The goal of any content marketing campaign is to nurture a target audience with content until they are ready to become customers. But inevitably, that target audience is comprised of people who are going through their own unique buying experience, so how you make sure you have content that is appropriate for a lead at any stage?
The best way to optimize your content marketing for lead nurturing is to ensure that you have content that is applicable to leads at any stage of their buyer’s journey. Below, we show you how to create content that caters to each stage of the buyer’s journey so that you can segment your leads and convert them through targeted content marketing campaigns.
Awareness Stage Content
Leads in the awareness stage have only recently become aware of a problem or opportunity and are looking to further educate themselves about what it is. They aren’t looking for solutions quite yet, nor are they ready to make a purchase—rather, a lead in this stage simply wants more information.
Content you send to leads in the awareness stage of their buyer’s journey should serve to educate them about their problem or opportunity without putting information about your company and services in their faces. This will help ensure that your company isn’t perceived as “spammy” and will position you as an expert in your industry.
Preferred content in this stage takes the form of whitepapers, research reports, eBooks, and blogs.
Consideration Stage Content
Once they’ve reached the consideration stage, leads understand the problem or opportunity they are facing and are looking for information about their solution options. The content you send your lead in this stage should still keep any mention of your brand and specific services to an absolute minimum. If this worries you, just remember: by educating a lead without promoting your services, you gain their trust and remain top-of-mind at the time they decide to purchase a solution.
Leads in the consideration stage should receive content such as comparison and expert guides, webcasts, and videos.
Decision Stage Content
At this stage, a lead has decided on a solution and is finally ready to hear why your company can provide it to them better than any other. The decision stage is the appropriate time for your company to plug its services to a lead because at this point they are educated enough about their problem and various solutions to make an informed purchase. And they have your company to thank for that!
Help your lead make their final decision by sending them product literature, reviews, and comparisons, as well as case studies and live demos of your solution.
We hope this information will help you craft content that is targeted to your leads at every stage of their buyer’s journey to increase the effectiveness of your content marketing campaigns.
This article was syndicated from Business 2 Community: Content Marketing for the Buyer’s Journey
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