We discussed in an earlier post that you need to come up with your buyer personas. Once you’ve done that, every interaction your persona has with your company should be tailored to where they are in the buyer’s journey. What the heck is the buyer’s journey, you ask?
The buyer’s journey is the active research process someone goes through leading up to a purchase. Knowing the buyer’s journey for your persona will be key to creating the best content possible.
The buyer’s journey is made up of 3 stages: the awareness stage, the consideration stage, and the decision stage that portray the experiences your potential customers go through.
Every single one of us have gone through the buyer’s journey. It’s the path you take when you have a problem to solve, from researching potential solutions to purchasing one.
The awareness stage is when your prospect is experiencing and expressing symptoms of a problem or opportunity. They’re doing education research to more clearly understand, frame, and give a name to their problem.
The consideration stage is when a prospect has now clearly defined and given a name to their problem or opportunity. They are committed to researching and understanding all of the available approaches and/or methods to solving the defined problem or opportunity.
The decision stage is when a prospect has now decided on their solution strategy, method, or approach. They are compiling a long list of all available vendors and products in their given solution strategy. They could also be researching to whittle the long list down to a short list and ultimately making a final purchase decision.
When a buyer is in the awareness stage you listen to their issues and help them name their problem.
When they’re in the consideration stage they know they have an issue or problem that needs solved and they’re looking for options to solve it. You provide them with optional solutions.
In the decision stage they go through the process of choosing an option. This is where you tout your software and its value.
Too often all our websites have to offer is info on our software and services. Which stage of the buyer’s journey does this address? The decision stage. In doing this we’re disregarding potential customers in the awareness and consideration stages!
Conclusion
Being aware of where the potential customer is in the buyer’s journey is essential to knowing what marketing content would be relevant to them at that point.