How Online Marketing Content Guides Prospects Through the Buyer’s Journey

Lots of Content? Now What?

You’ve got your magnet pointed directly at your market. You are increasing visitors to your site and they are consuming content… but are they consuming the right content? Are you losing visitors after a couple clicks? Are your visitors bouncing after just a single blog post instead of being enticed to venture further into your site?

Believe me, you’re not alone. It takes quite a bit of energy, time and resources to create the content that will attract the right visitors to your site. Having the right pieces in place to insure your visitors stay there is an entirely new beast.

What content fits where?

You have likely asked yourself this question before. Where should “X” go? Should it contain a content offer? Should it be a video or a blog post? Is this content TOFU, MOFU or BOFU?

Wouldn’t it be helpful if someone did some research into understanding which medium performed best for each stage of the sales funnel? Of course, this can vary from market to market, but lucky for us, some super smart people at contentmarketinginstitute.com have done just that! They have outlined four different models for content creation, and how that lines up with the Buyer’s Journey. Below is my favorite.

Buyers-Journey-Model

In this graphic, we can see what questions prospects have at each step of the journey, how the marketer can help them find solutions to those questions as well as which type of content is most likely to perform best at each stage.

*Note: If you’ve been following closely, you may notice that the graph shows 4 steps, rather than the typical 3 steps (Awareness, Consideration, Decision). Step 2 and Step 3 are broken up, but these steps together would make the Consideration Stage.

Deeper Look

Let’s dig in to that graphic a little more. You may notice a few peculiar things.

  • First, “Whitepapers” make up 49% of Step 2!?! The percentages in Step 2 will be highly affected by the market you work in. For instance, these percentages will be quite different for B2B as opposed to B2C. (When was the last time you read a whitepaper before purchasing a new coat?)
  • Second, you may be saying, “Where are the FAQs? Where are the eBooks?” That is a great question. In my opinion those should be listed, but we can assume that they would fall within the “tech guides” and “whitepapers” sections respectively.
  • Third, although this graph was posted less than a year ago, I think the strength of video at each step is a bit underrepresented. Studies by Google have shown that 72% of B2B buyers watch video throughout the ENTIRE path to purchase. What we have learned in the past couple years at AHA Factory is that video is, and will continue to be, one of the most important forms of content for prospects at each stage of the journey.

Another thing of note; look how low the percentages are in Step 4. None of them break the 20% mark. What gives? Could it be that prospects in this step have, more or less, already made their decision? Prospects are engaging less with digital content and more with salespeople. They have answered enough of their questions with content. Now they need a little “face to face” interaction to be sure the company will be a good fit. I believe the percentages in Step 4 are so low because that is exactly what is happening.

Getting from A-Z

Based on the information in the graph, the perfect web visit may look something like this.

content buyers journey

As you can see, the visitor is enticed and guided through the Buyer’s Journey with strategically placed content as well as gated landing pages in specific areas in order to gather data. More often than not, this will NOT happen in a single visit, but over time. With the addition of automated email marketing you can gently invite them back to the site, or send content offers in order to keep them engaged.

“Sounds Like a Lot of Work”

It is. However, it is important work. If you are lacking the resources or bandwidth, this is where AHA Factory can help. With a broad range of content creation; from blogs to eBooks, social to video, and a strong understanding of Inbound Marketing, we can help attract and nurture new leads for your company.

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