The consumer decision-making process has been around in marketing for a long time and should be considered when creating new content. In this blog, we’re looking at targeting users at different stages and how to create content.
What is content creation?
Content is anything you create and share on your business’s behalf. This content can be shared on a number of platforms, such as social media, your website, email marketing materials and more.
When creating content for a business, there is typically a wide range of topics to choose from. You can share industry news, tips, business announcements, testimonials and more.
A common misconception is that all content needs to be heavily focused on selling your products or services. Instead, some of your content should spark interest and encourage users to interact with your business. It’s a good idea to show your offering in multiple ways, for example, some sales content combined with more intriguing content.
How to encourage engagement online
Social media is a great way to increase brand engagement. Many business owners try hard to ensure that their business is on every platform, but you don’t actually need to. The best thing to do is find your target audience and set up a page there.
If you sell mainly to other businesses, there may be better platforms available to you than if you sell only B2C. If you find that your target audience appears to be using all platforms, you might decide to use them all.
How to find your target audience
Establishing your target audience is very important and should underpin all of your marketing efforts. If you don’t know your audience, how are you supposed to spark their interest and engage them?
- Assess your current customer base – find out why they like your business
- Conduct competitor research
- Identify those who aren’t part of your audience
- Create personas to make targeting easier
- Monitor business and industry trends
- Revisit your target audience regularly to ensure you meet their needs
One of the reasons why some businesses choose to rebrand is because their target audience has changed. There are many reasons why this can happen, such as a brand no longer offering what it once did.
Knowing your target audience means that you can focus on creating content that actually appeals to them. You can consider fonts, colours and content types to see how they perform.
One hard truth is that not all of your content will perform how you want it to. The important thing to take away from it is that you can make adjustments and find out ways to improve so that your audience is more interested.
Targeting users at different stages
There are five stages to the consumer decision-making process. These are:
- Needs recognition
- Information search
- Evaluation of alternatives
- Purchase decision
- Post-purchase evaluation
Ideally, you should create different pieces of content that focus on these various stages. However, you may find that some of the stages will cross over in your content.
Needs recognition
This stage is all about informing the consumer that you’re there and that you have a product or service that they need. You’ve heard the saying that you should sell the benefits rather than the actual product; here’s the perfect time.
Which content works?
- Blogs
- Social media
- Email marketing
Information search
The search is on! These consumers know they have a problem that needs to be solved, but they might not be sure how they can. At the information search stage, you should make sure that your content is informative and eye-catching.
Which content works?
Evaluation of alternatives
These consumers know what they want, but they’re assessing all of the other features to find which one meets their needs. It’s a good idea to have a range of content that promotes other USPs or features of your business here. Do you have free delivery? A 10% off code? All of these could give you a competitive advantage over other companies.
Which content works?
- Website
- Social media
- Email marketing
- SEO
Purchase decision
These consumers are ready to make the purchase and will likely head to your website. To ensure that they have a good user experience, your website should look appealing, work efficiently and be easy to navigate.
Which content works?
- Website
- PPC marketing
Post-purchase evaluation
This is your consumer’s chance to tell you about their experience. If you’re trying to collect business reviews, now is a great time to ask users for their feedback. You may be able to offer them an incentive for leaving a review. Then, you can share the reviews far and wide to encourage other consumers to purchase from you!
Which content works?
- Social media
- Website
- Email marketing
When creating your content, you should ensure that your brand is consistent. This includes using your brand’s colour scheme and fonts. If you’re unsure where to start, you should sit down and plan a social media strategy. Maybe every Monday, you’ll post a specific type of post; it all depends on what works for your business.
There you have it, each stage of the consumer decision-making process broken down and the best content to use for each stage. Now that you’re all clued up, you can start targeting users at different stages with impressive content that users will want to interact with!
If you need support with your social media strategy, don’t hesitate to contact us. We’re always happy to help.