The Difference Between a Customer Journey and a Sales Funnel

The Sales Funnel

A sales funnel is a traditional marketing concept that outlines the steps a customer takes from awareness to purchase. 

It typically consists of four stages: awareness, interest, consideration and purchase. The focus of a sales funnel is to ultimately convert a prospect into a customer and make a sale. 

• Awareness: a prospect is introduced to the brand and discovers a problem they didn’t know they had. 
• Interest: the prospect actively seeks a solution and researches the brand and its offerings. 
• Consideration: the prospect is ready to make a decision and considers the brand as an option. 
• Purchase: the prospect has made a decision and is prepared to purchase.

Throughout each phase of the funnel, businesses need to engage with potential customers to provide them with the information and support they need to make an informed purchase decision. 

This can be achieved through various marketing and sales tactics, such as digital advertising and email marketing. By understanding and optimizing each stage of the funnel, businesses can drive more conversions, increase revenue and grow their business.

The Customer Journey

A customer journey is a more comprehensive view of the entire customer experience. It encompasses the phases of a sales funnel and goes beyond that to include what happens after a customer makes a purchase. A customer journey considers all customer interactions with a brand, including multiple touchpoints such as customer service, email marketing and social media. 

Where to start?

To create a successful customer journey, it’s essential to understand your target audience and their needs. Start by asking questions such as:

• What are their pain points?
• What are their goals?
• What motivates them?
• What are their behaviors and habits?

The Customer Journey Map

Once you understand your target audience, you can map out their journey and identify potential roadblocks. This map can provide a visual representation of every step, from awareness to brand loyalty and can help guide your business in making decisions with your customer in mind. 

You can also create personas, which are fictional characters that represent your target audience, to help you better understand your customer’s needs and better tailor their experience. 

Some common stages in a customer’s journey include:

• Awareness: a prospect becomes aware of your brand, product or service.
• Interest: the prospect starts to research and consider your offerings.
• Desire: the customer wants what you have to offer.
• Action: the customer makes a purchase or takes another action.
• Retention: the customer continues to engage with your brand and becomes a repeat customer.
• Advocacy: the customer becomes a mini brand ambassador and tells their friends and family about your products.

Oftentimes a customer’s journey is not linear. If brand familiarity and trust are already established, a customer may be ready to purchase right away. In the wild, the best example of this is influencer marketing.

While establishing trust with a customer can be a delicate dance that doesn’t happen overnight, a loyal customer means repeat purchases and word-of-mouth marketing, which can be 5x more effective than traditional marketing efforts. 

Now that we’ve looked at the traditional sales funnel and the customer journey, it’s safe to say that one outshines the other. (Pssst… it’s the customer journey.) However, regardless of your preference, as marketers, we must stay agile and evolve with our ever-changing industry. 

For the full-length article and more in-depth knowledge of the digital marketing sphere, check out our blog!