The dawn of the internet brought change to marketing and made growth for small businesses more affordable and attainable. For many decades prior, marketing was focused on top of mind awareness.
The goal was to create ads for your business and show them to as many people as possible. Hoping that once buyers needed your product or service, they would remember your ad and find your business. Marketing budgets were large but the connections formed between brands and buyers were minimal.
Small businesses had a hard time scaling because they were competing with corporations to show their content on the same platform.
Social media opened the door for buyers to control the content they consumed, something that traditional marketing outlets didn’t offer. This combined with the ability to comment on business content gave marketers a new challenge, creating content that is focussed on the buyer’s needs and not the business’s product.
Marketers have shifted their focus from product marketing to content marketing. Brands now focus on creating educational marketing campaigns that meet buyers where they are in a process called the Buyer’s Journey.
Today we are going to learn what the Buyer’s Journey is and how Nick, went through his Buyer’s Journey to sign-up for a membership at his local Crossfit gym, as well as types of content you can create to reach buyer’s at every stage of the journey.
Understanding your audience
What does their daily life look like? By answering these questions now, you will save yourself time and money.
What is the Buyer’s Journey?
The Buyer’s Journey is made up of three stages people go through to learn about their problem, find possible solutions for their problem, and then commit to signing up for or purchasing that solution.
The 3 stages in the Buyer’s Journey:
Awareness Stage – The buyer notices a problem they have and begins to research the problem.
Consideration Stage – The buyer understands the problem and begins searching for solutions.
Conversion Stage – The buyer decides to commit to one solution.
Awareness Stage
He decides to go online and look for what he needs to do to reach this body goal. Nick finds a CrossFit Gym’s website that has an active blog with tons of educational content about at-home workouts. Some of the articles are even written specifically to men his age. He begins to read through articles looking for tips and advice.
- Nick has a goal he wants to reach and desires to learn how he can get there.
- He finds a website with content that aims to educate him on health and fitness while moving him to the consideration phase.
- The website tailored some of its content to be more relatable to Nick by addressing men his age.
Consideration Stage
While on the blog, Nick finds an article that shares the workout routines the gym teaches. He is confident they will help him get back to feeling like he’s young and energetic self. He writes them down and makes a personal commitment to stick to these workout plans. For the first week, Nick is successful in sticking to the plan.
- The CrossFit Gym’s blog strategically directs Nick to informational posts about the services they provide allowing him to access some of the information for himself.
Conversion Stage
The first week started great for Nick, but he began to lose motivation during week two. While on Facebook Nick noticed an ad from the same CrossFit Gym offering a two-day special for class memberships.
He decides to click on it and sees they have a class for adults in his age group. Nick checked the CrossFit Gym’s Google listing and saw a lot of 5-star ratings from existing members. He decides to sign-up for a membership.
- Using a pixel code on their website, the CrossFit Gym retargeted Nick with an ad for a class that he showed interest in.
- Thanks to the gym’s effort of obtaining social proof through testimonials, Nick found assurance in signing up for a monthly membership at the gym.
What can you take away from this?
By understanding that buyers go through a journey before committing to your product or service, you can position your online marketing efforts to educate potential clients and help them determine which service best fits their needs. If the gym would’ve relied solely on selling memberships nick would’ve clicked away from their website and continued his search for answers to how he could improve his overall fitness.
“Content marketing costs 62% less than traditional marketing and generates about 3 times as many leads.” [Source: Neil Patel]
Here are some examples of the content you can create for each stage of the Buyer’s Journey:
Awareness Stage:
At this stage, you are speaking to the problem, not the solution or product you are selling. By creating educational content you are starting their journey off right while showing brand authority. If you aren’t sure what types of questions your audience is asking, use the MOZ keyword research tool and filter by “are questions.”
Educational blog posts, videos, or social media posts
- Updating your blog with informational posts weekly will also help you improve your search engine rankings. If you aren’t confident in your blog writing, you can use writing services like
- “Videos will represent 80 per cent of all Internet traffic by 2021” [Source: Cisco]
- Be intentional about creating videos specific to the platform you are posting on. While Youtube videos perform better in the 3-5 minute range, social media platforms like Facebook see a dramatic drop off in audience retention after 20-30 seconds.
Infographics
- Infographics are a great opportunity to share step by step guides for your audience. You will see a higher share rate among infographics than you will with the traditional copy. Share your infographic on social platforms Pinterest and Facebook.
Trend/Industry updates
- Trends are constantly changing, especially for businesses in the Health and Wellness industry. By sharing trend updates you are educating your audience and establishing credibility by being a resource for new information. Creating this content can be as simple as a 45-second iPhone video on Facebook.
Consideration Stage:
At this stage, you are introducing the products/services you offer with the primary focus of sharing the solutions they provide. Just like the Awareness Stage, you are not selling your actual products.
Product Demos
- Facebook and Instagram live do not get used enough by businesses. Plan a day to go live on both platforms and show your products or services in action. Engage with the viewers that watch and open the floor for questions or concerns they may have.
Informational Posts
- Create informational posts on social media sharing the benefits of the products or services you provide.
Testimonials
- “93% of consumers say online reviews impact their purchasing decisions.” Don’t miss out on the opportunity to display your raving reviews on your website and throughout your social media posts.
Conversion Stage:
Social Media Influencers
- People enjoy being a part of things. If they see multiple influencers online promoting your products, they are more likely to become a customer themselves.
An ad with a time-sensitive offer/rate
- Add a sense of urgency to your promotions and let people know you are offering them a deal you can’t keep open year-round. They would be foolish to not cash in on this offer.
Testimonial ads with booking/appointment Call to Action
- “68 per cent of consumers will form an opinion about your local business after reading just 1-6 online reviews.” (Revlocal) Still not sold on the importance of testimonials? Look at testimonials as the internet’s version of word-of-mouth marketing. People trust other people more than they trust a brand they are new to. Testimonials will increase your conversion rate and reduce the money you need to spend on marketing.
Congratulations! You are ready to create content that catches your audience’s attention, educates them, and nurtures them into converting to your business. Complete the free Buyer’s Journey worksheet provided to craft engaging content at every level of the Buyer’s Journey.
Author Bio: A pioneer in the digital marketing space, Colby Flood is the Owner at Brighter Click. He started his career as a Marketing Director in the Nonprofit sector, before moving on to start his own business. Driven by a mission to increase giving, Colby is best known for inspiring businesses to connect with Nonprofits that align with their core values.