According to Entrepreneur, most prospects won’t buy from your website at first glance, especially if they’re only just becoming aware of you. You need to get on a prospect’s radar and build the relationship first. As a general goal, easing your buyers’ research burden by making their time as productive as possible can go a long way to position your company’s solutions as important and appealing. Throughout the buyers’ journey, which takes people from prospect to sales lead to customer, there are several stages. Mojo Media Labs defines these stages as awareness, consideration, and decision. One of the most important ways to go about lead nurturing is with delivering content throughout the buyer’s journey.
What prospects want to know
There is certainly no shortage of content. Northeastern University shares that 2.5 Exabytes of data are produced in one day alone. That is the equivalent of 5 million laptops or 250,000 Libraries of Congress.
Connecting with your prospects in meaningful ways is becoming ever more difficult amidst the growing morass of online content.
In the awareness stage, the buyer realizes that they’ve got a problem that needs fixing. They need to know that it is possible to make things better. They might start Googling or listening to webinars.
In the consideration stage, the buyer has a better understanding of their issue and they’re starting to look around at ways to solve their problem. What are my peers doing? they wonder.
Buyers know what they want in the decision stage. They’re weighing their options. It’s time for your company to shine: to be ready, present, and front and center. Educate buyers with content that highlights the features and benefits of your offering.
Mapping your content to the buyer’s journey
There is so much information available today. How can you make it more likely for a potential buyer to find you? To ensure your messages don’t get mired in the online content bog, you need to create timely and relevant content for your audience, that aligns with where they’re at in the buyer’s journey.
Content mapping is a methodical, strategic approach to lead nurturing. Mapping content to each stage of the buyer’s journey provides direction and purpose when developing content. It will also help keep you to be top of mind when the buyer has moved to the decision stage.
Addressing the needs of buyers in the awareness stage could include offering blog content, a “state of the industry” eBook, or an infographic you have created. This is where your prospective buyers might provide their contact information in return for content downloaded from your website. Think about the keywords these buyers might be Googling. Posts on social media can capture attention. What are the hashtags your prospects follow?
In the consideration stage, buyers are looking for references from your other customers. Perhaps they would like to attend an educational webinar where you have a guest speaker give their testimonial. A white paper with customer examples can also help to sway the buyer’s opinion.
For buyers trying to make a decision, a datasheet that outlines your company’s features and benefits and how they specifically address your prospects’ pain points could make the sale. Your content needs to demonstrate that you understand your prospects’ challenges and the industry. Having the right information available at the right time can help your prospects move through the sales cycle faster.
Creating the content for lead nurturing
It’s important to be sure you thoroughly understand your audience persona(s) including their wants, needs, frustrations, goals, and priorities. When your persona is data-backed by market research, you’ll gain insight into the topics that are top of mind and the problems they are facing.
SimplyDIRECT can help you with that market research. We specialize in generating qualified leads using opt-in research surveys. By surveying your audience, you can arm your sales team with a solid understanding of their prospects’ goals, needs, interests and more. When your research is complete, you have the foundation you need for ongoing lead nurturing to keep your prospects engaged.
Incredibly simple, remarkably direct. To see how our process works view our 90-second demo.