Understanding the Buyer's Journey from a Content Marketing Perspective

In a 2023 Semrush survey The 2023 State of Global Content Marketing Report, an overwhelming percentage (97%) of the content marketers interviewed reported achieving some degree of success with content marketing.?

What made them successful, you ask? The answer has little to do with pushing sales agendas within content as seen in virtually every blog post, article, and video published today. Instead, it has more to do with these companies creating and distributing valuable content, documenting their content strategy, and measuring marketing ROI.

In this post, we’ll focus on the buyer’s journey as an important element in content marketing.

Key Takeaways

• Buyers have become accustomed to hundreds of ads shoved right in their face and will tend to resist even the slightest form of marketing weaved into content.
• Turn your content marketing efforts to genuinely helping rather than aggressively selling.
• By helping consumers find the information that they need at every stage, you’re giving them a reason to consider your products and services when they finally make their decision.

What is the Buyer’s Journey in Marketing?

The buyer’s journey defines the process your prospects take to become customers. When people have problems, they find solutions. Often, these solutions can be provided by your product or services.

Did you know? That more than half the buyer’s journey is already completed before prospects get in touch with your company’s sales department?

That’s right. People don’t just call sales when they need to buy something. A lot more goes on in the background, like figuring out what the problem is and weighing all possible solutions before choosing the best provider. And content plays a central role in shaping the buyer’s decision-making process.

If you wrote down all the steps your prospect’s take - from identifying their problem, to looking for solutions and finally choosing to buy your company’s products and services - then, what you would have just defined is the buyer’s journey.

It is worth noting that the buyer’s journey is different from the customer journey. The buyer’s journey follows people (prospects) who may or may not know about your company’s existence. On the other hand, the customer journey starts with a buying customer that has interacted with your company before and bought your products and services.

Note: Notice the difference between the two terms: prospect and customer. By divorcing the terms prospect and customer, we’re able to discern that the buyer’s journey is pre-sales while the customer journey happens after your prospect buys from you.

Stages of the Buyer’s Journey

Shifting focus to the buyer’s journey, it includes three stages: awareness, consideration, and decision.

Awareness Stage

At the awareness stage, consumers know that they have a problem that needs solving. They don’t yet have a firm grasp of the nature of their problem, hence put more time into research to learn as much as they can.

Here’s an example of a prospect in the awareness stage: James is a junior programmer. He spends hours staring at his bright computer screen while at work. Recently, he noticed that his vision is getting blurry and that his head aches for no clear reason.

Although our prospect James knows the problem, he can’t point a finger at its origin yet. So, he does his research and looks for the potential causes of his vision problem. For starters, James will go over to Google and type in “blurry vision on computer screen.”

And that takes us to the second stage.

Consideration Stage

In this stage, the prospect now knows more about their problem. And solving it is their primary objective. As a content marketer, you can help them achieve this objective by providing information in your company’s blog.

Going back to James, he now knows more about his vision problem. He knows that he’s suffering from digital eye strain. James also knows that there exists several potential solutions to digital eye strain worth consideration. For instance, his research may have led him to computer glasses; a product your company sells.

After weighing the hundreds of potential solutions, the prospect selects the best solution and provider that suits their needs.

Decision Stage

At this stage, prospects have done all their research. They have selected the best product/service that best suits their needs.?

It is in this stage that salespeople come in to clear any obstructions, doubts, or objections that may push the potential buyer away from the company’s offering.

Different companies have different processes for their buyers’ journey. It is the content creator’s job to understand the intricacies of their company’s buyer journey and devise content that connects intimately with the buyer’s thought process.

Applying the Buyer’s Journey in Content Marketing

Now comes the fun part!

Understanding people’s behavior as they discover and address their challenges with specific product/service solutions enables content creators to shape buying decisions with the right content delivered at the right time.

Content rules the digital marketing realm today, where over 60% of purchases occur online. As such, content creators are tasked with the most important role yet - creating valuable content for potential buyers at each stage of the buyer’s journey.

Here’s how to create content that drives customer action at each stage of the buyer’s journey:

Creating Content for Buyers in the Awareness Stage

Here, we know that buyers are becoming aware of their problem. They’re looking for more information about:

• The potential causes of the problem.
• The possible signs of the problem.
• The impact of the problem in their daily life.
• Coping mechanisms before finding a permanent solution.
• Potential solutions.

What they’re not looking for is sales copy that aggressively tells them to buy products and services with urgency. Many buyers will avoid content with obvious signs of marketing in content. Instead, they will look for genuine help.

In our previous case, James will be looking for information about why his eyes hurt and what this means for his future health. You can help him by creating blog posts around this problem. Possible blog topics to add to your content calendar include:

• Why do my eyes hurt when staring at a computer screen?
• Does staring too long at computer screens cause blindness?
• Does digital eye strain cause permanent damage?
• Will digital eye strain go away?

Creating content that addresses the prospect’s need for information at the awareness stage wins. Remember, the buyer isn’t ready to make a purchase just yet!

Creating Content for Buyers in the Consideration Stage

At this point, James already knows a reasonable deal about his challenges and the need to address them. He knows that his eyes hurting and head aching after prolonged exposure to computer screens is a sign of digital eye strain, and that it can be eased by anti-blue light computer glasses.

You can help James weed out unsuitable solutions by creating blog posts, product reviews, and how-to videos under the following proposed topics:

• Best computer glasses
• Pros and cons of different computer glasses
• How to ease digital eye strain with various methods, one including your brand’s product

Any information that can help your prospects filter out good solutions from the unsuitable ones can help nudge them toward buying from your company. At this stage, remember that most buyers will still not be ready to make their purchase.

Instead, they only want to gather as much information as they need about what options they have and weigh it for the next stage.

Creating Content for Buyers at the Decision Stage

At this stage, the ice has already been broken and the word is out in the open. Your company’s products and services are a viable solution for the buyer’s problems.

They have never been this close to buying from your company. However, there are several hurdles that must be addressed before you hand them over to sales.

First, there could be unclear reasons why your product is different from the rest. For instance, in our previous example, if James believes that all computer glasses are made the same, he may need a little convincing; perhaps by mentioning a patent anti-blue light technology that only exists in your brand’s computer glasses.

Other content that can be used to convince buyers about the product as the solution to the problem include:

• Case studies - these showcase a real-life story of how your customers were able to successfully solve their challenges with your product or service.
• How to guides that include using your product or service, with more visual content to demonstrate how it works
• PR content that highlights your brand as a respected leader in your industry. It may also include places where your company has been featured as the provider of a worthwhile solution to the problem.

Don’t forget to add a compelling call to action in your decision stage content, to tell your audience what you want them to do next.

Conclusion

So, there you have it. Thinking about the buyer’s journey when creating content for your audience is a sure way to get it right and address their needs, shaping their moves at every touch point leading up to the moment they become buying customers.

Erick M. is a content-focused marketing services provider helping businesses turn their websites into virtual storefronts.