Content is still king. There’s no getting around that. In fact, it’s hard to go about your day without coming into contact with some sort of content marketing. Whether you’re a B2B or a B2C marketer, it’s imperative that you have good, quality content to attract the interest of prospects so you can convert them into leads and then customers. The question is this: how do you use that content to take buyers through every step of their journey and convert them into loyal customers?
The Buyer’s Journey
There are several different versions of the buyer’s journey and the marketing funnel, but they mostly consist of the same three basic stages: Awareness (top of the funnel), Consideration (middle of the funnel), and Decision (bottom of the funnel). There are multiple steps and subcategories within those three stages, but for our purposes, let’s concentrate on these main three categories for now.
Awareness: Top of the Funnel
In the top of the funnel, the buyer is in the awareness stage of their journey. They have some pain point that needs to be addressed, some issue that needs to be solved, but they aren’t looking to buy just yet. The point here is to introduce yourself as a trustworthy brand by providing valuable, educational content. Content in the awareness stage is pretty flexible. Blog posts, social content, and ebooks are all great examples of top of the funnel content. If consumers consider your content helpful and interesting enough, it will help lead them further along their journey. Some useful keywords for content in this stage are troubleshoot, resolve, risks, upgrade, improve, and optimize.
Consideration: Middle of the Funnel
This is the stage for nurturing leads and building relationships with your prospects. Buyers in this stage have clearly defined their problem and are focused on solutions and comparisons. This is where you begin to show the buyer how your product or service will solve their problem. You want to get a little more personal in engaging a buyer in the consideration stage. Provide them with content like expert guides, webinars, live interactions, and podcasts that delve deeper into how your brand is the solution to their problem. Use words like solution, provider, service, tool, and device to catch their attention.
Decision: Bottom of the Funnel
In the bottom of the funnel, buyers are finally ready to purchase. They’ve narrowed down their options and are on the verge of selecting a brand. You can help them choose yours by providing content in the form of vendor or product comparisons, free trials, demos, product literature, and case studies. Keywords that help garner interest here include compare, versus, pros and cons, benchmarks, review, and test.
A Never-Ending Cycle
Once a customer reaches the bottom of the funnel and chooses your brand, you want them to keep coming back, right? You must continually delight that customer using content that will keep them engaged so you stay at the top of their mind. Keep in touch by offering occasional discounts and further educational content. Whenever they encounter another similar problem that you can help with, they’ll remember how helpful you were the last time and hopefully come to you to help solve their issues.
We know that creating content on a constant basis is difficult. Understanding where that content belongs in the buyer’s journey so that you make maximum impact with your words and images makes the job even harder. Fortunately, we’re here to help! If you need some assistance creating a content marketing strategy or just need someone to continue telling your brand story through powerful blogs, ebooks, and offers, reach out. We’re here for you.
