The one trait all successful businesses have in common is the desire to understand their customers. They learn what their customers buy, why they buy, and how they find companies to buy from. This process is referred to as the buyer’s journey.
Your digital marketing should guide customers on a buyer’s journey to your website. However, defining and directing the buyer’s journey can feel like an overwhelming challenge. That’s why you must learn the basic steps. Only then can you create a rewarding journey for you and your customers.
Defining the Buyer’s Journey
The term “buyer’s journey” has become market babble. Everyone has their interpretation of what it means. Successful digital marketers define it a certain way, though. They describe it as the journey your customer takes that starts with awareness and ends in a purchase.
In most cases, the buyer’s journey gets broken into four steps:
- Awareness
- Interest
- Consideration
- Decision
Your challenge is to find a way to connect with your buyers every step along the way. Luckily, this is a lot easier than you might think.
Create a Journey to Match Your Buyer
When you go hiking, different trails are marked with various difficulty levels. As a result, hikers journey down a path that matches their desired exertion level, fitness, and the length of time they want to hike.
It’s similar when it comes to creating a buyer’s journey. There is no one-size solution that is going to fit every customer. Before defining your buyer’s journey, you must know your target customers. What are the pain points that encourage them to buy or visit your site?
Factors to consider include:
- Gender
- Age
- Family Life
- Income Level
- Values
- Level of Education
- Location
- Interest
What if you don’t know who your ideal customers are? Well, start with your product and then work going backward. What does your product offer customers? Write down all the benefits your customers receive.
For example, say you are opening a hardware store. No doubt you’ll be happy with whoever chooses to purchase from you. Yet, your ideal customer should be someone who works in construction or looking to do a home repair.
Creating Your Buyer’s Journey
Take a look at the steps discussed below. Each stage will play a role in your prospective buyer’s journey.
1. Awareness
It starts with your buyer recognizing they have a problem. After that, they become aware that your product may be the solution.
There is a pain point resulting in your buyer searching for a solution. They may not have identified the problem. However, they are searching on the Internet for answers to their symptoms.
At this stage, you’re in control. You can use tools to your advantage to attract customers. Guides, blog posts, and social ads are all examples of educational content. Appropriate content should explain the symptoms and help them diagnose the problem.
If you’re not sure where to start, there are companies that supply content marketing services. For example, Intergrowth uses effective content marketing techniques that target customers.
2. Interest
Once you diagnose the problem, the buyer starts to do their initial research. They want to gather more information on possible solutions. When that happens, they may turn to you. So, you should have your guides, videos, blog posts, and articles ready during this stage.
3. Consideration
The consideration stage is vital. The buyer now knows what the problem is and wants to solve it. They consider how to solve it in the best way possible.
Here is where you convince them that your solution is the best. During this stage, your content marketing should include things like:
- Demos
- Blog posts
- Testimonials
- Webinars
All these forms of content marketing will set you apart from the competition.
4. Decision
At this point, the buyer is ready to purchase. They have their credit card in their hand, ready to make the final decision. Your job is to overcome any objections they might have. If price is a factor, give limited-time discounts. They may be considering buying from your competitor. Create a comparison list that highlights your unique value if you feel that’s the case.
Most buyers don’t buy something based on logic. So it’s better to have an emotional component to your marketing. Connecting with a customer through emotion compels them to buy. And, hopefully, that means you’ll have a repeat customer moving forward!
Conclusion
Just about every brand does an excellent job on the awareness step. Where they fail is in the other three stages. Having a firm grasp of how your buyer moves through the sales funnel is critical.
Getting the hang of all the stages enables you to create compelling content. By doing that, you ensure that their end destination is always your site!