Targeted content is an increasingly important part of a comprehensive digital marketing strategy. Content strategists plan, create, and distribute content along the buyer’s journey. What exactly is the buyer’s journey?
This article will answer that question and help you decide what content is best for each stop along the buyer’s journey as well as Digital Marketing Certification helps you with a good understanding of the buyer’s journey and how it pertains to the consumers you are attempting to attract.
A Brief Overview of the Buyer’s Journey in Content Marketing
Equal parts psychology, sociology, and advertising, the buyer’s journey is like a map that digital marketers use to plot out the path that customers take as they realize they have a problem, start searching for solutions, and ultimately decide what business to patronize.
This map helps content marketers position their targeted content in designated areas so that their audience intercepts it when searching for solutions to their problems on the internet or while browsing social media.
When done correctly, targeted content positioned along the buyer’s journey funnels customer intent and purchasing power toward your website—usually through blog posts or videos. Once they arrive at your website, they’ve been primed by your content and are ready to convert.
What Are the Steps Along the Path of the Buyer’s Journey?
Different marketing agencies have debated the exact number of steps in the buyer’s journey. There were initially three distinct phases—awareness, consideration, and decision.
However, content strategists have discussed the importance of adding post-purchase steps that lead to re-purchase. Others insist that there are steps in between the original three—like placing an “interest” stage in-between “awareness” and “consideration.”
To avoid getting bogged down by academic theory, it’s important to remember that maps are only representations and not what they aim to represent. The buyer’s journey isn’t a literal pathway, but it helps marketers understand the psychological steps a customer takes when deciding to purchase a product, good, or service.
For our purposes, the buyer’s journey we are concerned with is the simpler, original three-stage version.
Awareness
This stage is the beginning of the buyer’s journey. It is often represented as the top part of the marketing funnel. They start this journey lacking something. At this stage, your role is to produce informative content that educates the buyer about potential solutions that can resolve their discomfort.
During this stage, the buyer may not be aware that they need a solution, or have any idea what that solution might look like. This stage is all about education—the buyer becomes aware through your strategically positioned content that there are solutions to their problem.
Types of Awareness Content
- General, Informative Blog Posts
- eBooks
- General, Informative Videos
- Podcasts
- Industry Reports
- Social Media Posts
- Google Ads
The content produced for this stage is not “advertorial.” If fact, advertorial content comes off as pushy and inappropriate during this stage. This is because advertorial content doesn’t respond to the buyer’s intent. At this stage, they are looking for answers to questions. Not products, goods, or services. The most you’ll want to do is associate your business’s brand with solutions. You want to come across as a source of authority on the issue.
Consideration
This is the middle stage of the buyer’s journey and is usually represented as the middle of the marketing funnel. The buyer enters this stage with a clearly defined problem which they have defined through their research during the awareness phase. Now they must explore solutions to their problem.
The buyer will further explore the issues that surround their problem. This means the best kind of content for this stage of the buyer’s journey is case-specific content, expert guides or interviews, product demos, or more specific blog posts or videos.
Types of Consideration Content
- More Specific Blog Posts
- More Specific Videos
- Podcast Interviews
- Comparison-Oriented Content
- Case Study-Oriented Content
- Product Demonstrations
- Webinars
- Convention Demonstrations
- FAQs
This content shouldn’t come across as advertorial, but—by its very nature of being hyperfocused on one aspect or because it deals with an expert opinion—it can’t help but have some sort of bias toward any potential solutions.
Decision
It’s decision time! This stage can be found at the bottom of marketing funnels. At this stage, your content needs to be primarily concerned with why your brand offers the best solution to the buyer’s problems. The decision phase is all about distinction. Why is your brand different? Why is your business’s solution uniquely suited to the buyer’s needs?
Types of Decision Content
- How-To Tutorials
- Customer Product Reviews and Testimonials
- Customer Support Testimonials
- Competitor Comparisons
- Free Trials
- Guest Contributors on Your Blog From Authority Sources
The kind of content associated with this stage is technically the most advertorial, but it shouldn’t seem that way. Well-crafted content will help the buyer realize that they came to their conclusion on their own—with perhaps a little help from your content.
What Are Some Key Takeaways of The Buyer’s Journey?
We have explored the buyer’s journey in its original sense. How can you use it to enhance your content marketing strategy? Here are some key takeaways:
- Maps are not the things they represent—only representations of them. Each customer will have unique psychology and various reasons for making their buying decision. You can’t possibly account for all customer variations, but you can more broadly devise content that generally speaks to most consumers.
- There isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution to your marketing woes. Some businesses will benefit heavily from blogging or a YouTube channel, while others would be wasting money on this kind of marketing channel.
- Your website is the primary interface customers will have with your business’s brand at all stages of the buyer’s journey. All your content needs to funnel consumers back to your website.
- For businesses that benefit from blogs, blogging has practical applications at all stages of the buyer’s journey—whether by educating potential customers on possible solutions or defining one specific solution through an expert interview.
With these insights in mind, you can craft better-targeted content and drive new leads to your business.
Roni Davis is a writer, blogger, content strategist, and legal assistant operating out of the greater Philadelphia area. She writes for Todd Mosser, a criminal appeals attorney in Pittsburgh, PA.