Are you providing content that is relevant and helpful to clients as they search for information about services you provide? Termed the “buyer’s journey,” marketing professionals have defined the three distinct stages of the buying process — awareness, consideration and decision.
Knowing the three stages will help you hone your marketing content so that you meet clients wherever they are in the process. Doing so will also establish you as a source of knowledge.
Craft content that prompts awareness, consideration and decision to bring clients to you
Stage 1: Awareness
Prospects must become aware that they have a problem or need before they begin looking for the service that will solve their issue.
At that point in the buyer’s journey, you should have the answers available at the click of a mouse. Let’s say Karen has developed lower back pain. She suffers bouts of back pain for weeks without seeking help. At some point, she becomes aware that her back pain is not going away on its own, and she begins to look for possible causes. Is it her office chair, her mattress or the extra weight she has gained? Awareness that she needs a service or product is Karen’s first step in the buyer’s journey.
As a provider of back pain solutions, you should have content available for Karen when she begins looking for answers. These will be educational content of various kinds: analyst reports, research reports, white papers, eBooks, blogs, expert columns or info graphics. You will meet Karen with answers to her questions about back pain.
Stage 2: Consideration
Prospects know they have an issue to resolve, and now they are looking for options.
Using the content you provide, Karen considers the possible causes of back pain as they relate to her. She thinks about her lifestyle or her 15-year-old mattress and comes to a better understanding of her pain. (It seems to hurt most after she’s been sitting at her desk all day or when she gets up in the morning). She begins to consider her options. You can help her weigh in on the problem and the various solutions by providing comparison white papers, expert guides or live interactions, podcasts and videos.
Stage 3: Decision
Prospects are ready to make a decision, and you want them to pick you!
After reading your expert advice and data from leading sources on back pain, which you provide, Karen will decide where to go for the product or service she believes will resolve her back pain. It’s time for a state-of-the-art ergonomic chair or maybe she’s committed to a weight loss program. Through service or product comparisons, case studies or live demos, you convince Karen — without hype — that you have what she needs.
Final thoughts
Be just what clients need in their buyer’s journey and gain their trust and loyalty.
From all the content you have provided Karen along her buyer’s journey, you have proven yourself to be a knowledgeable and trustworthy source of helpful information — and the organization that has the solution. Karen will choose you because you met her along every step of her buyer’s journey.
Do you need help developing a content strategy that takes into account all the details? We can help! Contact us for details.