Why The Buyer’s Journey Matters in Marketing

The buyer’s journey is the active research process a buyer goes through leading up to making a purchase. Why is this process important for every marketer to know? Let’s ask another question: How will you know what to market and when if you don’t know what your buyer is looking for? Is your buyer simply seeking information? Or are your buyers about to make a decision? The way you present information will vary depending on the stage your buyers are in.

The buyer’s journey matters in marketing because it helps keep the buyer’s behavior, information, needs and problems central to anything sales and marketing does.

Why The Buyer’s Journey Matters in Marketing

 

The Stages of The Buyer’s Journey

There are three stages of the buyer’s journey: Awareness, Consideration and Decision. Your buyer will act differently depending on what stage he or she is in.

Awareness

In the awareness stage, your buyer has realized and expressed symptoms of a potential problem or opportunity. In this stage, the buyer is focused on gathering third-party information detailing problems or symptoms.

Consideration

In the consideration stage, your buyer has clearly defined and given a name to the problem or opportunity. Buyers in this stage are committed to researching and understanding all the available approaches or methods to solving their problem.

Decision

In the decision stage, buyers have defined their solution, strategy, method or approach. In this stage, they’re doing research on supporting documentation, data, benchmarks or endorsements with the end goal of making a final decision. They’re comparing vendors and products, checking out case studies and product demos. They’re looking at the pros and cons for each side.

How to Use The Buyer’s Journey to Improve Your Marketing

Now that you know the different stages a buyer goes through on his or her way to making a decision, you can provide different types of information/content to match the stage he or she is in. Specific content offers are more relevant at specific times in the buyer’s journey. For instance, a case study will be most useful to a buyer in the decision-making stage. A webinar will help out a buyer in the consideration stage, while an Ebook is a good starting point for those in the awareness stage.

Secondly, begin using relevant terms when you want to reach a buyer in a particular stage. Check out the examples below:

Awareness Stage

• Troubleshoot
• Issue
• Resolve
• Risks
• Upgrade
• Improve
• Optimize
• Prevent

Consideration Stage

• Solution
• Provider
• Service
• Supplier
• Tool
• Device
• Software
• Appliance

Decision Stage

• Compare
• Versus
• Comparison
• Pros and Cons
• Benchmarks
• Review
• Test

Use these keywords to attract buyers in every stage of the buyer’s journey. You know why the buyer’s journey matters in marketing – now use it turn those site visitors into leads and your leads into customers!