Perhaps someone mentioned your name to them in passing, or they met you at a networking meeting, or they saw something you posted on social media that attracted their attention.  In each of these situations, if they wanted to know more, they could continue to look for more information about you online. By making sure you have the right content for them in the right places, you can create a deliberate journey for your prospects and help move them from stranger to customer. 

Marketers break the customer journey from stranger to valued customer into four main stages:  Attraction, Interest, Consideration, Decision Making. Visualize a funnel where the total universe of people is at the top – the widest point. Those who eventually become our customers and clients are at the bottom – the narrowest point. The width is a representation of the number of possible customers.  What we know is that for our businesses, the value of each individual  in that funnel increases as they move to the bottom of the funnel.  As they move through the funnel, they move from possibly interested to actively seeking a solution for a problem they believe they have.

What you do to attract people who are at the top of the funnel is different from what you would do to engage those who are further down in the funnel and actively shopping for products or services like the ones you provide.  This is because prospects need different kinds of information at different points in their journey. 

Attraction

At the top of the funnel, you can assume most people are not familiar with you or your brand. So, your messaging efforts need to highlight your brand and communicate high level messages to get your brand to resonate with your target audience.  It is only when someone recognizes your brand that they can move further down the funnel.  Branding campaigns, consistent messaging on social media, and email campaigns can all work together to create that recognition and feeling of familiarity.  The end goal of these activities is to move your prospect towards being a customer.

Interest

Once there is recognition of your brand, then you need to generate real interest.   Here is where you can heavily leverage what you know about your prospects.  Create messaging on your platforms about the problems they have that they may be trying to address when they use your services.  Attract their attention by helping them visualize the positive outcomes of  solving those problems by working with you. Highlight how you solve their problems and what it is about your offering that is unique.  Share case studies demonstrating the impact of your work.

Consideration

When your prospects have become interested, they may be moving closer to the bottom of the funnel, to seriously considering a purchase. Address this phase by ensuring that the information they need to decide is readily available to them. At this point, they may be comparing your offering to other options. Share detailed information on your website and in your social media that helps them evaluate your products and services.  Doing this serves two purposes – you are educating your prospect so that they can make a good decision and you are establishing your own credibility as an expert, increasing the likelihood that they will buy from you.

Decision Making

Ultimately, at the “decision making” point, your objective should be to remove any barrier (also known as “friction”). Information you share for clients at this point should be focused making them feel confident in their decision.   This is a key area where testimonials are useful. In addition, you need to make the “buying process” as easy as possible. For example, if you have an e-commerce website, make sure it’s as fast and easy to make the purchase on your website as it is on Amazon.  If you are offering services, make scheduling services fast, simple, and clear.

Your Next Steps

Consider giving your business a check up and see where you may need to adjust your content to help prospects move down the buying funnel and become new customers.  The time you invest now could pay off with new business growth this year!