Delighting Customers at Every Stage of the Buyer's Journey

Information for this blog was obtained at sproutsocial.com moz.com and hubspot.com.

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Consumers are more informed and empowered than ever before. It’s important to deeply understand your buyer persona and the journey they make so you can create content that helps them along that journey. A marketing funnel is a path that your customers travel through. From the initial stages when someone learns about your business, to the purchasing stage, marketing funnels map routes to conversion and beyond.

With careful analysis, a marketing funnel lets you know what your company must do to influence consumers at a certain stage. How you tell the story that creates momentum to transition your potential customers through their buying stages and positions you as an authority in your field.

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The Awareness Stage

In the beginning stage, the buyer thinks they have a problem to solve. At this point, they may not even know what the problem is or, or how they are going to solve it. They are looking to educate themselves about the issues, discover opportunities available, and understand the problem itself.

In this phase, often customers will word their search as a question around a particular topic. They are looking for answers, resources, education, research data, opinions, and insight, There are always options for solving every problem, buyers will be looking to learn about best practices and innovative possibilities.

This initial touchpoint is not the time for a hard pitch of your product or services. The goal is to offer value and support. This information should be valuable enough that potential customers remember your brand and seek more information on who you are.

In this stage, the marketer asks “How do we attract and engage this person so they become a customer?” The format that you use should consist of search engine marketing, blogging, social media, white papers, e-books, videos, and webinars. Use your expertise to create conversations that form meaningful relationships with the right people (Sellers). Content in this stage should be easy to find and consume.

Consideration Stage

As potential customers continue through the marketing funnel, they begin to look for more specific information. The potential consumer has defined their problem or opportunity and has begun to look for potential solutions to help solve the issue they face. After your potential buyer has enough information to decide to take action, they begin doing heavy research and evaluating whether or not your product or service is a good fit for them.

In this stage the marketer wants their content to align with the customer’s pain points and goals. You should focus on building a lasting relationship by providing insight and solutions. You need to set yourself apart from the competition and show the customer why you are the best fit. You might consider formatting your content as E-mail marketing, re-targeting or re-marketing, and social media.

Decision Stage

Consumers are ready to buy at this stage and are often doing product or vendor comparisons, looking at reviews, and searching for pricing information. The buyer wants to know in-depth about your company's values, stability, and customer service behavior. They want to get a feel for what it will be like to work with your company, moving forward.

In most cases, leads at the bottom of your funnel just need that final nudge, a compelling call-to-action to get them to make a purchase decision. The right offer (discounts or free shipping) and content at this stage can have a dramatic impact on lifting your conversions (Sellers).

The ideal channels for the decision stage and beyond are; E-mail marketing, re-targeting and re-marketing, live chat and chatbots, and loyalty programs. Continue to build valuable content and nurture your existing customer relationships. Make it easy for customers to share their stories and advocate for your brand. Allow customers to share reviews or testimonials on your website.

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Marketing shouldn’t stop once someone becomes a customer. Cultivating a relationship with your customer beyond the sale can lead to higher customer lifetime value as well as word-of-mouth referrals. The key here is to go above and beyond to provide a customer experience that’s easy and frictionless.

Every business has a unique sales funnel, sculpted and designed around its buyer’s unique journey. In an increasingly competitive online space, you should try and find ways to diversify and bring people into your marketing funnel (which in most cases is your website) at different stages. (Kay) Investing in every stage of the funnel will keep your marketing from feeling overly sales-focused and will help you build brand awareness and trust.

Resources

Aboulhosn, Sarah. “How to Build a Social Media Marketing Funnel That Converts.” Sprout Social, 14 Sept. 2021, https://sproutsocial.com/insights/social-media-marketing-funnel/

Kay, Matthew. “Evolving Keyword Research to Match Your Buyer's Journey.” Moz, https://moz.com/blog/keyword-research-to-match-buyers-journey

Sellers, Amanda. “How to Create Content for Every Stage of the Buyer's Journey.” HubSpot Blog, 9 June 2021, https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/content-for-every-funnel-stage