{"id":5313,"date":"2015-04-03T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-04-03T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.globalizationpartners.com\/2015\/04\/03\/think-like-a-buyer-the-buyers-journey\/"},"modified":"2021-01-04T13:09:45","modified_gmt":"2021-01-04T13:09:45","slug":"think-like-a-buyer-the-buyers-journey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.globalizationpartners.com\/2015\/04\/03\/think-like-a-buyer-the-buyers-journey\/","title":{"rendered":"Think Like a Buyer: The Buyer\u2019s Journey"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The current age of technology has made information easily accessible, which has resulted in a better-informed buyer.\u00a0 Customers typically can get a majority of the information they need to find a solution to whatever problem they are facing by doing a simple Google search.<\/p>\n<p>Companies are now tasked with identifying what they can do to attract customers at each phase of the Buyer&#8217;s Journey as part of their Inbound Marketing strategy.<\/p>\n<p>The Buyer&#8217;s Journey, according to Inbound Marketing pioneer, HubSpot, is the active research process a potential buyer goes through leading up to a purchase. It helps marketers identify what information is most valuable to their buyer at each stage.<\/p>\n<h6><strong>There are three major stages of the Buyer&#8217;s Journey:<\/strong><\/h6>\n<ul>\n<li>Awareness Stage: top of the marketing funnel<\/li>\n<li>Consideration Stage: middle of the marketing funnel<\/li>\n<li>Decision Stage: bottom of the marketing funnel<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.globalizationpartners.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/gpi_buyers20journey_2.jpg_499x246.jpg\" alt=\"GPI_Buyers Journey_2\" width=\"499\" height=\"246\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"footnotes\">Note: image from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hubspot.com\">www.hubspot.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The Buyer&#8217;s Journey is meant to complement the Inbound Marketing methodology.\u00a0 It forces marketers to think like their buyers and produce the right content, to the right people, at the right time.\u00a0 There are enough commonalities between buyers across all industries for the Buyer&#8217;s Journey to be applicable for any company.<\/p>\n<div>\n<h5>Awareness Stage<\/h5>\n<p>The awareness stage is the point in the Buyer&#8217;s Journey where a customer becomes aware that they have a problem they want to solve.\u00a0 They aren&#8217;t looking for a solution yet, however, they are only gathering information.\u00a0 Buyers are just beginning to define their problem and this is a great time for marketers to gain potential leads&#8217; awareness. Companies should offer information on the possible causes of the problem and suggestions on how best to solve the problem in order to attract buyers. It can be a useful tactic to ask potential leads to submit a few contact details in exchange for some of the content offerings. \u00a0\u00a0Examples of the content to offer at the awareness stage are:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<ul>\n<li>Company Blogs<\/li>\n<li>Whitepapers<\/li>\n<li>eBooks<\/li>\n<li>Checklists<\/li>\n<li>Webinars<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.globalizationpartners.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/gpi_buyers20journey_3_300x377.jpg\" alt=\"GPI_Buyers Journey_3\" width=\"300\" height=\"377\" \/><\/p>\n<div>\n<h5>Consideration State<\/h5>\n<p>The consideration stage is the middle of the marketing funnel.\u00a0 At this point, buyers are aware of the source of their problem and are looking for the best solution.\u00a0 This is the stage where buyers weigh their options and compare the competition.\u00a0 They have already gathered all the information they need on the problem and how to fix it, this is the time for marketers to show the strength of their products and\/or services. Examples of the content to offer at the consideration stage are:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<ul>\n<li>Case Studies<\/li>\n<li>Testimonials<\/li>\n<li>Product Comparisons<\/li>\n<li>Brochures<\/li>\n<li>Webinars<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.globalizationpartners.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/gpi_buyers20journey_4_300x360.jpg\" alt=\"GPI_Buyers Journey_4\" width=\"300\" height=\"360\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"footnotes\">Note: image from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.stidolph.nl\/inbound-marketing-de-buyers-journey\/\">https:\/\/www.stidolph.nl\/inbound-marketing-de-buyers-journey\/<\/a><\/p>\n<div>\n<h5>Decision Stage<\/h5>\n<p>The decision stage is the final stage of the Buyer&#8217;s Journey.\u00a0 This is when the buyer actually makes their decision on what company they are going to use to solve their problem.\u00a0 The buyer will be well-informed and fully prepared to discuss their problem and how they are hoping the solve it.\u00a0 The buyer will want to speak with salespeople and this is the time to close the deal and delight the buyer.\u00a0 Examples of offering at the decision stage are:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<ul>\n<li>Consultations<\/li>\n<li>Demos<\/li>\n<li>Free Trials<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.globalizationpartners.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/gpi_buyers20journey_5.jpg\" alt=\"GPI_Buyers Journey_5\" width=\"264\" height=\"326\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"footnotes\">Note: image from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.stidolph.nl\/inbound-marketing-de-buyers-journey\/\">https:\/\/www.stidolph.nl\/inbound-marketing-de-buyers-journey\/<\/a><\/p>\n<div>\n<h5>Summary<\/h5>\n<p>Marketers who strive to embrace the Inbound Marketing methodology and the Buyer&#8217;s Journey have the best chance at attracting visitors, converting to leads and ending with delighted customers.\u00a0 Marketers must define who their customers are, where and when they get their information, and at what stage of their buying process they are at.\u00a0 Customers want to be informed, not sold to.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<h5>Further Resources on Global Brand Management, Social Media Localization and SEO<\/h5>\n<p>You may gain further insight into global brand management, social media localization, global SEO and translating websites as well as other related topics by reviewing our resources and blogs<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The current age of technology has made information easily accessible, which has resulted in a better-informed buyer.\u00a0 Customers typically can get a majority of the information they need to find a solution to whatever problem they are facing by doing a simple Google search. Companies are now tasked with identifying what they can do to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":5314,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[1253,682,136,343],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.globalizationpartners.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5313"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.globalizationpartners.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.globalizationpartners.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalizationpartners.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalizationpartners.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5313"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalizationpartners.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5313\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15813,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalizationpartners.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5313\/revisions\/15813"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalizationpartners.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5314"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.globalizationpartners.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalizationpartners.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalizationpartners.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}