Is the Buyer's Journey Now a Crowded Playing Field?

The buyer's journey is a crucial component in any company's Inbound Marketing strategy. That said, let's begin with its definition.

In broad terms, the buyer's journey describes the research and evaluation process a prospect goes through before making their buying decision to purchase a product or service. It consists of a three-stage path to purchase:

Awareness Stage

• Buyers start out by seeking helpful, relevant, educational content
• They conduct research and gather information to address a problem or pain point
• Buyers then begin to establish solution requirements

Consideration Stage

• At this stage, buyers have defined their problem or pain point
• They consider the solutions available to them within the industry
• Next is the evaluation of vendors who will deliver the solutions

Decision Stage

• Buyers now know the solution to their problem or pain point
• They develop a short list of vendors they believe to be a good fit
• The purchase is made from their preferred vendor

Looking at industry-leading software providers of Inbound Marketing platforms, ranging from HubSpot to Salesforce (with Pardot) to Adobe (with Marketo) and others, they all present similar data about the buyer's journey. Namely, that an eye-popping 96% of first-time visitors to your website are only in either the first stage, Awareness, or the second stage, Consideration, not the final stage, Decision. Which means they're not ready to buy. Let me repeat that because it’s key: 96% of first-time visitors to your site are not yet ready to buy.

When the prospect does reach the Decision Stage, when they are finally ready to make their purchase from either your company or your competitors, the important question you have to ask is this: Have you done everything possible with your Inbound activities to ensure your company’s brand was top-of-mind? If you have, you’ll win the business.

But for your company to be top-of-mind with prospects, you’ll need more than great content and robust Inbound tactics. In the buyer’s journey, which today is a crowded playing field, you’re fighting for the top spot in the prospect’s mind. To win, and win consistently, you can no longer rely on the same old approach to Inbound Marketing. What you must do in today’s competitive environment is strengthen and augment your current Inbound strategy. How? Well, there’s a missed opportunity waiting to be seized by those who recognize it.

That opportunity can elevate your brand to superstar status. It’s called Inbound Branding, which is a highly-effective and powerful top-of-mind awareness technique. It includes creating and leveraging differentiated brand assets at key customer touchpoints. These assets act as memory anchors in your content messaging and Inbound tactics to further bolster brand recognition and recall. That way, when the buyer is ready to make a purchase decision, you've set yourself apart with a distinct competitive advantage, giving your company a top-of-mind brand position.

The cumulative effect of leveraging these assets will unleash the power of your company or corporate brand (also known as your core brand) and help you beat the competition, win more customers, and grow your revenue.

From my perspective, as a brand strategist with over 15 years of in-depth Inbound experience, the missed opportunity for B2B companies using an Inbound strategy is the lack of, or in some cases, the complete non-existence of Inbound Branding.

Since your competitors have either implemented or are about to implement an Inbound Marketing strategy of their own, you’ve got to take your Inbound game to a much higher level and bring out something extra, something more alluring to the prospect. It’s what I call ‘Star Power.’

The Star Power of your brand is represented by your combined brand assets – from your core brand to your products and services to the other assets that you’ve created and leveraged. Added together, the cumulative effect is that, properly executed and deployed, your brand assets represent extraordinary Star Power, and that Star Power is what will give your company a top-of-mind brand position with the prospect, come decision time. Leveraging your ‘select’ brand assets (i.e., those assets that are the most suitable) is a must-have Inbound Branding technique that plays a vital role in your branding and promotional efforts to help you win the battle of the buyer’s journey.

For a next-level approach to your Inbound Marketing strategy, check out my newly-released book (published in November 2024) entitled, Inbound Branding: How to Unleash the Star Power of Your Brand and Win the Battle of the Buyer's Journey. The book was written for Inbound Marketers, executives and other business professionals seeking to take their Inbound Marketing strategy to all-new heights. The book is available now on Amazon here.

So, if you’re looking to do everything possible to ensure that your company's brand is top-of-mind come decision time by your prospect, you need the techniques and the insights of Inbound Branding. I’m confident the techniques outlined in this first-of-its-kind book will provide the steps required for any company or marketing professional to outsmart, outflank, and outperform competitors in the game of Inbound Marketing.

To learn more about this topic or to discuss brand management solutions provided by Hardball Marketing, use the link below to schedule a complimentary consultation with me.