Understanding the Buyer Journey with Jana / ep169

You know when you have a conversation with someone and you just know that it is too valuable to not share with others? Well this is something that happens often with me and my friend Jana of Jana O. Media.

Jana is a Pinterest expert and it’s not the first time she’s been on the podcast. In episode 134, we talk all about Pinterest marketing, which is what she specializes in.

But this conversation is a bit different and one that is important: the buyer journey.

I feel like this topic doesn’t get discussed enough in the online small business space and many times we are so focused on each individual marketing channel that it’s hard to see the big picture of how everything is working together.

In this conversation, we cover:

• What is the buyer journey? Where does that concept come from and why should we care?

• How can we intentionally design our own buyer journeys?

• Capturing data from the actual journey of someone finding you online.

• How to take this information we learn and apply it to our websites and marketing.

Listen to the episode 169 here:

You can also watch our interview on YouTube here:

How did we get into this topic of the buyer persona?

Jana and I have been talking about the buyer persona for a while and I think it’s because both SEO and Pinterest marketing have a lot in common, especially since we understand that just because someone searches for something in Google or Pinterest and finds it, doesn’t mean they are immediately going to buy. There is a journey and that is what creates the ecosystem of your marketing.

I also am fairly aware of this because of all my years in the corporate world doing Web Analytics; we were always looking at all the different marketing efforts and how they were performing.

Having a framework for how people experience your business and brand, and how to meet them within that journey can be helpful to understand why certain marketing is performing a specific way, while others are different.

It’s okay if most of your sales come through email for example. This could just be the way your marketing ecosystem works.

Our intention with this conversation is to help you understand your own buyer journey.

Where does the concept of buyer journey come from?

In 1966, Eugene Schwartz wrote a book called Breakthrough Advertising and in it, he talked about the 5 stages of buyer awareness:

• Completely-Unaware: the person has no awareness that they even have a problem.

• Problem-Aware: they are aware of their problem, but don’t know the solution yet.

• Solution-Aware: they are aware of the solution, but haven’t found a specific product/brand to help them.

• Product-Aware: they are aware of what you sell, but isn’t sure if it’s right for them.

• Most-Aware: they are onboard with your product, they just need that extra push to purchase (like a deal or time-sensitivity).

It’s important to keep in mind that in each of these stages, there is different marketing and language that can impact the buyer.

It’s interesting to consider what parts of your marketing, whether it be specific platforms, copy, and images, are touching different parts of the buyer journey more intentionally (which is what we get into in this podcast episode 169).

Your particular business marketing strategy can fit different people's awareness and problems and solutions.

How about repeat customers? Do they fit into this buyer journey?

Everyone says it's easier to sell to someone who's already bought from you. If this is the case, it’s important to go back and review this process for multiple buyers. Asking questions like what else would they enjoy and how would other offers serve this at this time.

This journey is never-ending in a way. And it’s important not just in getting new customers, but keeping your raving fans and repeat customers happy.

How can you be more intentional about the buyer journey for your own business?

A lot of this may feel out of your control, but at the same time, we can choose what marketing platforms we focus on and our overall content strategy. We can choose to use certain language to target people at each of these stages.

Here are some questions to ask yourself before crafting your buyer journey:

• What platforms have my customers found me on the most?

• What platforms do clients who’ve already bought from me like to hang out on?

• What problems do your potential clients think about when they are problem-aware but not solution-aware?

• What problems do your potential clients think about when they are solution-aware but not product-aware?

• What kind of keywords and searches do you think your potential clients are doing at each stage of the buyer journey?

Once you’ve answered these questions, review your own marketing strategy and reflect on which stage you are currently targeting the most. Are you targeting more problem-aware, solution-aware, or product-aware people? Are you also including some most-aware language on sales pages and other copy?

Finally, brainstorm 5 ways you can integrate more of the missing stages into your marketing strategy. This could be through a specific content campaign or by including some of this copy here and there.

---

Let us know in the comments how it went for you and what questions came up!

More about Jana

Jana O. is a marketing expert and Pinterest specialist for online coaches, course creators, and service providers. She got started working online in 2016 as a Virtual Assistant. Upon discovering that a client was leveraging Pinterest to get leads and sell her services – Jana went all in on the platform. She has since developed a specialization in Pinterest marketing for lead generation.

Now she helps her clients and students automate list growth so they can automate a steady stream of targeted leads for their courses and programs –  and set themselves up for long-term business success. (And yes – she does that with Pinterest!)

She’s on a mission to spread the word: When set up properly, Pinterest can attract soulmate clients – with a small investment of time each month.

Jana has an awesome free class “5 Secrets for Using Pinterest to Grow Your Audience & Get Clients”. Access it here: JanaOMedia.com/FreeClass