Today I want to talk to you about the place of content in the buyer’s journey.
Content Marketing’s One Major Misconception
Content marketing is a great marketing channel, but it is marred by one massive misconception; the thought that someone will consume a single piece of content from you and feel so inspired by it that they will buy from you immediately.
Come on. How many times have you read a single blog, seen a video, or consumed a downloadable from a supplier and decided then and there that they need to take your money like the Fry from Futurama meme? Chances are, not many.
Content marketing is inherently a slow burn. It’s not a case of “publish one blog and the buyers will come” like more direct, conversion-heavy PPC ads or landing pages are. No – content plays the long game. Consuming a video or blog put out there by your organisation is just one of the 6-12 (or probably more) prospect interactions that come before a sale. Hence why you have to publish more than one piece over time.
How Content Marketing Works
When you publish a piece of content, what generally happens is this:
- People who are looking for answers or more information about your field find your post; perhaps through social media, or email marketing, or – most likely – search, and they digest it to find their answers.
- Then, they may hopefully share it with colleagues or on social media, or even follow you to stay updated. They are now aware of your brand in a small way – you’re the company whose blog post helped them understand X, Y, Z, or whatever – but they’re rarely ready to buy from you just yet. heck, they may not even be in the right market for it. This is what I like to call the awareness stage.
- Some of those who mature from this awareness stage may be vaguely in the market for what you sell, so they may keep you on their radar in a Chrome tab at the back of their brain somewhere. As they consume more of your content – maybe because they signed up to get more updates from you, or maybe you’re just quite present in their social media circles – they’ll see you as a trusted source for whatever it is you do. If they didn’t sign up to get your updates before, they definitely do it now. I call this the consideration stage.
- Then, once your content presence becomes a welcome, regular addition to their inboxes and feeds, they may become a warmer lead, more consciously aware of how much they might need you. It might only take the right offer at the right time for them to buy. That’s the decision stage.
Now obviously this is a very idealised, highly simplified version of the content-to-purchase journey. Some people peace out before they become proper card-carrying members of any of the three groups. Maybe their needs change. Maybe a competitor offer leapfrogs yours in their eyes. It happens. Some particularly indecisive people flit between stages indefinitely. Some people may not quite be in the right market for what you sell but they enjoy your output and wish you well anyway!
So simply creating content doesn’t equal immediate conversions and success. It’s also important to remember that the buyer’s journey isn’t your only hurdle – you have to create awesome, engaging content in the first place, you have to make sure that your content ticks the right SEO boxes, improve each piece iteratively over time, get your distribution right, balance it with your other marketing channels, and keep an eye on the all-important analytics.
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