How to set up a clear path for the Buyer’s Journey

The traditional Buyer’s Journey, which relied on personal recommendations followed by a phone call to a company, has been largely replaced with technology that yields impressive amounts of information.

Today’s buyer, in fact, doesn’t even directly contact the company until late in the game, maybe sometime around the 7^th inning, says Sheri Johnson, President of Morningstar Communications.

Sheri shared insights about “Customizing Content through the Buyer’s Journey” for B2B businesses, with members and guests of KC IABC at a breakfast meeting. She quoted research findings from several sources that increasingly point to buyers’ needs for online research, social media, data and statistics before they’re ready to make a purchasing decision.

Four stages plus one

At least three of the four traditional stages of the Buyer’s Journey – Awareness, Familiarity and Consideration – can be completed before the buyer even contacts the target company, Sheri added. “By the time they contact you, the buyer has done extensive research on your firm,” and may even be nearly ready to make the Purchase decision. Once the buyer commits to doing business with your firm, it’s then time to build that fifth stage of the Buyer’s Journey – Trust, she added, the stage where they turn into a loyal customer or client.

Since potential customers are largely doing their own purchasing research, it’s incumbent on the company to create great messaging that provides the data needed to capture attention and draw the customer in. Great messaging covers the What, So What and Now What of their research journey. “Describe what’s important for them to know using facts, features and benefits and tell them why they should care and what they should do,” Sheri said.

“Use everyday language that’s direct and easy to understand. Avoid acronyms and make sure your content is oriented toward the buyer – not what you want to say, but what they need to hear,” she recommends. “And content should be informational with news and social media. Don’t try to sell them immediately.”

Messaging strategy

Depending on the size of your company, various channels can be used to deliver your marketing message:

·      Paid channel – Ads: sponsorships, advertorials, trade shows

·      Earned channel – PR: news, publicity, speaking engagements

·      Shared channel – Social media: LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter

·      Controlled channel – Collateral: website, events, blog

If it all sounds like a lot of work, it is, and the journey may be lengthy – anywhere from a few months to a year or more. But content delivery can be streamlined through marketing automation. Automation includes scheduling, segmentation and tracking of marketing campaigns, creating a systematic approach, instead of manually gathering data and trying to sort it out.

Automation tools

Several tools are available commercially to automate marketing, including HubSpot, Eloqua, Marketo, Pardot, Act-On and others. “The beauty of marketing automation programs is you can segment your list and get the data to support your case,” Sheri says. But, first, lay the foundation for success in automated marketing by making sure you’ve covered the following:

·      Clear positioning of your company and brand

·      A strong list of prospects

·      Commitment to creating 3,000 words of fresh content monthly

·      Seamless integration of website, CRM (customer relationship management) and automation technology

·      Focus on measurement