What is the Buyers Journey? + My Tips for Applying it to Your Sales Cycle

During the consideration phase, you must ensure your offering stands out among the competition. Well, in my opinion, it’s all about eliminating friction and reinforcing confidence by addressing lingering doubts and offering tailored recommendations. Lovevery, which sells stage-based play kits for child development, offers $10 off first orders in exchange for email addresses and children‘s birth dates. These potential buyers need these questions answered before confidently moving into the decision stage with your product or service remaining in their shortlist of possible options. Consideration stage ads should help buyers understand how your product or service addresses their specific needs or problems.

Solution-based content is designed to do just that—it focuses on explaining the practical benefits of your offering and demonstrating its effectiveness. They want to know exactly how your product or service addresses their challenges. Charles's approach is centered on a keen understanding of consumer needs and market dynamics, making him a respected voice in the industry. ExpertBeacon.com is a resource designed to assist consumers in addressing their persistent questions about products, services, and companies.

In fact, 69% of buyers typically engage with salespeople only after they‘ve already made their decision. Google and BCG suggest marketers should map influence based on behaviors — like how people stream, scroll, search, and shop — rather than relying on traditional funnel stages. Each one calls for a different type of content based on what the audience needs to move forward. The framework arrives as traditional linear funnel models face scrutiny from industry leaders.

You showed them that you are a useful, credible authority in your industry. Keep in mind that each problem has many possible solutions, and the other solutions are not just your direct competitors. Buyers do not immediately go from recognizing they have a need to clicking "buy now," so the marketing funnel helps marketers and brands create the right strategy and messaging to help the buyers through this process. A marketing funnel is a model that helps brands visualize, understand, and segment the buyer's journey from awareness to purchase. During the awareness stage, you earned your brand a seat at the buyers' table.

At the decision stage, one of the best conversion tactics is letting prospects experience products themselves. When you bring in guest experts or dive into industry challenges, you build credibility before you ever talk about what you're selling. The trick is looking at information you’re already collecting and figuring out what story it tells about your industry. I've found that offering real people to talk to — consultations or strategy calls — can make a big difference in helping buyers close the deal. They've defined their problem and are exploring solutions — comparing social media management tools, reading reviews, and evaluating how your offering stacks up.

• If they are not ready to move on to the decision phase of the process, keep in touch with them.
• At this point of the buyer’s journey the prospect is looking to research more about the problem they discovered during the awareness stage of the buyer's journey.
• The post specifies tactics including educational content, guides, webinars, Q&A engagement, and mid-funnel asset creation.
• Before you start creating content, you need to know who you are talking to and what they care about.
• They’re comparing options, researching methodologies, and seeking more detailed information about specific approaches.

Microsoft Copilot Cowork: When AI Stops Assisting and Starts Executing

Unlike the Awareness Stage, where buyers are problem-focused and educational content dominates, the Consideration Stage is solution-focused with buyers seeking detailed information about specific approaches, methodologies, and product capabilities. This stage is critical for building trust and demonstrating how your product or service can meet their needs better than the competition. During the consideration stage, the goal for marketers is to provide valuable, in-depth information that addresses the specific needs and concerns of potential customers.

The decision stage is where I bring in content that removes friction and answers “Why choose us? They‘re comparing approaches, weighing trade-offs, and looking at vendors — but haven’t decided yet. The awareness stage is where I focus on content that helps define the problem. In the awareness stage, buyers notice a problem but may not have the language to describe it yet.

Because of this, sales folks must approach potential buyers with sensitivity, not sales pitches. When offered at the wrong time, these steps add zero value from their perspective. Simply put, buyers don’t want to be prospected, demoed, or closed when they’re not ready. If you don’t have an intimate understanding of your buyers, it may be difficult to map out the buyer’s journey in a way that will be helpful from a sales perspective.

Use Contentsquare's AI-powered digital experience insights to engage, convert, and retain your customers. Understanding what motivates customers during Consideration stage consideration is key to convincing them a product or service is the solution they’re looking for. But what happens after you’ve captured website visitors’ attention? In part one of the Make the conversion webinar series, we explored the importance of the awareness stage. Once you take into account all the features mentioned above that make up the consideration stage, you should be well-equipped to start creating content centered around the consideration stage.

The Buyer’s Journey Stages (Pre-Purchase)

Start with a welcome email that identifies key pain points and offers a preference center. For additional resources, the Marketing Funnels Directory offers templates and tips to help you create effective content that turns prospects into customers. Craft stories that resonate with your audience and address their concerns. They look for content that provides clear comparisons and practical insights to guide them toward the best choice. These prospects take a careful, structured approach, often using tools like evaluation matrices and conducting internal discussions. Check out part 4 of this series, where we look into the “Decision Stage” with extensive details and highlight processes to improve your final conversions.

These are the concepts most important to buyers in the consideration phase. Call attention to your landing page by sharing your company’s “fix.” Call attention to the fact that you are a provider of a service, for instance, a “web design service” or “wealth management service.” You will want to personalize them to your industry. Maximize your online traffic from prospects by including specific keywords into your phrases.

Once a lead has been qualified as sales-ready, it‘s time for proactive, personalized follow-up to keep them moving toward a purchase decision. Brainstorm who your target customers are, what questions they have, what motivates them, and how you compare to leading competitors. By following up with your customers post-purchase, you can offer satisfactory customer service and support for questions they may have. For example, imagine your competitors are receiving a lot of press in industry trade magazines. These steps include 1) the awareness stage, 2) the consideration stage, and 3) the decision stage.

Still, ultimately, the answers to these questions will provide a robust foundation for your buyer’s journey. Do buyers have expectations around trying the offering before they purchase it? When buyers investigate our company's offering, what do they like about it compared to alternatives? Understanding exactly how our product or service solves their problem compared to our direct and indirect competitors. Buyers will take their time to think on what to do next; all you can do is provide resources that give them more insight about your offering. When buyers are in the awareness stage, they recognize a challenge or opportunity that needs attention.

This is when comparing your brand against competitors becomes a crucial factor. When shoppers are in the consideration phase, they often evaluate different options to find the best solution for their needs. They also pay attention to whether or not your brand replies to individual reviews, and what those replies look like.

Testimonials and reviews can offer that reassurance by showcasing how your product has helped others in similar situations. They offer social proof and detailed, narrative-driven evidence of success, which is crucial for buyers in the consideration stage who are seeking validation. Therefore, the most effective content offers detailed information, real-world examples, and clear comparisons to guide them toward making an informed decision. During this phase, buyers are actively comparing products or services to determine which solution best addresses their needs. These ads remind potential customers about your brand and encourage them to return to your website for further exploration, making them a critical tool in driving conversions. Retargeting ads allow you to stay top-of-mind for buyers who have already interacted with your site but haven’t yet converted.