Struggling to get leads let alone clients that become your raving fans?
You’re putting your marketing out there but it’s not making the impact you want it to.
You need to understand your buyer’s journey.
In this blog, I’ll share with you what it is, what’s going on inside the head of your potential client at each stage, what content you need to create for each stage so you can turn strangers into clients and ultimately your raving fans.
Sound good?
Fab!
Let’s get started.
What is your buyer’s journey?
It’s everything you do to take them from never having heard of you (total stranger) to them telling the world how FAB you are (Raving fan).
Why create a buyer’s journey and have different content for each stage?
Creating the right content for each stage of the buyer’s journey means you can have more effective marketing.
Think of each stage of the journey as a way of bringing them closer to you. Using your content.
Which means, the content you create for each stage has an important part to play.
You want your content to:
- Attract better qualified leads and clients
- Make your website do more of the work for you
- Build better relationships with your audience
- Inspire your audience that you’re the one for them
- Give you higher conversion rates and happier clients
What does a buyer’s journey look like?
It’s a good idea to break it down into stages and to consider the specific stages people go through before they buy.
I don’t know you unaware
Aware of you awareness
Considering buying from you consideration
Decision made decision
Happy with their purchase retain
Raving fans advocates
Here’s what the buyer’s journey looks like in a handy-dandy picture with your ideal client at the centre of it all:)
Your objectives for each stage of our buyer’s journey and what content to use
Let’s have a closer look at each of the stages of the buyer’s journey, and discover what your objectives are and what type of content works best.
Stage 1: Awareness
Your objective: Get traffic to your website
At this stage, your potential client has a pain point, a problem, a need or a want, etc. and they’re starting to search online for solutions.
For example: they want to know how to write a sales page, they want wallpaper ideas for their bedroom, want to know what plants to put in their garden, holiday ideas for families with toddlers etc
Your potential client is probably unaware of you and your business. They’re focusing on finding an answer, a solution, a point in the right direction.
This stage is about making them aware you exist.
How powerful would it be if they associated the problem they have with the solution you offer?
How do they find you?
Put blogs onto your website with titles that relate to what they’re typing into Google (other search engines are available).
Drive traffic to your blogs using social media.
How to use Blog titles to build awareness
These tend to be blogs with titles that start with “How to….”, “What is…”, “Why…” and “What to…”
- How to write a sales page
- How to replace a broken chain on a mountain bike
- How to get more visitors to your website
- What is the quickest way to build your email list?
- What is the best free email automation software?
- What is the difference between captions and subtitles?
- Why does my bike chain keep slipping?
- Why do I need a website?
- What to plant in your garden if your soil is rocky.
- What to consider when going on holiday with a toddler.
- What to do to your walls before you put up wallpaper.
What other types of content work well to build awareness?
- Posts on social media – share posts that are useful and helpful
- Ebooks
- Slideshares
- Videos
- Useful curated content
Stage 2: Consideration
Your objective: Get leads
Your potential client has been collecting information and doing their research. Not only on you but your competitors and they’re weighing up their options.
This is where you use your content to stand out from the competition.
What type of content helps them with their decision and makes you stand out?
At this stage in the buyer’s journey they’re looking at content that answers more specific questions so offer:
- A Newsletter / Lead Magnet
- A demo or a free trial
- Blogs
Newsletter / Lead magnet
A newsletter or a lead magnet where they give you their email address and you send them useful and helpful content to their inbox.
A demo or a free trial
Let them try out your product or service for themselves before they buy.
Blogs
Blogs that answers their questions around:
Cost
You can talk about costs:
- Related to your product or service
- Within your industry and where you sit within it
- For your different products or services
- And why you’re more expensive or cheaper than others
Problems
Each industry has them. Real or perceived so talk about them in your blogs.
Talk about a problem within your industry for example there’s lots of website designers. Why are you different?
Comparisons
Your potential client will be looking at their options. This one or that one?
Help them out.
- Compare your product or service directly with another business.
- Compare the different solutions available to your potential client. Let’s use the washing machine example. You could compare different brands of washing machines.
Best of
Your potential client is looking for the best so you can be sure they’ll search for the best product or service.
Here’s some examples: best umbrellas for under £20, best washing machines, best website designers in Newcastle.
Reviews
Review products and services that are similar to yours. Sounds scary doesn’t it? But by giving your potential client the information they’re searching for they’re going to remember you.
And if you’re ever too busy and you can’t take them on as clients you’ve got this content to refer them to. How helpful and useful are you?
Case studies and Testimonials
They’re going to want to know what others have to say about you. Social proof helps them decide so be sure to include it on your website. Sprinkle testimonials through your sales pages.
Stage 3. Decision
Your Objective: Get sales
It can be easy to forget to ask for the sale or to make it easy for your potential client to buy from you.
Tell them where, how and when they can buy from you.
This could be:
- Via your sales page
- An order-form
- By giving you a call
Is getting the sale the end of the buyer’s journey?
It’s certainly time to celebrate but the buyer’s journey doesn’t end with the sale.
To complete the buyer’s journey your goal is to convert a stranger into a buyer AND a raving fan.
The journey ain’t over yet.
The journey with your new client continues with support and engagement.
Make sure your client is not only satisfied with your product or service but with you and your business.
By keeping the journey going, you’re making more of an impact on them and this helps the client’s experience with you.
Stage 4. Retention
Your Objective: Happy clients
Stages three and four work closely together. This is where you continue to nurture and build your relationship with your client.
They’re no longer a stranger so you’ve succeeded to get this far. Hurrah!
Remember your ultimate goal is to turn them into a raving fan.
People that will shout about you from the roof tops. In a good way.
What content can you create to turn your new client into your raving fan?
- Emails
- Lumpy mail
- Offer another product or service (when the time is right!)
Emails
Send them emails that answers questions they want answers to such as information that helps them to use your product or service successfully or help with niggling problems that crop up for them.
Recently I bought software to schedule my content to Twitter.
The company sent me an email with lots of top tips to getting started. Fab!
And every week I get an email with a link to a blog showing and explaining how to do more cool stuff their software can do.
For your new client, talk to them like one human being to another and make them feel special, welcome and really chuffed they’ve bought from you.
Use lumpy mail
Pop a card in the post to thank them for buying from you.
Offer another product or service (when the time is right!)
It’s said it’s easier to sell to a current client than to find and sell to a new one.
When the time is right you can make your offer of another product or service.
Become their go to person for information and products or services they want and need.
And be sure to wow them – Every. Single. Time.
Stage 5. Advocacy
Your Objective: Create raving fans
You ultimately want clients to become loyal to your brand so they talk about you on social media and to their family and friends.
Word of mouth marketing is so powerful isn’t it?
- 92% of potential buyers look for social recommendations before buying.
- 76% of people say they’re more likely to trust content shared by “normal” people.
- Word of mouth marketing, drives 4 times better results than paid media.
Your raving fans are important.
What they give you is social proof. The reviews, testimonials and feedback you can use on social media, your website, your sales pages etc as evidence to help potential leads and clients when they’re doing their research.
Have a system in place to collect this valuable social proof from them.
There you have it.
The 5 stages of your buyer’s journey and how your content plays its part to turn strangers into your raving fans.
In summary:
- Understanding your buyer’s journey helps you to map out the content to take them from stranger to raving fan.
- The buyer’s journey doesn’t end when they buy from you.
- Your raving fans will bring people to you.
- Always be sharing different content for each of the stages to create your consistent flow of clients.
- The right content for each stage of the buyer’s journey means you can have more effective marketing.
More Resources
How to answer “What do you do?” so your audience wants what you offer
Why you should stop worrying about marketing and do this instead
How to create your 12 months marketing plan to support your business objectives and goals
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