketing dashboard to compare each and determine the best fit for your journey map. Don’t worry about the ones you leave out, as you can always go back and create a new map specific to those customer types.

5. List out all touchpoints.

Begin by listing the touchpoints on your website.

What is a touchpoint in a customer journey map?

A touchpoint in a customer journey map is an instance where your customer can form an opinion of your business. You can find touchpoints in places where your business comes in direct contact with a potential or existing customer.

For example, if I were to view a display ad, interact with an employee, reach a 404 error, or leave a Google review, all of those interactions would be considered a customer touchpoint.

Your brand exists beyond your website and marketing materials, so you must consider the different types of touchpoints in your customer journey map. These touchpoints can help uncover opportunities for improvement in the buying journey.

Based on your research, you should have a list of all the touchpoints your customers are currently using and the ones you believe they should be using if there’s no overlap.

This is essential in creating a customer journey map because it provides insight into your customers’ actions.

For instance, if they use fewer touchpoints than expected, does this mean they’re quickly getting turned away and leaving your site early? If they are using more than expected, does this mean your website is complicated and requires several steps to reach an end goal?

Whatever the case, understanding touchpoints help you understand the ease or difficulties of the customer journey.

Aside from your website, you must also look at how your customers might find you online. These channels might include:

• Social channels.
• Email marketing.
• Third-party review sites or mentions.

Run a quick Google search of your brand to see all the pages that mention you. Verify these by checking your Google Analytics to see where your traffic is coming from. Whittle your list down to those touchpoints that are the most common and will be most likely to see an action associated with it.

At HubSpot, we hosted workshops where employees from all over the company highlighted instances where our product, service, or brand impacted a customer. Those moments were recorded and logged as touchpoints. This showed us multiple areas of our customer journey where our communication was inconsistent.

The proof is in the pudding — you can see us literally mapping these touch points out with sticky notes in the image below.

Don't forget to share this post!

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Outline your company's customer journey and experience with these 7 free customer journey map templates.

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Buyer journey: breng fases van klantreis in beeld

70% van het aankoopproces in de B2B vindt tegenwoordig online plaats. Dat wil zeggen dat je toekomstige klant op internet op zoek gaat naar antwoorden op vragen, lang voordat hij of zij in contact komt met een verkoper van je bedrijf. Zaak is om - o ok in de vroegste stadia van het aankoopproces - in de 'consideration set' van je doelgroep te komen. De buyer journey ( klantreis ) helpt je hierbij.

Inhoudsopgave

• Buyer journey: de klantreis 
• Kennisbehoefte in het aankoopproces
• Stem jouw marketing-activiteiten af

De klantreis begrijpen is de eerste stap richting het creëren van waardevolle content die aansluit bij het aankoopproces datje B2B klanten doorlopen. Dit is de basis van Inbound Marketing, marketing waar je klanten blij van worden.

Buyer journey: de klantreis

De buyer journey is het actieve proces dat een potentiële koper doorloopt voorafgaande aan de daadwerkelijke aankoop. Tijdens dit (online) aankoopproces (de buyer journey) doorloopt een potentiële klant drie hoofdfases; awareness, consideration en decision (bewustwording- overweging- en besluitfase).

De drie fases van de buyer journey zien er als volgt uit.

1. Awareness fase

De prospect ervaart een specifiek probleem en staat voor bepaalde uitdagingen, maar kan deze nog niet benoemen. In deze fase van de buyer journey doet hij of zij onderzoek om het probleem of de uitdaging duidelijk te formuleren en te kaderen. Er wordt nog geen koopbeslissing genomen (daar is het te vroeg voor in het aankoopproces).

2. Consideration fase

Het probleem of de uitdaging is helder geformuleerd. De prospect doet verder onderzoek naar mogelijke benaderingen en methodes om het probleem uit de weg te ruimen/ de uitdaging om te zetten naar een kans voor het bedrijf. Er wordt een longlist of een shortlist gemaakt met mogelijke oplossingen. In deze fase in de buyer journey is het zaak om met jouw bedrijf op deze lijst te komen!

3. Decision fase

In deze fase van de buyer journey heeft de prospect een benadering of strategie gekozen en stelt nu een lijst op van mogelijke aanbieders die de oplossing voor het probleem kunnen bieden. Na alle aanbieders met elkaar te hebben vergeleken wordt uit de lange lijst uiteindelijk éé n aanbieder gekozen.

Kennisbehoeftes in het aankoopproces

In iedere fase van de klantreis heeft de potentiële koper een andere kennisbehoefte. Het is zaak voor jouw bedrijf om die kennis aan te bieden en deze aan te laten sluiten op de verschillende behoeftes in het aankoopproces. De buyer journey maakt het mogelijke gedrag en de (informatie)behoeften van deze klant inzichtelijk en stelt sales en marketing in de gelegenheid specifieke content aan te bieden op het juiste moment.

Lees ook eens: creëer opmerkelijke content in iedere fase van de buyer journey . In het blog doorloopt mijn collega Kelly de drie fasen aan de hand van een helder voorbeeld en vertelt ze je welke soorten content en specifieke zoekwoorden in iedere fase van de buyer journey passen.

Veel succes met het ontmoeten van je (toekomstige) klanten!

Begrijp de klantreis en verschillende vragen die je klant heeft tijdens het aankoopproces nog beter met behulp van het volgende schema:

Stem jouw marketing-activiteiten af op het aankoopproces: breng de klantreis in beeld

De buyer journey, dus de klantreis in kaart brengen is de basis van iedere Inbound Marketing strategie. Leren hoe je met Inbound Marketing meer gekwalificeerde leads binnenhaalt? Download de whitepaper: Beter zaken doen met Inbound Marketing .

Buyer persona: onmisbaar voor het begrijpen van de klantreis

De buyer journey is, samen met de buyer persona onderdeel van iedere goede inbound marketing strategie. Om te weten aan welke informatie je doelgroep behoefte heeft in de verschillende fasen van het aankoopproces, dien je namelijk eerst de verschillende beslissers en beïnvloeders aan de klantzijde te (her)kennen en begrijpen. Hiervoor stel je buyer persona's op.

Free 20-page guide

How to reach and guide your prospect.

Kelly Antonis

Inbound Content Marketeer

Originally published on oktober 22, 2020

Last update on september 29, 2021

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Blog Marketing

10 Buyer Persona Templates, Examples & Marketing Tips

By Daleska Pedriquez , Nov 29, 2023

Brands that feel human to their target market succeed in building a rapport with them. This improves the brand reputation with both old and new customers.

With this in mind, I highly recommend creating buyer persona guides before launching a business or a marketing campaign.

This is a great practice for your next social media, content, or web campaigns, as well.

But, before anything else, let’s talk about what a buyer persona is.

Haven’t tried creating buyer personas before? With Venngage for business, you can design and download buyer persona templates that make the process easier, even without design experience.

Click to jump ahead:

What is a buyer persona?

What is a user persona.

• 11 Buyer person templates for businesses

How to create a buyer persona

A buyer persona is a detailed and semi-fictional representation of a business’s ideal customer, based on market research, real data and insights.

Buyer personas are important because it helps in understanding the target audience’s preferences, behaviors and needs, allowing businesses to tailor their marketing strategies and products/services to effectively connect with and meet the expectations of their customers.

Successful brands have used this detailed approach to demographic information and market segments. Studies have shown that buyer personas have played a huge role in building empathy between customers and brands . 

A buyer persona is a fictional yet accurate representation of what your ideal customer looks like.

If you’re confused about the difference between buyer personas and target audience, here’s how Rock Content explains it.

Buyer personas are a tool to help you connect with potential customers. They also equip your marketing and sales team to make better, more informed decisions.

A buyer persona is necessary to better understand your target audience. Knowing who you are targeting is important to ensure your marketing campaigns reach the right people.

A user persona on the other hand is a detailed and fictional representation of a typical user of a product, service or system.

Similar to buyer personas, user personas are created based on research, data and insights about the actual users to capture their needs, goals, behaviors and characteristics.

User personas help designers, developers and product teams better understand and empathize with their target audience, guiding the creation of user-centered products and experiences.

These personas often include demographic information, preferences, pain points and scenarios that reflect the diversity and nuances of the user base.

11 Buyer persona templates for businesses

A buyer persona template is a type of visual that makes it easy to list your potential customers.

Most free buyer persona template solutions, like Venngage, offer a variety of formats that are perfect for presentations. 

Here are some of the best helpful templates for specific business needs.

Customer journey infographic template

This is one of Venngage’s most popular customer journey maps. It’s a simple design that uses icons and lines to visualize how a customer will move from a single sign-up to becoming a loyal business user.

The gray background can be modified to suit your brand colors . You can use any of the 40,000+ icons in the Venngage library to create your own buyer persona from this template.

Related: 15+ Creative People Infographics and Diverse Person Icons

Marketing persona template

Add a pop of color to your buyer persona templates to draw the eye to your marketing reports. This Venngage template is perfect for highlighting your brand alongside your target customer.

This buyer persona lists her personal information, such as occupation, archetype, and personality.

Note how this example uses diagrams and charts to showcase the user’s personality, interests, and motivations.

A good marketing plan will consider personality and the customer’s pain points as a focal point for marketing efforts.

Simple buyer persona profile template

You can think of buyer persona templates as a type of resume. It lists customer pain points and solutions to ensure marketing messages are more impactful.

This template focuses on a 35-year-old program coordinator who is extrovert and empathic. Note how the template includes personality traits, as well.

These are vital details that businesses can use in tailoring their campaigns toward actual customers.

You can customize this buyer persona template in the Venngage editor for your existing customers. Swap out images, change the text, and add relevant charts and graphs.

Simple B2B customer journey map template

A customer journey envisions the complete customer experience from the first time to the final time they interact with a brand. A customer journey map visual represents that process.

The buyer’s journey maps out how a customer becomes aware of the product and eventually makes a purchase.

The map helps illustrate how effectively businesses are reaching their target markets. It also underlines the gaps in the journey and what improvements can be made.

If you know how your customers are interacting with your brand, you can build your buyer persona easily.

This buyer journey map can be adjusted for your target customers. Change the fonts and colors, and add your customer touchpoints to make the design your own.

Related:  Growth Strategy Checklist: Plan Your Business Goals With These 5 Templates

Ideal user persona guide template

For a more grid-style template that looks casual and minimalist at the same time, this buyer persona report works well.

The buyer persona focuses on a student who is searching for the perfect place to study quietly while enjoying a coffee. A small business owner can develop their marketing messages around these customer pain points.

You can change the fonts, alignment, and layout of this buyer persona template and adapt the preset categories for your own business.

You can still include the motivations, frustrations, and goals of the ideal customer but change the final section to reflect your products or services.

Related:  20+ User Persona Examples, Templates, and Tips For Targeted Decision-Making

Colorful buyer persona template

Here’s another bold way to present your buyer personas. Yellow is a strong color that works for this brand. It also makes this report stand out.

The template displays the same information as the buyer personas in this post, but the yellow theme is prominent. The wider format also makes it easier to space out the sections.

Change the image, colors, and text according to your branding guidelines . With Venngage, you can upload your own images to personify your target customers.

Or use one of the free stock photos available in the Venngage editor to represent your ideal customers.

Basic persona template

Mind mapping is an excellent tool for businesses to illustrate their strategies, competitor analyses, and SWOT analysis . It’s just as helpful for creating ideal user personas, like the one below.

This template is easy to customize and just as simple to understand. It lists the customer’s traits in a circular form, creating a basic flow that readers can follow.

Note the use of word clouds for two of the sections. This is a great way of showing the customer pain points without having to design a list.

The mind map buyer persona examples above will mostly require text changes, which you can quickly make in the Venngage editor.

Dark buyer persona marketing report template

This dark-themed buyer persona template uses colors to distinguish each section: the user profile, customer strengths, frustrations, and goals.

The separate blocks make the report easier to follow. This is a very succinct document. It’s short and to the point. Perfect for executives with little time and a lot to do.

You don’t want to lose your audience’s interest. Creating a report like this template, which presents only the most important facts is the best way to get your message across.

Iconic buyer persona report template

A chart can get so much information across in a single glance. Most business reports include charts because of this fact.

It isn’t surprising that a buyer persona would be greatly helped by adding in a few charts, like this example that includes donut charts .

Note the use of icons in the daily activities section. These icons are a great way to tell the reader exactly what the user spends their time doing, without having to use too many words.

Related: 11 Types of Charts and How Businesses Use Them

Colorful persona guide report template

Executives have little time to read through massive reports. A succinct and attractive report that distills information is what they’re looking for.

If you’re looking for a stylish and simple buyer persona, this template is right for you. It uses color to signify important information. This is a template that can easily be understood with a glance.

Adapt the various sections for your own products and services. Changing the colors in the template takes seconds. Pick from the color wheel in the Venngage editor menu to suit your aesthetics.

Create your own buyer persona by adapting this template for your brand. The Venngage My Brand Kit feature makes it easy to add your brand logo, colors, and fonts.

Add your website to the editor and it automatically downloads all your brand details.

Then you can use the Autobrand function to apply your branding to all designs with a single click.

Dark food service customer journey map template

If it’s challenging to create customer personas for your potential customers, you can use this template to understand the buyer journey.

The template outlines the typical sales funnel for a brand. It also includes the potential actions and thought processes of the customer.

The journey map highlights the channels preferred by the customer, the emotion that the brand wants the customer to feel, and the possible opportunities.

By breaking down these actions and the stages, a food-service brand can use this template to determine their ideal buyer personas. 

You can use this template as is, or adjust the wording to suit the products or services your brand focuses on.

Creating a buyer persona involves a comprehensive approach to understanding your ideal customer. Begin by conducting thorough market research through channels such as:

• Customer surveys
• Website analytics
• Social media insights
• Customer interviews
• Sales and customer service teams
• Email analytics
• Competitor analysis
• Industry reports and studies
• Online reviews and feedback
• Web forms and registrations
• Customer workshops and events

Once you’ve gathered qualitative insights into your customers’ goals, challenges and decision-making processes, you can start developing a structured persona template.

Share this persona with relevant teams, encourage feedback and iterate as needed. Visual aids, such as a representation with a photo, can enhance memorability. Lastly, regularly revisit and update your buyer persona to ensure it aligns with the evolving dynamics of your business and market.

Improve conversions with a buyer persona template

With buyer personas and customer journeys, you can create the best messaging, positioning, and products that appeal to your target audience. Customize these buyer persona templates for your business presentations.

Presenting your buyer persona template layouts requires time to plan and produce. With Venngage’s buyer persona templates, you can start creating for free, without any prior design experience.

Buyer’s Journey Template

Easily map out each step in the buyer’s journey 

To create content that truly resonates with potential customers, it’s important you understand the journey people take to become your customers in the first place.

But mapping the buyer’s journey can be a challenge and even downright confusing if you don’t know where to start. That’s why we put together this buyer’s journey template – to guide you through the process of mapping the buyer’s journey so you can create better, more strategic content that aligns with the questions your personas are asking.

In this template, you’ll get three spreadsheets:

• A buyer’s journey map
• Buyer’s journey questions
• Content offer planning

Use these spreadsheets to better understand your buyers’ path to purchase, so you can tailor an inbound marketing strategy that addresses your buyers’ needs at every stage of their journey.

Simply fill out the form to download your free buyer’s journey template today!

Map the Buyer's Journey

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