Sales reps used to have all the cards. Customers listened to (and believed) every word they heard and didn’t think too hard about what they were purchasing. On the other hand, modern-day customers are the savviest they’ve ever been. That’s why well-researched, data-backed marketing strategies are critical for every company.
Sales and marketing have moved from selling to helping the customer. Strategies are all about understanding who the buyer is and what journey the buyer’s taking.
But to utilize the buyer’s journey most effectively, we have to learn how to document and understand it through and through.
I’ve put together this ultimate guide on the buyer’s journey.
Contents
Understanding the buyer’s journey’s significance in modern marketing
The buyer’s journey is a term that refers to the path that customers take to make a purchase decision. Focusing your marketing efforts on understanding and catering to the buying process is an example of a customer-centric marketing strategy, like a Flywheel Model and StoryBrand Framework marketing.
Here’s why it works.
Buyers want to know they’re getting something that will solve their problem and be worth their hard-earned money.
They take time to research all the potential solutions to their problem, looking for a product or service to purchase that they need. The internet allows them all the information and resources to do just that.
While this does mean that you face more competition than ever before, you also have unprecedented opportunities to reach potential buyers (read: your ideal buyer personas!) at each stage of their decision-making process.
Getting insight into the customer journey lets you understand your customers, their needs, and how to convert them to sales best.
The three stages of the buyer’s journey
There are three buyer’s journey stages: the awareness stage, the consideration stage, and the decision stage.
Buyers will be doing and needing different things at these three stages, so tailoring content to suit them at each stage is crucial. It helps you to help them best and lets them decide that they want to purchase from you naturally.
Let’s look at each stage and how to tailor a content-marketing strategy around them.
Stage 1: Awareness
A. Defining the awareness stage
The awareness stage (or research stage) is when buyers investigate a pain point they are aware of. They aren’t looking for a particular product yet, instead focusing on discovering more about their problem.
For example, a person with acne might be aware of different types of acne, so research the difference between bacterial and fungal acne, but they aren’t looking for ways to combat their acne yet.
B. Recognizing the challenges and pain points of potential customers
Whatever product or service you offer, your prospective buyers will have specific challenges and pain points you can address.
Understanding how your brand addresses your target audience’s unique needs is essential because that will help you figure out how to take them from a potential buyer to a buyer.
Awareness stage content relies on you knowing who your ideal customers are. That’s how you create the right kind of targeted content that focuses on (eventually) converting leads.
C. Strategies to increase brand visibility and capture attention
At this stage of the buyer’s journey, your potential buyers are the least qualified kind of lead. They aren’t looking to purchase yet; they want to know more about their problem.
Whatever resources you put into addressing their pain points should be focused on nurturing them toward the consideration stage.
You want to help them learn more about and have more faith in your brand so they are more likely to buy in the future.
That means you should focus on creating content that gives your potential buyers as much upfront value and as little sales pressure as possible.
At the awareness stage, you can put your brand on the radar of your target audience by making content that focuses your marketing efforts on their education and information.
Some ways to do that are:
1. Content marketing for awareness
You want to avoid any hard sales pitch at the very top of the sales funnel. Instead, create content that will answer questions that any new visitors to your site, social media, or ads might have.
Make your awareness stage content purely informative. It should be easy to understand, educational, and solve problems. When you offer potential solutions, don’t push yours!
There should be no sales copy and unnecessary brand acknowledgments.
2. SEO and keyword targeting
Research which keywords you should include in your content to rank better in search engine results. You can create content built on and around these keywords through blog posts, articles, how-to videos, and other short-form content (think TikToks and Reels).
This will help your company to be organically discoverable by the buyer persona you’re targeting and help you gain more leads.
3. Social media engagement
Social media is crucial to every modern marketing strategy and indispensable for awareness.
Most times, your ideal buyer will become aware of you via social media, whether that’s something you posted, something someone else posted about you, or an ad you paid for.
Keep your social media updated and relevant, monitor it closely, and engage with your audience in a way faithful to your brand.
Stage 2: Consideration
A. Exploring the consideration stage in-depth
The consideration stage (or the evaluation stage) is where the buyer will use their previous research and look for potential solutions to their problem. They know they have a problem and are looking for a good or service to purchase that will suit their unique needs.
Consideration stage buyers are not quite ready to purchase but are ready to learn more about the benefits and drawbacks of each company they come across.
B. Shaping the buyer’s perception of your brand
At this stage of the journey, the buyers are trying to understand all the available ways of solving their problems. You will have tailored your marketing efforts to your ideal buyer persona or personas, and every new lead that sees your content will be taking note of the following:
The solutions you offer
How you come across
Different benefits and drawbacks that come with your solutions
Prospective customers will already have started forming their perception of your brand from the awareness stage, but the consideration stage is where you can shape that perception most.
C. Providing valuable content to educate and inform
At this stage, you don’t have to be as light-footed as before to funnel conversions but remember that customers are still defining options rather than deciding.
Your sales and marketing efforts should focus on creating content that provides buyers with resources that help them decide which solution is right for them.
This involves understanding exactly how your product or service solves their problem instead of how your direct and indirect competitors would.
Of course, that means you must also know how those competitors are showing up in the marketplace and how they influence prospects’ perceptions.
Some ways to do that include:
1. Creating buyer guides and comparison content
Buyer guides and comparison content are two types of content that give your prospects the information they need about what you offer and are all about explaining.
With comparison content, you answer any questions they may have about how your solution compares to that of your direct competitors.
Remember that you must be authentic with these two forms of content. You can create content that shows how you outshine your competition, but it has to be genuine.
You can end up putting off prospects if you’re putting others down or letting your content feel sales-y or gimmicky because it will feel like a commercial and come across as dishonest.
2. Webinars and educational resources
Content such as webinars and educational resources (e.g., Carousels, eBooks, tips sheets, templates, checklists, guides, and slide shares) is a great way to give your prospects tons of value and showcase your industry authority and expertise.
Create a product that seems so incredible and valuable that people are amazed you’re making it available for free.
You can even require prospects to exchange contact information for these resources, which allows you to keep in touch with them, send them even more valuable content, and nurture them toward becoming a buyer.
3. Testimonials and case studies
Testimonials, reviews, and case studies from actual, existing customers give prospects a way to know that your company is honest, your solutions work, and that what you offer is worth their money.
They are a potent tool in the decision stage, but even at the consideration stage of the buyer’s journey, they are indispensable because they show prospects that you’re worth carrying over to the decision stage.
Stage 3: Decision
A. Defining the decision stage and its critical role
People in the decision stage of the buyer’s journey are ready to purchase. They’ve narrowed down a list of options and want to know why they should settle on a certain brand.
B. Nurturing leads and guiding them towards a purchase decision
This is part of the buyer’s journey where you can finally tout your solution’s benefits! A lot of brands make the mistake of placing all of their sales and marketing efforts into showing people decision-stage ads and web pages when they aren’t ready to see them yet, but a buyer at this point in the journey is a very qualified lead; at any sales team should be eager to contact them.
C. Employing effective conversion strategies
Any good sales process hinges on knowing your unique selling proposition (USP). Effective conversion strategies are only effective because they communicate unique value to customers and set you apart from competitors.
Some ways to do that are:
1. Personalization and targeted offers
Hit them with a special offer. If you aren’t the exclusive vendor of your offering, make it clear why your prospects should buy from you and not a competitor. Offer a discount, satisfaction guarantee, voucher, or offer that adds value to their purchase.
2. Free trials and product demonstrations
Show rather than tell. If applicable, give your prospects a way to try your solution and see if it can solve their problem effectively.
3. Limited-time promotions and discounts
Limited-time promos and discounts add value to the customer’s eyes and give them a sense of urgency to make a purchase decision. Feel free to give them options; the more deals, the better.
Understanding Your Customers Through Data
As always, data is the most powerful resource in understanding and marketing for the buyer’s journey, constructing buyer personas, and informing your marketing plan.
A. The role of data analytics in understanding the buyer’s journey
You’ll need key performance indicators (KPIs) at each stage of the buyer’s journey. These will help you keep track of success and areas that need work.
You’ll also need a solid foundation of relevant data from multiple systems and locations to understand your customers’ behaviors.
Systems include lead management or CRM systems, campaign management platforms, web, and mobile analytics tools, surveys, and points of sale.
Data can be found across first, second, and third-party data sources, some in real-time and some in batches. It’s a lot to keep track of, but all of it is invaluable.
Once you know your sources, you need to map your data ecosystem, find which data is available, and get permission to use the data.
From there, ensure you unify your data across your marketing, sales, and customer experience systems to leverage it best.
B. Leveraging customer insights to optimize the customer experience
The data that you collect will serve as customer insights. Maybe your web analytics show you that customers experience pain points when trying to purchase or seem disinterested in the content you’re producing.
You can use this knowledge to tweak your customer experience and improve the buyer’s journey.
C. Using customer feedback to improve the journey
Welcome customer feedback and use it. You can do this via reviews, follow-up emails, and testimonials. There’s always something to work on!
Keeping Your Audience Engaged Throughout the Journey
The buyer’s journey isn’t just about convincing buyers who match your buyer personas to purchase something from you. It’s about keeping your audience engaged.
You can do this by:
A. Building a cohesive omnichannel experience
As you’ve seen, marketing across the different buyer’s journey stages is an omnichannel approach. You have to put a lot of marketing effort into ensuring that no matter where your audience comes into contact with you, they perceive you how you want to be perceived and that that perception and experience with you is the same everywhere.
This is just one of the ways you can use marketing automation at various points of the buyer’s journey stages to help you achieve this and reduce your marketers’ workload.
B. Using storytelling to connect emotionally with audiences
Marketing is all about telling customers a story. Use your beginnings, goals, motivations, and beliefs to craft your brand’s story, and let it guide how you connect emotionally with your audience.
C. Providing exceptional customer service and support
Exceptional customer service and support go a long way. If a customer sees that you recognized and fixed a pain point, feels that a sales rep listened to and understood them, or enjoyed an easy, breezy customer journey, you might have earned a lifetime customer.
Conclusion
The importance of understanding and optimizing the buyer’s journey
Turning your audience into buyers is no easy feat, but proper marketing is all it takes. If there’s one thing you take away from my ultimate guide, understanding what goes into your audience’s buying process means that you can create a fantastic solution strategy filled with empathy and sets you apart from all the rest.
