Aligning Content To The Real B2B Buyer's Journey
By Perry Rearick, Chief Editor, Follow Your Buyer
In his book, “The Speed of Trust”, Steven M.R. Covey describes brand as “trust monetized”. I believe trust is the secret ingredient that accelerates a seller’s way to a sale because it accelerates the buyer’s journey.
Few things build trust faster and more effectively with buyers than a content marketing strategy aligned with the real B2B buyer’s journey. For a refresher, The Real B2B Buyers Journey.
Keep in mind that buyers are on a journey. We like to depict it as a clean, linear process, but buyers may pause or take detours, and the transitions between stages of their journey are often blurred and hard to detect.
What follows isn’t a how-to formula to strictly executed like a set of Ikea assembly instructions, but a framework in which to operate with plenty space for creativity.
-For the early buyer’s journey, content should help the buyer become aware of and better understand the challenges they face and strategies to overcome them.
-Content for the middle stages of the buyer’s journey may offer more tangible ways to overcome the buyer’s issues that are tied to the seller’s solution. It should include case studies, comparative findings, and yes, features and benefits along with outcomes the buyer can achieve that are tied to the original issues the buyer is facing.
-Content in the late stages of the buyer’s journey can be misunderstood. Remember, this is when the buyer is implementing a plan to solve a problem. Content should include more case studies and examples of using the seller’s solution to measure results against the original buyer’s problem.
You may have noted that I didn’t mention hooks or clever taglines. That is intentional! I also didn’t mention video, webinars, presentations or podcasts. These are content formats. Buying teams are diverse in their content style preferences and sellers should create content in all these forms along with written articles, blogs and social media posts.
Common to all content, regardless of format, is building trust by helping the buyer where they are in their journey.
If you want more on this topic, here are two long form articles that use the more detailed 8-stage buyer’s journey from “Selling to the C-Suite.”