Creating content for each buying stage offers several benefits, such as gaining more customers, generating leads, building authority, and improving your website’s rankings in Google search results. By using the buyer’s journey to guide your strategy, your content will actually speak to what your audience needs or wants rather than just guessing.
Here are the most effective ways to create content for each buying stage so you can gain a greater return on your investment.
Why Buying Stages Matter
In general, the buyer’s journey has four stages: awareness, interest, consideration, and decision. Keep in mind that this isn’t always the case for every business — your product or service may have more stages.
- Awareness: The customer becomes aware of a problem or need
- Interest: They seek out information to find a solution
- Consideration: They evaluate specific products or services
- Decision: They make a decision on what to buy
Additionally, prospects often don’t go through these stages in a linear progression and will jump between stages or may skip some stages entirely.
The buying stages simply help to
organize a strategy and ensure that the content is consistent, relevant, and valuable throughout the prospect’s problem-solving process.
Content For Each Buying Stage
Every piece of content you produce should be tailored to a particular buying stage. However, make sure to have enough content for each stage so you’re able to
effectively engage a prospect no matter which buying stage they’re at.
See how you can create content for each buying stage so you can reach and convert more leads:
Awareness Content
Create high-level, educational content for the awareness stage. Since prospects typically conduct research at this stage, don’t focus on products or even solutions just yet.
Instead, frame their problem in a way that aligns with your value proposition and general messaging. Awareness content should build your brand’s credibility and make you appear as an authority within your industry.
- Blog Posts: Provide valuable information about industry trends, common problems, and high-level solutions.
- Infographics: Visually appealing content that highlights key statistics and insights.
- Social Media Posts: Shareable content that can reach a broad audience, including tips, inspirational stories, and quick facts.
- Videos: Short, engaging videos that explain concepts, introduce industry topics, or tell a compelling story.
Interest Content
At the interest stage, prospects have a basic understanding of their problem so your content should explain the solutions available to them. “How to” content is commonly used at this stage.
When creating interest content, make sure to continue developing brand credibility and describe the solutions in a way that connects to your specific products/services.
- E-books and Guides: In-depth content that provides detailed information and insights.
- Webinars: Live or recorded sessions that delve into specific topics, allowing for interaction and questions.
- Success Stories: Real-life examples showcasing how problems were solved using specific solutions.
- Podcasts: Episodes discussing relevant topics, featuring industry experts.
Consideration Content
Now that the prospect is at the consideration stage of evaluating products/services, the content should bridge your product/service value propositions to the solutions and challenges discussed in previous content.
Furthermore, consideration content should explain and highlight how your solutions work and what benefits your product/service offers. Back up your claims by using real customer quotes and results.
- Comparison Guides: Side-by-side comparisons of different products or services.
- Detailed Case Studies: In-depth analysis of how a solution has been successfully implemented.
- Product Demonstrations: Videos or live demos showing the product in action.
- Free Trials/Consultations: Offers that allow potential customers to experience the product or service firsthand.
Decision Content
Content for the final buying stage should provide reassurance and the final push to convert prospects into customers. Additionally, it can help customers get more value from their purchase and realize how additional investments would produce an even greater return, all while making them feel valued and appreciated.
Decision content should strengthen customer relationships, help customers use your product/service more effectively, create brand ambassadors, drive repeat business, and generate interest in additional or upgraded solutions.
- Testimonials and Reviews: User-generated content that builds trust.
- FAQs and Knowledge Bases: Detailed answers to common questions to alleviate any last-minute doubts.
- Special Offers: Discounts, promotions, or limited-time offers to encourage purchase.
- Detailed Product Information: Comprehensive details about the product/service, including specifications and benefits.
Craft Content for Your Buyer's Journey
Tailoring content for each stage of the buying process is crucial for
engaging potential customers throughout the sales funnel. With the right content strategy, businesses can effectively attract leads and guide them from awareness to decision, ultimately increasing conversions and building stronger customer relationships.
This post was originally published in June 2020 and has been updated for accuracy and comprehensiveness.