Inbound marketing is the art of speaking to your customers in the right way at every stage of their customer journey.
Sounds complicated? Well, it isn’t.
Generally speaking, your customers will be in one of the three following stages:
- Awareness: when they realize that they have a problem that needs to be solved. At this point, they will be looking for answers to that problem.
- Consideration: when they have found all of the possible solutions to their problem and they are considering what is best for their current circumstance.
- Decision: when they had decided in the best solution now they need to choose the best provider for the solution they are looking for.
Imagine the following scenario. You have been invited to a camping trip, that included a lot of hiking and a you look into your wardrobe you realize that you don’t have any shoes that are suitable for hiking, but you have never hiked before, so you go online and you start researching this particular type of shoes. At this point you will be in the awareness stage because you are looking for information related to your current needs.
A savvy hiking shoe company will have information related to the different options that you can have in hiking shoes, a guide on how to get fitted, the recommended shoes for beginners or advanced hikers and so on. If you are the start point of the research, it is likely you build trust with your prospective customer.
When you have gathered all the information you need relating to the hiking shoes, you need to decide what are the features and price points you want for your shoes. At this stage, it is likely you are going to look at reviews and testimonials from other people regarding what you want until your knowledge is cemented and you are sure of the type you need and want.
This stage is called consideration and most companies can engage with you with the relevant features of their products and testimonials from customers and suppliers.
Now you are at stage that you know exactly what to buy and you need to decide which brand is the right one for the shoes you want, this is the moment of truth for many companies as it is when you decide where to put you hard earned cash.
For companies that build trust along the way and help their customers as they go along, this process is a magnet for new leads coming through the door over and over again. For those that enter the competition at this point is a bit harder.
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