Small business owners often focus on getting more leads, but an effective lead generation strategy starts with understanding where a potential customer is in the buyer’s journey. The following excerpt from ASBA’s Forge Ahead: How to Generate Leads & Grow Your Business explains how to think through the awareness, consideration and decision stages.
“The Awareness Stage
At the awareness stage, a customer probably doesn’t know who you are. They have either recently realized or have decided to face a problem they have in their life. The customer would come across your business not because they are looking for you but because they are looking to solve their problem.
Your name might come up because of a Google search around the problem or product, and an article on your website appeared. Perhaps they posted on their social media, and a friend tagged you in the comments.
Make a list of the different Google searches you think your ideal customer would enter and start to think about the type of content you can create that would appear as a result. In doing this, you can begin to build on your website a 10x Pillar Page.
The goal of a 10x Pillar Page is to create content that is very sharable, accessible, and useful. It focuses on topics covering your product. Along the way, you can start to offer an invitation to the reader, inviting them to learn more about your business.
The Consideration Stage
The consideration stage might be the most crucial part of the buyer’s journey, yet often business owners skip over this step. At this stage, customers are beginning to establish relationships with various providers of the solutions that fit best with them.
When entering into the consideration stage, users become more willing to trade personal information to understand the solutions available better. Webinars or downloadable assets such as whitepapers and eBooks are good tools to offer customers at this stage.
The Decision Stage
In the decision stage, the customer has decided which solution is right for them, and now they are choosing from a set of providers. Most of the time, they are looking for assurance, evidence, and proof that the solution presented to them will work.
[Excerpt continues…] Reassure your customers that your solution works by sharing testimonies and case studies. Reiterate to your customers that you understand the problem they face and that you have the answer.”
Excerpted verbatim from ASBA’s Forge Ahead: How to Generate Leads & Grow Your Business. Reprinted with permission.
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