If you’re like a lot of marketers, then you’re creating quite a bit of content on your blog, social media pages and for your newsletter. Question is, are you creating the RIGHT kind of content?
Most marketers don’t. They just toss content at the metaphorical wall and hope something sticks. However, if you want to create more effective content, then you need to create content for each step of the buyer’s journey.
Think of this way: most people don’t like to be “sold” to. This is particularly true if they’re still in an information-gathering stage, and you toss a big, loud advertisement in their face.
You know what happens? Yep, you guessed it: that prospect is going to tune out. You’ll be lucky if they ever come back to your site.
What you need to know is that buyers go through a predictable journey that includes these three phases:
- Awareness
- Consideration
- Decision
And if you want to start to boost conversions, you need to create content for each phase. Let’s dig a little deeper…
3 Phases to Help Boost Your Conversions
Awareness
During the Awareness stage, your prospects are just becoming aware that they have a problem, and they start doing research to help them identify and put a name to this problem.
At this point, your content should focus on helping prospects identify the problem. For example, you can write a “signs and symptoms” article. E.G., “15 Signs That Your Website Has a Usability Problem.”
Consideration
During this stage of the journey, the prospect knows what their problem is, and they’ve started researching solutions.
At this point, the prospect hasn’t yet narrowed down the type of solution they want to pursue. For example, someone with heartburn is deciding whether to modify their diet, change the way they sleep at night, take drugs, lose weight, see their doctor, and so on. Your goal at this stage is to present your solution, as well as tips for helping the prospect solve that solution.
For example, you might offer a lead magnet called, “10 Tips for Getting Rid of Heartburn.” This lead magnet would not only offer the promised actionable tips, it would also introduce your brand and your business to the prospect.
Decision
At this stage, your prospect has decided what type of solution they’re going to pursue. Now you need to present your solution as the best solution.
Let’s go back to the example of the person experiencing heartburn. The main solution categories include lifestyle solutions, pharmaceutical solutions and medical solutions (seeing the doctor). If a person is experiencing occasional heartburn, then they may have decided to try lifestyle changes first before they go to the more drastic drug or doctor solutions.
How do you convince someone at this stage that you have the best set of lifestyle tips to help them combat their heartburn? Like this:
- Create more content with actionable information. People should literally be able to put your tips to use and get fast relief. This builds trust and establishes you as an expert, since your information clearly works.
- Provide case studies. Tell the stories (and share data) of how others have used your information to start living heartburn free.
- Offer testimonials. Be sure to only use your strongest testimonials – specifically the ones that talk about getting good and lasting results.
In short: you need to showcase your expertise and prove your case in order to help buyers choose your product or service as the best solution to meet their needs.
Conclusion
You’re probably getting really good at creating content that converts. You know how to craft an effective CTA, you know what your audience wants, and maybe you even know a bit about using psychological sales triggers and emotions to boost sales. But if you’re not putting this content in front of your audience at the right time, it’s all for naught. That’s why you’re going to want to strategically create content for all three stages of the buyer’s journey – and then sit back and watch your sales soar.
