Welcome back to the exciting world of the Buyer’s Arc! Now that we’ve covered the first content type, Awareness, it’s time to delve into the second and third types: Research and Compare.
Buckle up and let’s continue this transformative journey!
Content Type #2: Research
Imagine you decide to paint a room in your home.
The first step is to research your options. If you’re new to painting, you might search for contractors or explore how to paint the room yourself. Even if you know the basics of painting, you still need to choose the type and color of paint that suits your needs.
Considerations like the room’s purpose, the presence of kids, pets, or a partner who loves to touch walls can influence the choice of paint with special durability features.
Similarly, once your prospects become aware of the problem they need to solve, they embark on a research journey to find the best solution for their specific needs.
During the research phase, prospects seek recommendations from friends, attend webinars, or dive into the depths of Google and YouTube in search of answers. Your research content in marketing should demonstrate your method for guiding prospects from their current situation (Point A) to the desired outcome (Point B).
Here’s a crucial aspect: when sharing your solution, make sure to explain why you do things the way you do. By revealing the philosophy behind your chosen modalities, tools, or perspectives, you create a second paradigm shift for your prospects.
They realize, “This is what I’ve been missing and why I haven’t been able to solve my problem until now.” When this shift occurs, your offering takes the lead in their decision-making process.
Types of Content to Support Prospect Research
Surprisingly, the types of content that create awareness also play a vital role in supporting prospects during their research phase. Remember those case studies, examples shared in interviews, and captivating stories we mentioned before? They continue to be valuable assets that capture the attention of both prospects who are unaware of their problem and those actively seeking a solution.
In the research phase, you can also utilize webinars, articles, videos, speeches, and other solution-oriented content, along with your sales pages. These resources provide valuable insights and further establish your expertise.
Now, let’s dive into some questions to guide you along the way:
- What can your client expect to achieve by working with you?
- What modalities, tools, techniques, or philosophies do you employ to help clients achieve their desired results? And why do you prefer these approaches?
- What are the steps you will guide them through to progress from Point A to Point B? (If you have a signature system or proprietary process, this is where it comes in.)
- What is important about each step, and what can clients expect to achieve at each stage?
- In what timeframe can clients anticipate the desired results if they diligently follow your process and take action?
- What is the structure of your offer?
- Is it a one-on-one, group, VIP day, or year-long mastermind program?
- Logistically, how will the program work? (Call frequency, expected number of participants, call structure)
- How is the content delivered? (Recorded, live, self-study, online assignments, etc.)
By keeping your ideal client and the symptoms/scenarios you identified in the Awareness phase in mind, you can create a message-to-market match tailored to their unique situation.
We’ve covered the first two stages, Awareness and Research. Now, let’s dive into the third stage: Compare.
Content Type #3: Compare
This phase is where the bulk of the decision-making process takes place, and it consists of two parts: the External Comparison and the Internal Comparison.
External Comparison
During the External Comparison phase, your prospects are evaluating your services or programs against other options they may have tried before or are currently considering. They weigh their desired outcome against their current situation, determining if the investment and associated risks are worthwhile.
Interestingly, the comparison and decision-making process at this stage is not purely logical. Your prospects aren’t simply sitting with a checklist and a comparison chart. Instead, their evaluation is more subjective, influenced by their values, readiness, connection with your personality, and life circumstances.
This is why your content marketing must encompass a symphony of different content types. It’s not just about presenting information; it’s about creating a full-spectrum experience for your audience.
When you share diverse types of content, your prospects get to experience your personality, resonate with your stories, gain insight into how you perceive the world and solve problems, and envision what it would be like to work with you. Winning over their logical, emotional, and intuitive sides is crucial. Once prospects have decided, even tentatively, to move forward with hiring you, they enter the Internal Comparison phase, where they assess which of your offers best suits their needs.
Internal Comparison
In order to address the Internal Comparison effectively, it’s important that your website provides crystal-clear information about each of your offerings and the intended audience for each. Go beyond the “big picture” and specify the ideal starting point (Point A) for each offering and the corresponding outcome (Point B) it can help clients achieve. Transparency with pricing, where appropriate in your market, also aids prospects in making informed decisions.
Surprisingly, many people book consultations without thoroughly reading websites. This means that for high-ticket offers, most of the Internal Comparison phase occurs during the consultation itself.
To optimize these consultations, I employ a couple of strategies that help clients reach 90% of their decision before the call. On my website, each offering is clearly described, including details about the deliverables, outcomes, process, and investment.
When prospects book a consultation, they are directed to a page featuring a brief video overview of my offers, along with content that covers my philosophy, methodology, and establishes credibility.
Essentially, I provide pieces from each of the previous decision-making stages.
This way, regardless of where prospects are on the Buyer’s Arc when they schedule a call, they can make an informed decision swiftly. (I’ll provide more details on this in the example campaign in the final article in the series.)
Types of Content to Facilitate Prospect Comparisons
While some offers can be directly compared, such as different software options or internal offer feature tables, prospects often face decisions that are not apples-to-apples. They contemplate whether to proceed on their own, assess their readiness for the work you offer, and evaluate whether your approach will be more effective than others.
To address these questions and compare your services with other options, consider exploring common modalities or tools used in your industry. Present your philosophy and methods as an alternative worth considering. This could be accomplished through in-depth articles or blog posts, or by briefly mentioning more well-known methods and their merits during webinars, highlighting how your unique approach differs or excels.
If there are widely accepted and recognized methods in your industry, such as the DISC assessment or Agile Coaching, creating content that directly compares and ranks these methods can attract significant attention and generate search engine visibility. (Side note: A client of mine used this approach on LinkedIn and received thousands of views on his article within a couple of weeks.)
Here are some questions to help you brainstorm topics for content that aids prospect comparisons:
- What advice do your ideal clients frequently hear from experts, the media, or social/cultural norms regarding their problem, which you may not necessarily agree with?
- Example: “Just put your nose to the grindstone and get things done,” or “Fake it until you make it.”
- What solutions have your prospects already tried or considered?
- From their perspective, why didn’t these solutions work, stick, or prove sustainable?
- From your perspective, why didn’t these solutions work, stick, or prove sustainable?
- How does your approach differ from or resemble these approaches?
- How do the outcomes from these solutions differ from or resemble yours?
- What additional benefits are there to working with you instead of someone else or pursuing a DIY approach?
In our final article in this series, we’ll explore the fourth phase of the Buyer’s Arc and provide a comprehensive example campaign that ties everything together. Stay tuned!
