Stages of the Buyer’s Journey: Content Guide

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Customer Journey Research With Client Purchase Process

If you’re in marketing, e-commerce, or you own your own business, the term “buyer’s journey” may already be familiar to you. Yet, you may need an extra nudge to tear away from your busy schedule to develop a content strategy informed by the stages of the buyer’s journey. 

If this sounds like you, now is the time to reacquaint yourself with the importance of the buyer’s journey. With this in mind, you can create solid content for each stage and each customer.  

What Is the Buyer’s Journey?

The buyer’s journey is the process by which a potential buyer educates themselves on products or services and becomes a customer. Some formats of the buyer’s journey extend the process past the sale point to stress customer loyalty and repurchasing. 

Consider your own experiences with searching for services as you build your customers’ buyer journey. This alone will give you insight into what types of material your prospect needs to see before taking the plunge to become a customer. 

What Are the Stages of the Buyer’s Journey? 

There are three main stages to a buyer’s journey. You must create unique content, tailored to each stage to guide a prospect from discovery to purchase. These steps include 1) the awareness stage, 2) the consideration stage, and 3) the decision stage

The natural research process means the depth of the questions will grow with each stage. It’s your job to identify and deliver what information your prospects need for each stage. If they leave your site confused or uninformed, they might seek out your competition.

The prospective buyer should fit into your buyer personas, but that doesn’t mean they know you’re their ideal solution. You have to show them. If you haven’t identified your buyer personas, you’ll want to do that before creating content.

Learn more in our article Your Guide to Creating Buyer Personas for Your Business.

1. Awareness Stage

The first stage of the journey is the awareness stage. The buyer begins researching after knowing what they want or what problem they need to solve. 

For example, imagine your competitors are receiving a lot of press in industry trade magazines. You may start your search with “How to promote my business in print magazines.” Alternatively, if you’re aware of the industry, you may search “PR services.” 

During the awareness stage, your buyers may look for a specific service. But, often, they have a problem and look to you (via Google) to provide an answer. 

With this in mind, you must provide content that meets the buyer where they are. For many, that means you must explain the answer to their problem or question and how your solution can help.  

Types of Content: 

In this stage, certain types of content can be effective in getting the attention of potential customers. Effective content will encourage them to continue their journey to the second stage.

  • Paid Ads: When you bid on relevant terms, paid ads may increase your exposure with your audience. . However, this method is often pricey, especially if your terms are competitive.  Consider using paid ads in a supplementary role, instead of relying on it as your primary source to attract leads. 
  • Blog Posts: Blogging is effective throughout the buyer’s journey to answer questions pertinent to each stage. Keep in mind your audience and their familiarity with industry terms and concepts. This stage should start from the very beginning and answer common questions relevant to your product or service. Consider what questions a customer may have as they browse solutions and competitors. 
  • Videos: Videos offer a visual platform for answering questions and explaining concepts. Posting videos on your website or YouTube can increase traffic and raise awareness of your business and services.

2. Consideration Stage

Next, the buyer moves to the consideration stage. At this stage, the buyer has conducted initial research, understands their problem and has a basic idea of what solutions exist. During this stage, the buyer conducts greater research into potential solutions.

Your goal is to cater to the customer’s needs by describing your solution and why your solution is the best for them. To do this, you must understand the competitor landscape and how your business differs.

What makes you different should be what sets you apart. It should give you momentum to write compelling content that persuades your audience. It’s essential to consider your customer’s needs, and likely emotions, during this stage.

A potential buyer may have fears stemming from emotion, fears of financial loss, poor service, time management. For example, an investment agency may have clients who fear involvement in the market. It’s important to address these fears in your content and fight fear with facts.

Positive emotion is another consideration to play off of in your content strategy. There may be positive emotions associated with a potential purchase. They may wonder if your service will build their name recognition, enhance their wealth, or other positive factors. Your content should understand the motivation of a client and how to address both positive and negative emotions.

Two Buyers in Consideration Stage

 

 

Types of Content: 

This stage should highlight your solution, how it meets their needs, and why it’s better than your competition. Beware of overselling your product and turning your content into an advertisement. 

Buyers are perceptive and trained to spot an advertisement. Instead, provide facts and seek above all to be informative and helpful. This tone will help you create content buyers want while earning their trust.

  • Email drip campaigns: Drip campaigns can be tremendously helpful in educating potential buyers. If they were interested enough to provide their email address, they’re likely interested in learning more about your services. Target your email content to potential buyers and offer them relevant product information and education.
  • Case studies: Facts and figures go a long way in a data-driven world. Case studies offer practical examples of success and instill confidence in your company’s abilities. 
  • Comparison charts: No matter what industry you are in, competitor information is easy to discover. Your potential customers are likely searching for the best deal and the service that best fits their needs. Streamline their search and provide the information for them. Inform them on the different solutions, their pros and cons, and allow the customer to make an educated choice.
  • Whitepapers: Develop Whitepapers to help your clients understand your area of expertise, your services, and how you can help them. 

3. Decision Stage

Congratulations! Your prospective buyer is informed and ready to decide. Now, you need to provide an incentive for them to make the right choice—your company.

This last stage must convince the buyer that your company is the best. This could include an in-depth guide or an incentive, like a discount or free consultation.

Types of Content:

Offers: Include copy with exclusive offers inside. Incorporate offers into your email strategy or include them on a landing page on your website.
Downloadable guides: If your informed prospective buyer isn’t quite ready to commit, consider sending them a downloadable guide or other useful resource that highlights your company’s specific services.
Demo: A B2B or SaaS company can offer live demos to confirm the service’s usefulness and motivate the customer to purchase.

3 Stages vs. 5 Stages of the Buyer’s Journey

Some identify the buyer’s journey with five stages instead of the three mentioned above. In the five stage version, the first three stages remain the same with retention and loyalty added as steps four and five, as seen below. 

  1. Awareness
  2. Consideration
  3. Decision
  4. Retention
  5. Loyalty

For the sake of clarity, the five stage version may help you think through customer decisions post-purchase. Your existing client base is the best place to increase your revenue, as they’ve already determined your worth in the past. 

Keeping retention and loyalty in mind throughout your content strategy is essential to long-term success and growth as a company. Even if they don’t repeat buy, delighted customers can become advocates for your brand and a resource for referrals. 

With that in mind, let’s review these two final stages of the process.

4. Customer Retention

The unofficial fourth stage of the buyer’s journey is customer retention. Don’t assume that all customers are brand advocates. By following up with your customers post-purchase, you can offer satisfactory customer service and support for questions they may have. 

From the content perspective, there are several methods for supporting this stage:

  • Troubleshooting articles: While this can directly apply to SaaS or IoT (Internet of Things) services, troubleshooting stretches beyond these industries. Your customer may have trouble understanding what they purchased, how to use it, or other various questions. By creating articles for existing customers, you offer support and can increase a customer’s experience.
  • Recommendations: Perhaps one product or service is best used in conjunction with another. Make recommendations for how to get the most out of a buy.

For more information on this topic, read our blog, How To Improve Customer Retention and Boost Brand Advocacy.

5. Customer Loyalty

Make the most out of your customer relationships with this final stage in the process: customer loyalty. If you’re doing it right, there is no end to this stage. Happy customers should result in renewed contracts, strengthening your business. 

Your loyal customers should also be a source of new business. Tap into your existing resource of customer relationships to encourage referrals, and be sure to say a hearty “thank you” when they do. 

Brand Advocacy, Man Holding Megaphone

Consider these forms of content to incite customer loyalty:

  • Announcements: Are you offering a new service or product? Is there a leadership change or a shift in your business method? Make sure your loyal customer base is aware. Segment your emails so your returning customers are up-to-date on any changes. 
  • First access: Give your returning customers first access to new products, or allow them to test your products during the Beta stage. 
  • Social media pages: Depending on your business, it may be appropriate to offer customer-only social media groups, such as a Facebook group. This can encourage loyalty, provide quick customer service for questions, and a community of motivated and engaged customers. 

Create Your Content Strategy

Understanding the buyer’s journey is the first step to creating informative, effective content. Brainstorm who your target customers are, what questions they have, what motivates them, and how you compare to leading competitors.

Your answers will fuel your content and help you nurture a prospective buyer through the buyer’s journey—developing an engaged and loyal customer base.

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Lissie Kidd

Sr. Marketing Copywriter

Lissie Kidd is a Sr. Copywriter with several hundred articles in her portfolio and even more edited and published under her supervision. Lissie holds a MA in Communications from Grand…

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