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Understanding Your Buyer’s Journey

Do you know why your customers buy from you?

Not just a statement that you’ve crafted as to why your product or service is superior to your competitors, no…  do you actually understand the decision making process going on in your potential customer’s mind when they decide whether or not your product is right for them?

For years, marketers and salespeople alike have worked hard to reduce the sales process down to a scientific formula—some know it as the AIDA formula.  The AIDA formula explains that a buyer must become

  • AWARE of your product, develop
  • INTEREST and
  • DESIRE for the product, and finally take
  • ACTION on obtaining the product.

While human behavior will always be unpredictable, this formula does a good job of explaining the steps we must walk our potential customers down in order to make the sale.

One client that has benefited from leveraging the AIDA formula is a client of ours, Abram’s Bed.  This company provides a much-needed solution for families that have special needs.  Their flagship product, The Safety Sleeper, helps families of special needs children sleep easy knowing that their child with special needs will not be able to wander throughout the night—a situation all too common for these families.

Abram’s Bed is a company with a great product that solves a real problem and the owners are extremely passionate about their product because they understand the impact it has; that being said, the company was struggling to deliver their message to the people that needed it most.

The first step was to understand their customer’s buyers journey. They did this through hiring our team to conduct customer interviews, focus groups, and online surveys. We poured through social media comments and shares to learn what resonated with their customers.

The goal was to bring attention to their product in a way that would resonate with their future customers and grow their online awareness and engagement, via social media and content marketing, and of course, increase sales.

Through their interactions at conferences and online, the owners were able to explain the features of their product and how it could benefit the lives of those that often worried about their child with special needs throughout the night.  Through communication with their customer base, Abram’s Bed was able to position their marketing message in their customer’s language, through understanding their fears and desires, to build interest and trust in their product, which eventually turned into a desire to own it.
The results? In just 17 months, Abram’s Bed more than doubled their sales and saw an increase of 155% in revenue growth, an increase in Facebook likes of over 8,000 people, and received a 4.8 approval rating out of 5.

Getting the attention of your customer base is what most people consider the “hard part” because it takes the most work and creativity; but if you take the time to gain customer feedback, then the “hard part” becomes easier because it becomes very clear how to position your company offerings to reach and engage your customers.  Listen to what your clientele is saying and provide solutions to their problems, in their terms.

Today’s marketplace is filled with entirely too much noise, making it easy for your marketing message to not be heard.  While saturation of the marketplace is concerning to some, you can view it as an opportunity to stand out by making your marketing message valuable, create, unique and on point with what your customers want and need.

Talk to your customers.  More importantly, listen to them.  Base you’re marketing and advertising on their wants and needs and inform your potential buyers of your solution to their problem in their terms.  When you understand and respect your buyer’s journey, the rest will take care of itself.