[October 07, 2022]
Your prospect is moving down the sales funnel and has slid past Awareness to the Consideration stage. The potential buyer has identified their problem and is researching ways to solve it.
So what can you do to help a prospect in the Consideration stage make it to the Decision stage and eager to purchase your product or service?
Join the conversation going on in their head
At this point, the person you want to speak to is teetering on the edge: To Buy or Not to Buy. They’ve made themselves vulnerable by admitting they have a problem, but are still hesitant that you—or anyone—can solve it for them.
This is where you need to meet them with your marketing. You do that by joining the conversation already going on inside their head. Show you understand not only the problems they face, but their concerns and objections to potential solutions.
You still aren’t making a strong pitch at this stage. Your purpose is to serve them information to fill any gaps in their knowledge regarding the options they have available to them. This is especially important in B2B as it typically takes more nurturing before someone is ready to make a high-dollar purchase.
The key to resonating with a prospect in any stage of the buyer’s journey—is making sure you provide the right content, to the right person, at the right time.
Narrow the scope of your content marketing
To create appropriate marketing content, you need to know answers to two questions—
First, what is this person’s unique interest in YOUR product or service? That’s where you’ll want to focus on differentiating yourself from the competition.
And second, what do they hope to accomplish by working with you? You’ve got to make it clear in your marketing that you will provide that.
Now that you know what content you’ll share, let’s talk about HOW you’ll share it with them.
Develop these 5 pieces of content for more conversions
The goal of each of these pieces of content is to connect THEIR PAIN to YOUR SOLUTION.
- You can do this by writing a self-help post. Give them a quick win. Although we focus on the pain in our marketing and agitating that, we still want to give them hope that the problem can be solved. Otherwise, they won’t bother pursuing a solution.
Once you’ve gained their trust by assisting them with a quick win, you can give them an opportunity to solve an even deeper aspect of the problem.
- Make sure your leads are on your email list so that you can nurture them with consistent content. To get them on the list, you can offer a lead magnet such as an Ultimate Guide to [Fill-in-the-Blank with a Solution You Offer]. This will help establish your authority on the solution they’re seeking.
After you’ve got them on your list, you’ll want to send emails that educate them on ways to solve their problem or related problems.
- It’s important to stay objective at this point and just provide information. You will seem more trustworthy that way. Of course, your solution isn’t the ONLY one available to them. They know that, you know that. So share information about other solutions, comparing them to yours. You can do this via a Whitepaper. This is a way to subtlety steer them towards your product or service. IF it’s the right fit for them.
Sometimes hearing how great a solution is directly from the company itself, isn’t enough to persuade a prospect to buy. Today’s consumers are savvy and they can smell a pitch a mile away. And unfortunately, many people are skeptical even if you’re offering something that will help them. They will likely still have doubts.
- That’s where a Case Study comes in handy. This piece of content is created from a previous client’s point of view. You want to ensure you’ve included language that the actual client used because it will be similar to the thoughts going through your prospect’s mind at the moment. This helps them relate even more to this client and believe that if you solved the problem for THAT CLIENT, you can do it for them.
If you’re creating the content we’re suggesting, you’re reaching a lot of qualified leads, but not all prospects will want to read your content. How can reach the non-readers and draw them in too?
- Video marketing is gaining popularity and you’ve got many options on how to capitalize on that. You could post a video series on YouTube, answering your prospects questions. Or create a demo video of your product to share with your prospects.
During the Consideration stage of the buyer’s journey, you have to stand out as the authority on the solution. If you’re providing answers and wins for the prospects now, BEFORE they’ve chosen to work with you— they’ll feel confident more confident in purchasing. That’s what we want— our prospects’ trust and confidence because then we earn their loyalty down the road.
Struggling to develop content for the different stages of the Buyer’s Journey? We can help. Contact us today.