Create Content for Each Stage in the Buyer’s Journey

Written by Nick Stamoulis

Content Marketing is a way to communicate with your market and get them to convert by first sharing knowledge of value. The more you share, the more likely they will buy from you. By knowing where they are in the buyer’s journey, you can tailor your content marketing strategy to that buyer’s right stage and interest level. Your goal is to deliver them the content they will need to help propel them into the next level.

Get to Know the Buyer’s Journey

Most of us know what the buyer’s journey is in theory. However, each business has to take the time to understand the journey and how it relates to their own products or services and the customers who will eventually buy or use them. Here’s a look at the stages, and some remarks on the types of content that could best serve each stage.

Awareness

When potential buyers first land on your site or search engine, they are not aware of you, your brand, or anything you have to offer. It is the least critical stage in the buyer’s journey. The buyer is simply looking for guidance about where to start and go next. In this stage, potential buyers start to become aware of any issues they may have.  These individuals are in the early stages, and they may not even know that they could use your product or service yet. The types of content that works best for this stage include:

  • Articles published on your blog highlighting early-stage information showcasing problems that your product or service solves.
  • Informative eBooks talking about some of the issues people might be having that could point to your product or service as a solution.
  • Other types of content like infographics, videos, and webinars could also deliver useful information to people looking for information that could eventually lead them to considering your product or Service ice as a solution.

Try to avoid mentioning your product or service too heavily in these types of articles. They lose their impact that way because people in this stage aren’t ready to consider your offerings yet. They’re getting to know your brand, and if this content reads like a sales pitch, they won’t go further into the buyer’s journey with you, they’ll get annoyed and click away.

Consideration

After someone has landed on your site and considered your offers, they will begin to narrow down their search by job title, salary, or other criteria. They are still not ready to make an offer yet. After narrowing down the options and picking from a list, the buyer may be ready to make their purchase decision. You want to speak directly to them at this stage. If you are in a B2B industry, you may want to include some specifications in the copy of your offer that only applies if someone buys from you instead of the competition.

You have to really understand your buyers to know how to help them make purchasing decisions. Note that this is the stage where you should mention your product or service. Types of content that work in the consideration phase include:

  • Articles that specifically describe elements of your product or service and how you they can help solve their problems.
  • Videos demonstrating how the products or services work and what people can expect to gain from them.
  • This is also the stage where webinars describing your product or service, as well as even a sales pitch, could be effective.
  • Product and Service pages on your main website also help in the consideration phase.

Decision

It is the stage where a buyer is ready to make their purchase. Your content marketing strategy should be geared towards the decision stage. What are some of the factors that may sway them to choose your brand or product? You want to create content for decision-stage buyers and make it widely available. You should have content on your site, social media, and other third-party sites. After purchasing from your website, someone may still need help with installation, integration, or use of the product they just bought from you. The biggest thing in this stage is to make sure that your customers know how to buy from you. If this isn’t obvious, you will lose them.

Retention

It is much easier to retain a customer than get new customers. So, you should have measures in place to retain them and get them to buy from you again. The key to them is to get them to keep in touch. Here are some ideas:

  • Include information on your website that existing customers will find valuable, such as FAQs, product tutorials, and more.
  • Encourage customers to sign up for your newsletter, which you should be sending out regularly. You can offer discounts, give product information, and more, in this newsletter.

Advocacy

Businesses need to give customers indicators that they are true to their word. Does your product do what it says? Is it of a good quality? Are the customers happy? Content that can help with stage usually has to do with collecting stories and testimonials from existing, happy customers. You also want to regularly check in with your customers to make sure they are doing well.

As you can see, you need to be careful to give your potential buyers the content that they want on each stage of their journey. As long as your website has content that services each phase, your buyers will connect with the content they need at any given stage.

Categorized in:

LIKE AND SHARE THIS ARTICLE:



Watch How Brick Marketing Can Help Your Company:

Brick Marketing, a Boston-based digital marketing agency, specializes in SEO management, content marketing, social media management, digital ad management (PPC), email newsletter marketing, website development and more.

Contact Us for More Info


Digital Marketing Solutions Include:


Brands & Clients Brick Marketing Has Helped: