Generating more sales isn’t as simple as spending more on advertising. It often requires taking a step back and understanding the customer acquisition journey from A to Z, and optimizing for each and every touchpoint along the way.
We’ll walk you through the process below, from building brand awareness to engaging potential customers, and eventually getting them to take a chance on your business, turning that lead into a sale.
There’s another step after acquisition that so many brands overlook, though: retention. One of the more jaw-dropping customer retention stats is that it can cost 5x more to acquire a new customer than sell to an existing one.
We’ll share strategies to help you not only nurture customers for better customer lifetime value (LTV) but also turn those customers into your brand’s biggest advocates, essentially making them a sales channel of their own through referrals.
What is the customer journey?
The customer journey is a unique experience every person has when buying from a brand. There are a few noteworthy states of customer acquisition, from the moment they discover you to the realization you offer what they need, prompting the decision to give you their business.
Every single touchpoint a customer has with your brand represents one of the stages of a customer journey. This means every ad, social media post, email, customer service exchange, and even product delivery plays an integral role in:
- Converting the lead into a sale
- Nurturing that customer for repeat business
Understanding all the different stages of customer acquisition empowers you to fine-tune each one and acquire customers more efficiently (while keeping them around for longer - potentially even turning them into referral channels).
Here’s an overview of the stages of a customer journey:
- Awareness
- Engagement
- Acquisition
- Retention
- Advocacy
You might see these stages of customer acquisition called something else - for example, some prefer to call “engagement” the “consideration,” or “activation” stage.
What remains the same, though, is the customer’s relationship with your brand deepens at every step of the customer acquisition journey. Brands that prioritize mapping and improving this journey don’t just gain customers. They build lasting connections.
So, let’s walk you through the customer journey below!
Explaining the customer acquisition journey from awareness to advocate
Many brands focus their marketing efforts on engaging cold or warm traffic to convert it into a sale, but building more brand awareness, or focusing on retention, might actually move the needle more for your bottom line.
That’s why you need a solid grasp of what goes into each stage in the customer journey map. Without any further ado, let’s put you in the position of one of your customers so you can see what they experience at every step in the funnel.
Awareness
Awareness is the starting point where potential customers first encounter your brand. There are a number of ways customers can become “aware” of you. Maybe a friend told them about you, or perhaps they saw an ad online.
The goal is not to convert the prospect into a customer at this point. Think about it like this - you wouldn’t propose on the first date, would you? We hope not at least. Similarly, the goal here is just to:
- Introduce your brand to a wide audience.
- Communicate your unique value proposition clearly.
- Establish credibility and trust through consistent messaging.
This will involve channels ranging from social media to paid ads, SEO, and even something as simple as world-class service for your existing customer base, as word of mouth remains one of the best ways to bring new prospects into your ecosystem.
Blog posts, videos, and educational resources are all great ways to build awareness on a bigger scale. You’re able to showcase expertise and provide value upfront without asking for anything in return.
You could also collaborate with influencers or like-minded brands to reach new audiences and lend credibility to your name. The possibilities are endless.
There are a few metrics you’ll want to keep an eye on to gauge the success of your awareness efforts, though. That includes website traffic, social media reach and impressions, and branded searches.
Engagement
Most people who hear about your brand for the first time from a friend, or come face to face with it online, will go on about their day without thinking too much of it. It’s rare to convert someone into a customer on the very first interaction.
This is where the engagement stage comes into play. It’s all about reconnecting with people who have some level of familiarity with your brand and earning their trust. At this step in the customer acquisition journey you want to:
- Educate prospects about your products or services.
- Encourage two-way interactions to build trust.
- Nurture leads to move them closer to a purchasing decision.
So, how do you do it? Some of it will fall under the same umbrella as the awareness stage: social media, email marketing, digital advertising, and more. The difference is in how you communicate with people at these two different stages of customer acquisition.
Your email sequences can become more personalized since you (hopefully) have some more information on who you’re talking to. You can share valuable content, promotions, or product updates to keep your brand top of mind.
We’ve seen brands have really good success with quizzes, surveys, or calculators as well, as these are more interactive and provide a ton of value to the user.
Replying to comments, running polls, or hosting live sessions are other ways you can create a sense of community and interaction. You’ll likely have retargeting ads running to bring visitors back to your site, or re-engage people who saw an ad but didn’t take any action.
Keep a close eye on email open and click-through rates, social media interactions (likes, shares, comments), and time spent on website pages. This will help you get a sense of where you’re falling short in your engagement efforts.
Acquisition
This is the fun part where interest turns into action, and a prospect becomes a customer. This may involve addressing customer objections or sweetening the deal for first-time buyers who may still have lingering doubts.
Whatever the case, you should strive to provide a clear path to purchase, solidify trust, eliminate uncertainty, and position a compelling offer in front of the user.
This means you might need to look at your website’s checkout process and reduce friction wherever possible. It needs to be easy to navigate, mobile-friendly, and free of unnecessary steps. The last thing you want is to lose customers at the last minute because of a poor UX.
Discounts, free trials, or limited-time offers are all common tactics in this stage of the customer journey, nudging hesitant buyers over the edge and getting them to take a chance on your brand.
This is a great opportunity to leverage social proof, too. Display customer reviews, testimonials, or case studies to build confidence and reduce risk.
So, how do you know if you’re doing a good job of acquisition? You know about conversion rate, but cost per acquisition (CPA) is also a good stat to track. Pay attention to first-purchase revenue as well. Compare these stats to industry averages to get a sense of performance.
Retention
There you have it, all the steps in the customer acquisition journey, right? Not so fast. While the process of acquiring the customer is finished, the journey is far from over. In fact, this is where the real work begins.
Retention is about turning one-time buyers into repeat customers - and as we said from the start, it’s much more cost-effective than the vicious cycle of constantly trying to acquire new customers. Retaining customers involves:
- Strengthening relationships with existing customers.
- Increasing purchase frequency and average order value.
- Building loyalty through exceptional experiences.
There are countless customer loyalty strategies you can utilize, but the most powerful is the simplest: build a Shopify loyalty program. This rewards customers for repeat purchases or referrals to encourage long-term engagement.
You need to make sure you’re focusing on brand loyalty segmentation, though, as it’s been shown customers are more likely to buy multiple times from a brand if they feel they’re receiving personalized interactions. This is a big reason why loyalty programs fail - they’re too boilerplate.
Of course, prompt, helpful customer service makes a massive difference in whether or not customers will continue to support your business. It also dictates whether they talk positively about you with others or bash your brand.
Stay vigilant of your customer retention rate, your repeat purchase rate, LTV, and average revenue per customer. All of these metrics speak to how well you retain customers.
Advocacy
There’s one more stage in the customer acquisition journey: advocacy. This goes beyond getting customers to come back for more. It involves getting them to bring their friends and family with them!
This doesn’t happen naturally on its own - you have to foster it. This means encouraging satisfied customers to leave reviews. You can be more proactive in building a Shopify referral program to incentivize customer referrals, too.
Even something as simple as creating opportunities for customers to share user-generated content (UGC), such as photos or reviews of your products, can lead to new business.
It’s the little things that matter most. Unexpected gestures, like handwritten thank-you notes or free samples, leave lasting impressions that customers love to talk about.
Referral traffic, social media shares and mentions, and net promoter score (NPS) all offer valuable insights into the level of advocacy around your brand. If you do advocacy right, it creates a positive feedback loop that benefits every stage of the journey.
Ways to enhance your customers’ journey to improve acquisition
It’s easy to fall into the trap of optimizing isolated stages of the customer acquisition journey, but don’t make this mistake. Every touchpoint should flow seamlessly to the next, with personalized experiences that continuously bolster trust. Here are ways to enhance the customer journey:
Make Every Touchpoint Consistent and Memorable
Congruency across all your channels and marketing materials can make a massive difference in building trust. It should be cohesive from social media to email, ads, your website, product packaging, customer service, etc.
Use consistent colors, messaging, and tone of voice across platforms to build trust. You should also make sure your website and mobile experience are intuitive and align with ad campaigns.
Always guide customers to the next stage, whether it’s signing up for an email list or completing a purchase. A customer should never have an interaction with you and be left wondering, “now what?”.
Focus on Hyper-Personalization
Generic messages fall flat in today’s crowded marketplace. You need to get on a first-name basis with your customers and get to the point where they feel like they know you.
This will take time as you need to build up customer data, which can be done through sign-ups, surveys, and proper segmentation. From there you can deliver product recommendations, ads, or landing pages that more closely align with each specific customer.
You should use behavioral triggers as well, like sending abandoned cart emails with the exact items left behind or offering loyalty points for browsing specific categories.
Simplify the Transition Between Awareness and Engagement
One of the biggest customer acquisition challenges we see is brands losing prospects between awareness and engagement. The handoff should be frictionless and natural.
Use retargeting campaigns that highlight previously viewed products or offer incentives for returning. Rely on quizzes or tools like size guides to keep prospects engaged while helping them make confident purchasing decisions.
Eliminate Friction in the Acquisition Process
We touched on this a bit already so we’ll keep it short, but the worst thing you can do is lose a customer to a suboptimal checkout experience. The harder it is to place an order or make a sale, the fewer conversions you’ll see. Here are some tips:
- Mobile Optimization: Provide a seamless checkout process on all devices.
- Transparent Policies: Shipping costs, return policies, and delivery timelines must be clear and upfront to reduce uncertainty.
- One-Click Options: Try offering features like saved payment details or express checkout to speed up the process.
Leverage Feedback Loops for Continuous Improvement
Your customers’ opinions are your most valuable resource. Incentive post-purchase surveys with a slight discount (or you can even offer to ship their order faster if they fill it out). Find out what the customer loved about shopping with you and where you fell short.
Address negative feedback publicly and act on constructive criticism to show you’re listening. Bad reviews are opportunities to set the record straight and show you’re not like other brands.
Tie Engagement Efforts to Loyalty and Advocacy
Finally, make sure your engagement efforts lay the groundwork for long-term loyalty and advocacy. This can involve sending first-time customers tips on how to get the most out of their purchase to reduce any buyer’s remorse.
It’s also a good idea to invite them to your loyalty program right after their first order. Then, you can start offering unexpected rewards, such as discounts for leaving reviews or bonus points for referring a friend.
Build campaigns that make it easy and fun for customers to share their experiences, like hashtag challenges or giveaways.
Remember, happy advocates can be your strongest marketing tool. You can use their enthusiasm to fuel your awareness efforts. It’s all tied together, after all!
Final words on the various stages of customer acquisition
We hope this overview of the customer acquisition journey has left you with a clear understanding of each of the stages of a customer journey. They’re intertwined, and a leak in one of the 5 states can slowly but surely sink your business. You need to fine-tune each step.
The strategies we just shared will help you optimize for every touch point and streamline the process of acquiring new customers. But more importantly, nurture them for long-lasting relationships to the point they’re eager to bring new customers your way.
The best way to do this is through a well-structured, personalized loyalty and referral program. Rivo is the #1 way to build brand advocacy with a seamless setup and effortless customization. See how our solutions stack up to support your customer journey below:
