In marketing, there’s a term that we always come back to, and it’s called ‘the buyer’s journey’. The buyer’s journey is the process that a consumer goes through when they decide to purchase something, starting with the awareness stage, moving onto the consideration stage and ending with the decision stage. When planning your website design it’s important to have content available to encourage the consumer at each stage of the buyer’s journey, moving them from one stage to another and ultimately ending with a sale. So, here’s a quick guide to the buyer’s journey, and the kinds of content you will want to include at each stage. 

The Awareness Stage

The buyer’s journey starts with the awareness stage, in which the buyer becomes aware of their problem and starts looking for potential solutions. At this stage of the buyer’s journey, you need to assume that the buyer has never heard of you before and so it’s important to begin introducing your company while also beginning to build trust with the buyer by showing that an answer to their problem exists and that you have the skills to solve it. 

The key channels to consider at the awareness stage are:

• Blogs on your website
• Social Media 
• White Papers 
• Video

And the content you create for these channels should focus on: 

• Your buyer’s problem and possible solutions 
• Educating the buyer 

The Consideration Stage

At the consideration stage, your buyer is now aware of the possible solutions to their problem and is ready to begin engaging with sellers. At the consideration stage, you want to focus on proving why you are better than your competitors by building trust and showing what it would be like to work with you. 

The key channels to consider at the consideration stage are: 

• Product pages on your website
• Video chat 
• Webinars 
• Comparison sheets 

And the content you want to create for these channels should focus on: 

• Making your buyer more product aware 
• Demonstrating your benefits over those of your competitors 

The Decision Stage

Finally, we come to the decision stage, in which the prospect is now whittling down their long list to a shortlist and ultimately making a decision as to which product to choose. The result of successful decision-making marketing is a sale and all the effort put in thus far can be lost at this stage. During the decision-making stage,  your prospect will be looking at finer details such as pricing, reviews, and case studies. 

The key channels to use at the decision-making stage are: 

• Your website pages (case studies, reviews, FAQ’s, etc) 
• Newsletters 
• Whitepapers

And the content you wish to promote through these channels is: 

• Reviews 
• Case-studies 
• Offers or demos 

By ensuring that you have content to cover each stage of the buyer’s journey you are effectively moving prospective customers through the sales funnel and have successfully automated a part of your sales strategy. Quality, effective content, free up the time of salespeople to work on more complex client cases and is the core of a successful content marketing strategy.