What Is the Buyer’s Journey? How to Create Content for Every Stage

People seldom conscionable hunt for immoderate you sell, click connected your website, and bargain right away.

In fact, 71% of them start their probe with a generic search. They’re speechmaking blog posts, watching videos, consuming reviews, asking their friends, participating successful communities—before they adjacent statesman to see your product.

So unless you’re creating content that buyers are searching for aboriginal on, it’s apt that you’re not even going to beryllium successful the information set. But if you tin look successful the aboriginal stages of the buyer’s journey, you get the accidental to amended them and power their decision-making.

In this post, you’ll larn the following:

• What is the buyer’s journey?
• What are the stages of the buyer’s journey?
• How to make contented for the buyer’s journey

The buyer’s travel is the process a idiosyncratic goes done earlier making a purchase.

There are 3 stages:

1. Awareness – The purchaser realizes they person a problem. They privation to recognize much about it.
2. Consideration – The purchaser is looking for and comparing imaginable solutions to their problem.
3. Decision – The purchaser purchases a solution.

The intent of knowing the buyer’s travel is to make contented for each stage.

Let’s look astatine however to do that.

Step 1. Create purchaser persona(s)

A purchaser persona is simply a “fictional person” you make who represents the communal characteristics of your customer. Knowing what they’re looking for volition assistance you make the close benignant of content.

Creating a purchaser persona is not a thought exercise. Unfortunately, galore companies dainty it arsenic such. They place personas based connected imagination, capable up a document, and tuck it successful the recesses of a Google Drive somewhere, ne'er to beryllium seen again.

Buyer personas request to beryllium based connected real-world evidence. So alternatively than sitting successful a gathering country and conjuring them up, we request to get outside.

Here’s the three-step process contented marketer Adrienne Barnes recommends:

1. Get to cognize your customers – Find your champion customers and telephone them. These are the customers who knew instantly however your merchandise worked oregon person been utilizing your merchandise without immoderate complaints. Ask them questions astir your product, what they like/dislike, the problems they have, their responsibilities, and truthful on. (Alternatively, you tin survey them.)
2. Organize the information – Look for patterns among the responses. You’re looking retired for commonly repeated phrases, words, and remarks.
3. Segment the assemblage – From the patterns you’ve gathered, you should commencement to spot immoderate circumstantial audiences popping retired of the data. These volition beryllium your purchaser personas.

Recommended reading: How to Create the Best Buyer Persona 

Step 2. Find topics that lucifer each signifier of the buyer’s journey

Let’s exemplify this measurement via an example. We’ll usage Billy Blogger arsenic our purchaser persona. Billy wants to physique a revenue-generating blog truthful that helium tin discontinue his full-time job.

We’ll commencement by considering Billy’s imaginable journey, constructed from lawsuit feedback and data:

Awareness

In this stage, Billy realizes helium has a problem: His tract is not getting capable traffic. So helium searches for ways to get much postulation to his site. He learns astir the assorted postulation acquisition methods and decides that SEO could beryllium the solution to his problem. He begins researching and learning much about SEO.

So, if we’re creating contented for this stage, we’re really looking for topics related to:

• Blog traffic
• Website traffic
• SEO

Here’s however to find much applicable topics:

1. Go to Ahrefs’ Keywords Explorer
2. Enter those terms
3. Go to the Matching terms report

Since the “Awareness stage” keywords are mostly informational, we’ll power the toggle to Questions.

To find much keywords, adhd informational modifiers (e.g., tips, learn, resource, guide, examples, ideas) in the Include box.

There are implicit 30,000 keywords, and not each of them are going to align with our purchaser persona. So we’ll look done the database and prime retired those keywords that are relevant.

For example, the taxable “how to thrust postulation to your website” is apt a taxable Billy is searching for astatine this stage. And we’ve targeted that taxable with a blog post.

Consideration

In this stage, Billy realizes helium needs a instrumentality to bash SEO. He begins looking for the benignant of tools that are available. As helium encounters each product, helium makes comparisons (e.g., reads reviews). If determination are escaped versions, he’ll trial the antithetic tools out.

If we’re creating contented for this stage, we’re really looking for topics related to:

• SEO tools.
• Tools for each facet of SEO (e.g., keyword probe tools, nexus gathering tools).
• Free versions of tools (e.g., escaped backlink checker).
• Our brand name.
• Our competitors’ brand names.

Here’s however to find applicable topics:

1. Go to Ahrefs’ Keywords Explorer
2. Enter presumption similar “seo tools,” “ahrefs,” oregon “moz”
3. Go to the Matching terms report
4. In the Include box, adhd examination modifiers (e.g., vs, versus, best, top, review, reviews)

We’ll look done the database and prime retired the topics that are relevant. For example, we tin spot from the database that imaginable customers are comparing our toolset with our competitors’ (e.g., ahrefs vs semrush). Thus, we decided to make a comparison page that addresses each of these topics.

Decision

In this stage, Billy is adjacent to buying. He’s eyeing our tool, looking astatine the database of features, hesitating connected pricing, and taking our toolset for a spin.

If we’re creating contented for this stage, we’re really looking for topics related to our brand.

To bash this, simply participate the marque sanction into Keywords Explorer and eyeball the list.

Now, if you’re a tiny brand, you whitethorn not find galore keywords for your marque name. If so, instrumentality a look astatine your Google Search Console information for the things radical are searching for that subordinate to your brand.

Finally, successful this stage, radical won’t ever beryllium utilizing hunt engines to find the accusation they need. After all, they’ve apt decided connected your marque and whitethorn simply beryllium looking for that accusation connected your website. Rather than absorption excessively overmuch connected the keywords they’re searching for, look internally.

Scan your interior tract hunt data, speech to your lawsuit enactment and income teams, and truthful on. Figure retired what is holding the buyers backmost from clicking “buy” connected your website. That is the contented you request to create.

”IMPORTANT”

While the process is beauteous straightforward, utilizing modifiers volition usually permission galore keywords connected the table. Thus, it’s a bully thought to look done keyword ideas that don’t incorporate immoderate modifiers and see whether they’re worthy targeting.

You tin bash this by looking done the reports without utilizing immoderate modifiers.

For example, doing this shows america a fewer topics that we could perchance target, specified arsenic “seo course” and “seo checklist”—both of which bash not incorporate immoderate modifiers we’ve utilized thus far.

Recommended reading: Keyword Research: The Beginner’s Guide by Ahrefs

Step 3. Create contented for each stage

Now that you person the topics for each signifier of the buyer’s journey, it’s clip to make contented for them.

It is apt you’ll person to make antithetic types of contented for the antithetic stages. For example, successful the Awareness stage, buyers are looking for information, e.g., blog posts, videos, etc. Whereas for the Consideration stage, buyers are comparing, truthful they whitethorn beryllium looking for class pages oregon examination pages.

The easiest mode to fig retired what benignant of contented you should make is to analyse the top-ranking pages for the 3 Cs of hunt intent.

1. Content type

Content types usually autumn into 1 of 5 buckets: blog post, product, category, landing page, oregon video. For example, each the top-ranking pages for “how to summation blog traffic” are blog posts.

Whereas for “backlink checker,” they’re each landing pages.

2. Content format

This mostly applies to blog posts, which are usually how-tos, listicles, quality articles, sentiment pieces, oregon reviews. For example, the top-ranking results for “link building” are mostly guides:

3. Content angle

This refers to the main selling constituent of the content. For example, radical searching for “best SEO tools” privation the results to be fresh:

Step 4. Add due calls to enactment for each portion of content

If you’re creating “Awareness stage” content, it’s not utile to effort and merchantability your merchandise close away. After all, the purchaser has lone conscionable discovered their occupation and is astatine the signifier of researching.

Instead, you should adhd calls to enactment (CTAs) that are due for the adjacent stage. (In this case, it’s Consideration.)

So, for example, alternatively than beforehand our pricing leafage oregon adjacent the $7 proceedings to idiosyncratic who’s conscionable learning SEO, we tin present our suite of escaped tools instead. That way, imaginable customers tin get acquainted with what we bash and however our tools work. Alternatively, we tin promote them to motion up for our newsletter to larn much about SEO.

If your contented is for the Consideration stage, you whitethorn privation to nexus to your proceedings oregon cod imaginable customers’ interaction accusation truthful that your income squad tin reach out.

Final thoughts

While it whitethorn beryllium presented arsenic a linear signifier model, the buyer’s travel ne'er truly works that mode successful real life.

Just deliberation astir your ain behavior. Do you travel specified a cleanable linear progression erstwhile buying something? Unless it’s an impulse buy, astir apt not. You astir apt bounce astir each signifier arsenic you research, spell astir your day, hesitate, effort worldly out, hide astir it, probe immoderate more, etc.

While this exemplary does guarantee you’re creating contented for each signifier truthful that imaginable buyers tin observe you, carnivore successful caput that it is not perfect.

Any questions oregon comments? Let maine cognize on Twitter.