The Buyer’s Journey – Understand it and Serve your People

To successfully market to your target audience you first need to understand the three stages your customers go through in the buying process.

This is often called the buyer’s journey, which is the marketer’s shortened version of the hero’s journey, the template almost every good story is based upon …

Once the buyer’s journey is understood, it becomes easy to target your marketing to your ideal customer because you know the stages they go through and you can tailor your content and marketing pieces accordingly …

And lead your customers to the right solution for them, aka your products or services …

It makes perfect sense and you’ve probably been doing some version of this without realising it.

Breaking Down the Buyer’s Journey

We can break the buyer’s journey down into three main sections:

• Awareness of the problem and the need to find the right solution
• Research into what’s available out there to solve their problem
• The decision to purchase based on the research they did in step two

By understanding which stage of the buyer’s journey your customers are in, you can offer just the right content to educate, inform and inspire them to move forward to the next stage …

And if you know your target audience well, and of course you do or you can’t market to them effectively, you can position your product or service as the perfect solution to their problem …

Sounds Complicated? Not At All!

If that sounds complicated it really isn’t …

As I said before, you’ve most likely already been doing this intuitively in some capacity …

Now we’re just tweaking the process for better results.

Isn’t that what marketing is all about?

If you look at things from the perspective of the buyer, you’ll be able to understand what they need and want, and whether they’re even aware of your product or service as the solution to their problem.

Buyer’s Journey Stage One: Awareness

This is the initial stage where the buyer is aware they have a problem, but unaware of the solutions to that problem.

This is where you can position your product or service by educating and informing your buyer, and leading them through the buying journey to the inevitable conclusion.

So your content, in all its forms, is easier to create because you already know who it’s aimed at and what it has to do.

Using different forms of content such as articles and videos will ensure you capture the attention of more potential customers.

Buyer’s Journey Stage Two: Research

Your buyer now wants to find the perfect solution to their problem, so they start to do some research into what’s available.

You want to publish valuable content regularly with good SEO so when people search for the solution to their problem they’ll quickly see that you have what they need.

Check forums and social media feeds to find out what people want, and the search terms they’re using to find it online.

After that it’s easy to create content for your target audience …

Buyer’s Journey Stage Three: The Decision

If you’ve done your job well you’ve made it easy for your buyer to purchase from you.

They’re now well educated about their problem and in the best position to make an informed decision about what to buy.

Of course, you know your audience, they’re problems and pain points, and what keeps them up at night …

And perhaps you’ve already established the know, like and trust factor with them.

If you have, well done, your customers will keep coming back for more.

If you haven’t, there’s still time. Get to know those you serve – your tribe – your target market – and serve them well …

That’s why you’re in business.

 

Keep the Faith