Page 9 - Digital Marketing Resource Book

Facebook: Digified Marketing Solutions
Twitter: @Dmarketlead_Sol
@DigifiedM_Sol

Stages of the Buying Cycle

Content should be shaped to give a different message to those at various stages of the buying
cycle. For example, for those people that are not already familiar with your company, you’ll
need to create a different message than you do for those who have already made a purchase or
are at the buying stage.

The buying cycle can be broken down into four main stages:

1. Discovery/awareness – the stage at which the customer is getting to know your brand
and determining if they need your product or service.
2. Research/education – the stage at
which the customer identifies the
problem that your product will
help them to overcome and
research potential solutions.
3. Comparison/validation – the stage
at which the customer looks at the
options they have and begins to
narrow down the choice of
supplier.
4. Buying – when the customer
makes a decision on who to make
a purchase from.

As you can see from the image above, different types of content can be created to match each
stage of the buying cycle. During the awareness stage, you can engage best with your audience
on social media and through blogging – both on your own site and on other industry sites and
LinkedIn.

However, during the research and comparison phases, your audience is looking for more solid
evidence that they should do business with you and this is where more complex content such
as eBooks, whitepapers and webinars can come into play. Again, you can get involved with
discussions on social media – especially LinkedIn Groups, Quora, etc., so that you can further
boost your standing as an industry thought leader. The latter should be important to any

www.digifiedmarketingsolutions.com
admin@digifiedmarketingsolutions.com
Digital Marketing Resource Book