Key Points:

• A buyer’s journey’s stages are awareness, consideration, and decision.
• The buyer’s journey is different than the consumer’s journey.
• Each stage of the buyer’s journey needs to be targeted.

A HubSpot survey suggests that 67% of consumers say their online purchasing has increased since the beginning of the pandemic. So, what exactly is a buyer’s journey? 

HubSpot describes the buyer’s journey as the buyer’s path to purchase.

Most people don’t just buy things, there’s a process. That process includes discovery, research, and finally the decision to buy. 

I’ll explain to you what this means as a blogger, and what the advantages are for targeting each stage of the buyer’s journey.

Ready to rock? Let’s go!

What Are The Stages of the Buyer’s Journey?

Aside from that impulsive purchase from Amazon, you made last night, most people buy things to solve an issue or problem.

For example, your headphones broke, and now you need a new pair.

Then the next question is, do you buy the same brand or a different brand that’s on sale?

You do the research, find the best option, then purchase. 

Let’s take a deeper look at the stages:

You might be thinking, but I’m a blogger, and I make money with ads, so how can targeting these stages help me?

You can target these stages in your writing in two main ways:

• Keywords
• Content

Let me explain:

The Buyer’s Journey Stage One: Problem

Your audience first has a problem. “Why Did My Headphones Break?”

This stage is targeted before your audience is ready to consider a solution to a problem.

In simple terms, a problem happens and your audience wants to know why.

The Buyer’s Journey Stage Two: Consideration

The next phase of content on the same subject would be, “Best Headphones on a Budget.”

This keyword phrase targets the consideration stage. Your audience is considering a purchase but isn’t ready yet.

This stage is basically your audience’s version of window shopping.

The Buyer’s Journey Stage Three: Decision

The last phase would be, “Where to Buy Sony Headphones.”

Tip: here you could include an affiliate link in your article if that is of interest to you, but it isn’t necessary.

This targets users who are ready to make a purchase.

The trick is to consider your audience’s problem and provide valuable information as a response.

Considering the examples above, you have three different SEO articles, all on the same topic that targets each stage of the journey without actually selling anything.

Using this strategy can increase your traffic and thus boost your ad revenue.

Why Your Content Should Target The Buyer’s Journey

Understanding your audience and how they think, what answers they need, and the solutions they want to hear is absolutely vital to digital marketing success.

Once you have a keen understanding of your audience, you can then begin designing a content strategy that maps out your media for the various stages.

If you’re having trouble finding ideas for your content, here are a few great places to start:

• HubSpot’s Blog Topic Generator
• Impact’s Blog Title Generator
• Answer the Public
• BuzzSumo’s Question Analyzer
• Klock Work Infographic Idea Generator
• Google Questions, “People Also Ask” 
• Search through your Google Search Console keyword section to see what keywords you’re already ranking for but have no content covering.

People engage more with content that answers their questions, and that in turn leads to more traffic and conversions.

From there, you can nurture these sought-after leads with more content as they become customers and then returning customers.

With that said, here are the main benefits of targeting the buyer’s journey:

• It helps you sell whatever you sell
• It helps you bond with your audience
• It boosts brand awareness and trust
• It offers a more personalized experience

Ultimately, your buyer’s journey is vital knowledge for creating effective inbound marketing campaigns that drive results.

Additionally, people engage more with content that answers their questions, and that in turn leads to more traffic and conversions. As an insider tip for B2B marketers: you can use website visitor detection software at this stage. In this way, you can recognize your potential customers early in your sales funnel and contact them proactively.

The Buyer’s Journey vs The Customer Journey

The buyer’s journey and the customer’s journey sound pretty much like the same thing.

However, there are some key differences between the two:

The buyer’s journey is the steps that lead up to a purchase whereas a customer’s journey continues after the purchase is completed.

In layman’s terms, the buyer’s journey is saying “Our brand is great, you should try it.”

While the customer journey is saying, “Remember that one time you worked with us? Let’s do it again!”

Both journeys are extremely important for brand-new audiences and returning customers.

That’s why it’s vital to focus on department teams such as customer support and customer experience.

(Related article: What is Conversational Keyword Research?

How to Optimize Your Buyer’s Journey with a Call-to-Action

The IDC described the buyer’s journey as, “nothing more than a series of questions that must be answered.”

As the buyers are asking questions, you must be there to answer them.

In practice, this means that you must optimize your content for each stage of the journey.

For example, if your audience is still in the awareness phase, you wouldn’t want to bombard them with a sales pitch from one of your reps.

Instead, you would want to make first-time content as helpful and informative as possible.

This leaves leads with a great experience and no red flags.

During the consideration stage, content needs to be personalized. You could start with newsletters or personalized emails.

Essentially, what needs to happen is well-designed content with information and resources across your website to funnel these users toward a specific solution.

You can do this with a great call to action:

• Contact us today!
• Book an appointment now!
• Try our free trial!
• Sign up for free!
• Save 20% with this promotion code

Always remember which stage of the buyer’s journey you are targeting and optimize your CTA to match.

In the decision phase, you really just need to get right to the point. Make checkout, or purchase, or the final decision as simple and user-friendly as possible.

Tip: you can leverage third-party reviews from past customers to help you close the deal. These reviews should be integrated into your website as social proof for your brand.

That’s About It!

Whether you’re looking into the buyer’s journey or the customer’s journey, the point many marketers miss is remembering to make your audience feel comfortable and understood.

It’s your job to answer as many questions as possible at every stage of the buyer’s journey.

Still, feel a little lost?

Contact me today, I got you!

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