Buyer's Journey using Content

by David Jones Digital Marketor

Mapping what you do to the buyer’s journey is essential to its ability to help convert a prospect into a customer. Once you have created a detailed buyer, segment your buyers according to the scenario in which they are traveling to a buying customer. Traditionally a content marketing campaign has a wide top funnel and this is where your customer experience begins. From awareness to purchase, the experience should be enjoyable, which leaves them wanting more.

The key stages a typical buyer goes through are:

Consciousness
Interest
Consideration
Intention
Evaluation
Conversion

A buyer’s journey on B2B usually includes more than one person. Even if it starts with one person, as they progress during the journey the individual grows into a committee and the purchasing decision requires consent. The B2B journey also doesn’t necessarily need to be linear depending on the organizational structure of your buyer.

Baby Steps - Conscious and Interesting Content

Initially, the buyer hasn’t heard of your company, so your content needs to be designed to arouse their curiosity. They don’t tend to adhere to your newsletter subscriber list or email list - they only know about you because of the quality content you’ve created. Creating great content is the first step before you start adding value to your customer. If your business appears in the featured Google tag or is among the top search results in any search engine for your target keyword, you already have an advantage over the competition. Here’s how your content marketing strategy can help tremendously. From the moment the potential customer clicks on your website link, they should be constantly impressed in order for you to build a reputation for providing helpful content.

Optimizing your blog content on SEO, branding and thought guidance is only part of this process. Without unified access to your digital marketing strategies, there will be unavoidable pauses in the buyer’s journey resulting in a fragmented view of your company’s services. Identifying key performance indicators (KPIs) and measuring return on investment is essential at this stage to focus your effort on the content that gives you more clicks and reduces bounce rates. The goal is to measure your gains and losses so that you can change your content marketing strategy accordingly.

Halfway There - Considerable, Intentional and Evaluative Content

Once you’ve aroused their interest, whenever someone sees your brand, they will associate it with an idea of reliability and consider your content a source of helpful information and sometimes even a source of distraction. Social media content has proven to be an effective tactic for B2B marketing. The idea is to be less marketable and more informative on social networking platforms, strengthening your brand. If the number of returning visitors to your site grows and some even join your newsletters, then you are going in the right direction.

Newsletters are a great way to continue the conversation with an interested customer. Use this to your advantage and change your content strategy according to the needs of the buyer at this stage of the journey. Your SEO strategy will also need to be updated at this stage. This is when long-tail keywords will play a more decisive role. In the beginning, your customer was just curious about your product, now they have gathered some knowledge and they want a solution more specific to their needs.

Use analytics to keep track of how many website visitors fill out your lead generation forms and download your booklets, reports, and e-books. Use email marketing to sell the idea of your resources to potential customers. Deck 7 has effectively used these methods in the B2B travel industry although it was one of the most successful industries in 2020. These resources will help you build a relationship with your buyer and gain trust in your business. Your buyer’s intent becomes clearer at this stage and they assess your company’s ability and its ability to serve their needs.

The Final Jump - Conversion Content

This is the point when the marketing team hands over the bat to the sales team. The favorite part of every content marketer is when they were able to create a customer from a passive observer of their content. You have created a smooth journey for your buyers and they trust you enough to start an active conversation with your company at this stage. Your market qualified leads have been generated and it is a crucial time for the buyer. Your buyer most likely has a list of your competitors, with you included, and is trying to decide which solution is best for them. Carefully worded CTAs and well-designed landing pages are absolutely necessary at this stage. Here’s a simple test to check the effectiveness of your landing page - ask someone to see your landing page for five seconds, and tell you what the company has to offer. If they couldn’t figure it out, you might need to simplify your language and design. Offering a free demonstration of your product or service is also a great way to give the buyer a practical example of how your solution can solve their business challenge.

Don’t Stop Here - The Shopping Trip Ends and the Customer Journey Begins

If you’ve brought in buyers so far, you may think you can breathe a sigh of relief, but the task of a content seller isn’t complete yet. It’s a golden opportunity for your company to use your content marketing to build loyalty, enhance your company’s value, and provide personalized content to the customer. Capitalize on the excellent service your company has given to the customer and reap testimonials that recommend the real world benefits of your business to others.