Wouldn’t it be nice if people hired your services as soon as they had a need for them? Instead, today’s customer researches online before making a purchasing decision. In marketing, this is known as The Buyer’s Journey. Content marketing writing that answers a customer’s questions helps them along this journey. Not only will buyers appreciate being taken care of throughout each step of the process, but content that answers a customer’s needs can result in more sales calls and may also be shared, increasing traffic to your site.
To attract more customers through your website and marketing, a small business should create content for all three stages of the buyer’s journey:
- Awareness
- Interest
- Purchase
The Marketing Funnel
Incidentally, the buyer’s journey corresponds closely with the Marketing Funnel — also called a Sales Funnel. After all, the end result of applying a funnel to your business is newly acquired customers!
Whatever you choose to call it, the marketing funnel is another way of looking at the process potential customers go through when they make a purchase. At each stage in the funnel, your content marketing writing will send different messages to pursue distinct goals.
TOFU (top of the funnel) — Attracts attention. This corresponds to the Awareness stage of the buyer’s journey.
MOFU (middle of the funnel) — Generates leads with varying results. This is where you’ll create content to generate Interest.
BOFU (bottom of the funnel) — Customers are acquired. This is the stage every small business is excited for — the Purchase!
Content for Each Stage of the Buyer’s Journey
Now that you understand the buyer’s journey and the marketing funnel, it’s time to consider which content is needed to lead customers through each stage. While the writing must be engaging and relevant, it also needs to be informative.
A common question that small businesses have is what content they should create in the first place. After all, content covers a lot of bases and includes everything from ads and social media posts to blog articles and email campaigns. How do you know which content type is best to use at each stage?
Let’s take a closer look:
Awareness Stage Content Marketing Writing
At the top of the marketing funnel, your job is to attract attention from potential customers who have arrived at varying levels of awareness about their challenges. Prospects are researching their challenges and seeking possible solutions.
Your job at this stage is two-fold:
- Attract attention with content that demonstrates expertise.
- Educate prospects about the challenge they are facing.
The top of the funnel / awareness stage is where you will want to get as many people aware of your business as possible. As the marketing funnel narrows, prospects drop off and a smaller group of potential customers remain at the bottom of the funnel.
The types of content to use in the Attract Stage include:
- Ads and landing pages
- Free reports and How-to guides
- Quizzes
- Videos and Webinars
- Blog posts
Interest Stage Content Marketing Writing
Once a person arrives at the Interest stage, they have become aware of your business. Now they need to better understand your solutions and determine if those solutions are a good fit. Content such as blog posts should help a prospect learn more about their challenge and available solutions without directly selling. Meanwhile, other content (such as case studies) will focus specifically on your solutions.
Types of content to use in the Interest Stage include:
- Remarketing ads
- Blog posts
- Case studies / Success stories
- Testimonials
- FAQs
- Email campaigns and newsletters
- Social media marketing
Purchase Stage Content Marketing Writing
If a person passes successfully through the Interest phase, they arrive at the Purchase stage. However, that doesn’t mean a purchase is inevitable. You may still need to nudge a person into taking the next step by using the same methods you used in the Interest phase such as remarketing, email marketing and engaging through social media.
However, there are specific things you can do to nudge interested parties to do business with you.
Methods to use in the Purchase Stage include:
- Consultation offers
- Irresistible paid offers
- Free trial or demo
- Pricing pages
- Success stories
Bringing it All Together
At every stage of the buyer’s journey, content marketing writing is essential. Thus it’s essential for your business to create the many types of writing that are needed at each point in the marketing funnel — from blog posts and case studies to consultation offers or success stories shared on social media. All forms of content can work together to point potential customers to purchase later on down the road.
Now that you know how important content marketing is to attracting more customers, you may not have the time or resources to create it yourself. Our team at Vox Pop Marketing can help. We’re here to create engaging, original content across every stage of the buyer’s journey — from awareness through purchase — so customers are more likely to engage with your brand online and offline. Learn more about our services and methods today!
