Marketing is part art, science, gut feeling and trial and error. Since every audience is different, the unique relationship with your audience will dictate how to structure your marketing program.
A great place to start is to define your audience, including their challenges and frustrations. Use that as your guide for the type of content to create and how to use it. Buyers go through a decision-making process, and your
Remember the three vital experiences a buyer will have before they decide to do business with you. Digging into each stage will help you craft marketing materials that will grab (and keep) their attention every step of the way.
Awareness
Buyers start this decision-making process when they recognize they have some pain and frustration. They want to find more information about what they're experiencing — and what they should do about it. This is the awareness stage.
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In this stage, buyers are "just browsing," so share your content freely. Readers are looking for free resources, and your content may be just what they need to recognize it's time to make a change. There are many potential readers at this stage.
Examine the challenges you see your buyers having. What struggles are
Make this information readily available to your readers. Display blog posts prominently on your website and provide links to your social-media platforms in the header or footer so they're easily accessible.
Consideration
After gathering enough awareness, buyers become familiar with their challenges, recognize the problem, and start looking for solutions. They want someone to help answer their questions with a solid resolution. This moves them into the consideration stage.
In consideration, your audience is looking for more substantial information such as ideas that outline potential resolutions, how-to tips for dealing with their frustrations, or analysis tools for understanding where they need to improve.
Create something of substance and guidance that will help them understand their situation better, gaining insight and clarity. Make this
Because your readers are looking to self-analyze, they are typically willing to offer a little information to move the process along. So, asking for a name and email address in exchange for deeper-dive content makes sense at this stage.
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Make the content available in multiple ways.
Decision
After feeling comfortable with the ideas and solutions they want to pursue, readers will start looking for the people or companies who can help them with the answer they want. This is where buyers move into the decision stage.
Now they're looking for information and details on how you can potentially be helpful to them. It's all about finding the right match at this stage. Fewer readers are interacting, but they're serious buyers, and they're looking for social proof, case studies and conversations. Make this content as freely available as possible.
When buyers want to buy, don't be a hindrance. Make it easy to contact you, read up on why you may be the perfect fit and hear from others who have had successful experiences with you.
Provide "Contact Us" buttons throughout the site (adding it to the header is a great solution). Include case studies, testimonials and links to social platforms so people can self-serve.
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You likely have their information from a form fill, so when you see people interacting with your content — opening emails, reading blogs, liking or commenting on LinkedIn — reach out and offer a chat. Don't pitch them. Don't try to sell your wares. Just ask if they'd like to talk about their needs. You may or may not be a fit, but you may have some ideas to help them as they look. Sometimes all people need is an invitation to engage.
As you move through this process, remember to be generous. Give openly and share your ideas with many people. Those who are interested will seek out more from you. They're also likely to talk about you and promote your content, exposing you to others who may not have been on your list. Readers who may be a good business fit will either reach out to you or be receptive to you reaching out to them.
Quality of content, plus the frequency you share, leads to trust and conversations.
