The Stages of the Consumer Buying Process and Why Marketing Matters

May 13

I'm jazzed and determined and lit up to talk to you today about the consumer buying process.

If you are a marketer, if you sell anything online, I don't care what it is, if someone pays you for something, you need to be aware of the consumer buying process.

When I discovered the stages of the consumer buying process, as we will talk about in this post, I quickly recognized how I, as a marketer, could make sure I was attracting leads at every stage.

But, before I get too far ahead of myself let’s start with the basics.

What is the Consumer Buying Decision Process?

Let's start by talking about John Dewey, the philosopher behind the consumer buying decision process stages.

John Dewey created this five-part system, which includes:

Stage One: Problem or Need Recognition

>> This when the customer is aware of their problem.

Stage Two: Information Search

>> When the customer is in the process of finding information to solve that problem. That's when we go to Google and other fun areas to find information to solve our problem.

Stage Three: Evaluation of Alternatives

>> The customer has found the solution to their problem, they figured out there's a way to solve it, now they're weighing which way am I going to go? This is when they’re product shopping or brand shopping, trying to figure out the best one to solve our problem.

Stage Four: Purchase Decision

>> They've decided on the brand, on the company, and on the product that they are going to purchase.

Stage Five: Post-Purchase Evaluation
>> This is when they're sitting there and going, "Did I make the right decision? I don't know. Can't wait for my product to come."

A major part of the final stage is closely related to how you onboard or welcome your new clients and customers. In a recent blog I shared my 8-step client onboarding process, so be sure to check that out after you read this post.

The Consumer Buying Process Begins When…

...the consumer has identified their problem.

Every consumer will go through the process at a different pace. Some will spend a lot of time in Stage Two, while others will be ready to make a purchase decision in a matter of days or even hours.

As marketers, this process, and where consumers begin, is important because you want to make sure that your content is reaching people at every stage of the process.

Creating content that is valuable and accessible to people at each stage can drastically improve your marketing efforts and conversions.

Ok, now time for a curveball because, in true Michelle fashion, I am going to share an alternative 5-stage buying process that is designed to specifically support you with your content creation.

5 STAGES OF THE CONSUMER BUYING PROCESS FOR CONTENT CREATORS

So we’re still focused on five stages, but you're going to notice there's a bit of a difference when it comes to designing a process for content creation.

STAGE 1: NOT AWARE

So, unlike the traditional stage one, I believe there is a group of individuals who experience symptoms or daily “red flags” that haven’t identified the true problem enough to seek out a solution. These are my Stage One-ers.

Maybe they've recognized that something might be up.
They are feeling a little off, maybe they're like, "Oh, I think I want to leave my job. I'm not sure. I think I might want to get healthy. Something's wrong. I don't know why."

The reason that it's important to think of this stage is that many people who are coming to discover your brand are at a place where they don't know the specific problem they are experiencing - maybe they can’t even identify or communicate what is happening clearly.

But through your content, through your education, through your marketing, you can help them become aware of the specific problem.

You can educate them on that, moving them quickly through the decision-making process.

STAGE TWO: PROBLEM AWARE

Stage two is when they are officially aware of the problem. So you'll notice that I add a little bit of extra in there from John Dewey's philosophy, as it applies to content creation. This is the stage, like his #1, when they are aware of the problem.

They know that they've got a problem, they've identified what it is, can describe it and find themselves starting to relate more closely to others with similar struggles, problems and pain.

This stage is all about connecting with them and their pain points with your marketing and content creation.

STAGE THREE: FINDING A SOLUTION

During stage three, your ideal customer is now aware of the problem and is now looking for solutions.

We find many ideal customers at this stage are looking for How-to and educational content, looking for quick solutions to their problem, but they're not necessarily aware that there's a product or a service that can solve that just yet.

Once they move into the third stage, they are aware of that solution. So they're starting to say, "Okay, I know how to solve this problem and now, I want to figure out the best avenue for me," which leads us to stage four.

STAGE FOUR: PRODUCT AND SERVICE AWARE

You'll notice in stage three, is when you're getting a lot of Google search results and your ideal customer is searching for brands and businesses to help them solve their problem.

Then stage four is when they're aware of the very specific offers and solutions to their problems. Their search has narrowed and they're starting to dive deeper into specific brands, yours hopefully because you delivered such awesome content 😉

At this stage, you’ll hear many entrepreneurs talk about moving from cold to warm (i.e. into brand awareness).

That's when people tend to move from being a cold audience to a warm audience.

They're starting to consume more of your content and getting to know you and this is when the know, like and trust factor is elevating.

STAGE FIVE: PURCHASE DECISION

Then finally, in the final stage, they are ready to purchase. Now, this is when they have taken out their credit card, they've decided to go with your brand and they are ready to make a purchase online or in person.

You'll notice there are a lot of similarities between what I'm sharing with you and what John Dewey originally shared about this client process, but there are some differences as well and I love to and encourage you to focus on the ones that I shared with you as it applies to content creation.

Why is that important? Because we have to understand that sometimes people are coming and discovering our brand, not fully aware of how to solve their problem.

They simply have a problem and now they're seeking out answers and information.

That's why, as I mentioned before, some of those How-To videos and knowing your ideal customer and where they're at, can be helpful in coming up with titles and content to share.

As somebody moves through the buying process, they're looking for specific solutions to that problem so integrating specific solutions for your audience can be incredibly helpful as well.

Then, and this is where I think a lot of marketers miss the mark, you always want a way to attract people who are ready to purchase.

Creating the educational content is helpful, we’ve already discussed this, but I see so many entrepreneurs miss out on ways to attract ideal customers who are ready to purchase right now - from you!

When someone is ready to purchase, where do they go? Google and search engines like Pinterest and Youtube.

One thing I noticed a couple of years ago is that we were getting a lot of traffic from Google for people who were specifically looking for personal branding coaches and personal branding consultants - at the final stage of the customer journey.

These customers were very, very quick to move into a high-level offer that I have called my VIP Intensives, typically without consuming any other information from me. Why? Because they were at stage five.

They already knew what they wanted and they were ready to invest and found Brandmerry.

HOW TO CREATE WELL-ROUNDED CONTENT

Now that you understand the stages of the buying process, it’s time to switch your focus to a well-rounded marketing approach to address every single part of this five-stage process.

So what are some things that you want to have in place? I know you're curious.

There are three things to have that will support you in making sure that you are hitting every single stage of this five-stage process with the content that you're creating every single week.

#1 Content For New Audience

Your first goal is to make sure you’re creating content for new people (aka new community members). So this is typically content that people are discovering on Pinterest, YouTube, through your blog, or search engines.

When we are in the first stages of the buying process when we're not quite sure the problem or the solution to our problem, we might be just browsing things that we know are wrong on Pinterest, looking on YouTube, searching on Google.

When we're further along in the buying process, think stage four and five, we're specifically looking for products and services. That's why marketers mustn’t just focus all of their attention on social media and instead have avenues for people to discover them.

This is also why advertising is very effective because we can target people that we know are our ideal customers, get our content in front of them and bring them in. But we don’t need to rely on advertising dollars, we can utilize organic reach through search engines to achieve the same results.

Some of the content that works well with this is How-To content, educational content, and knowing your audience so well that you can use their language in your copy.

So for instance, if I am a marketer and I am specifically marketing to highly sensitive individuals, empaths, you might say.

If my audience doesn't know that they are empaths, if they don't carry that label as being an empath, then I can't use that in my marketing, because it's not going to help me attract new people.

If they're at some of the beginning stages, then I want to talk about more of the feelings and the everyday things that are happening, how they're highly sensitive, how they tend to possibly be more affected by things that happen at work than maybe their colleagues.

These are things that they've told me are happening in their day-to-day that I can use in my marketing.

If I am using the term empath but they don't know that's what they are or they are not carrying that label, it's not going to help me bring them in.

Same with perfectionism. I talk to a lot of perfectionists. Many of my clients are perfectionists or recovering perfectionists, but sometimes I won't use that in all of my marketing because some of my clients aren’t aware that that is something that they have. But they do know the symptoms.

So goal number one is to create consistent content focused on bringing in new people. Some of my favorite platforms for this are blogging, Pinterest, and YouTube because they are search engines.

#2 Warm Up Your Audience

Goal number two is content that warms up your audience. This is focusing on those stages two through four when people are discovering that you have a solution to the problem and they want to get to know you.

We know that trust leads to purchase decisions.
Storytelling leads to purchase decisions.
Emotional connection leads to purchase decisions.

So this is where you get to amp up the storytelling, this is where you get to share more edutainment, those fun videos, Instagram Reels, show up on Instagram, and share behind the scenes of your life to build that know, like, and trust factor with your audience.

Creating content that warms up your audience is important.

Once somebody finds your blog and joins your email list, how are you staying in contact with them? Emails, Instagram, podcasting, all those different things are incredibly helpful for moving someone through the client decision-making process.

#3 Site-Wide SEO

Then finally we have the third goal, and this is something that every single business needs to set up today.

Do not wait to do this.
This is your site-wide SEO.

You have a website. I know you do. You spend a lot of money on it and a lot of time on it, in fact, probably too much. So when it comes to getting traffic to your website, specifically traffic that is in the fifth stage of the buying process, meaning they're ready to pull out that credit card, you want to make sure that your website is optimized for those keywords.

The people who typically find me through my SEO strategy are coming because they are ready to make a purchase decision and I have those searchable keywords on my site-wide SEO. It's something that once you do your research and you set it up, you don't have to worry about it again.

This shift has made the biggest difference in my business. I have a lot of resources on SEO and using SEO on your website, here on the Brandmerry Blog, but it's also something that I teach in-depth inside of Brandmerry Academy.

Brandmerry Academy is my membership community that teaches you how to market your business without social media. You can go to Brandmerry.com/academy to learn more about that and join the waitlist to hear when doors are opening again soon.

CONCLUSION

Now, remember, you must be touching your ideal customer at different stages of the buying process.

We all go through each of these stages, some faster than others. So when you wear this hat when you're creating your content, it's going to help you make sure that you're consistently bringing in new clients, nurturing those new clients, and ultimately creating consistent revenue.

Thanks, John Dewey for dropping us those original five, sorry, I made some modifications, but there you have it.

If you haven’t heard, I have a free Repurposing Guide that will support you in creating content for each of these stages. Head to brandmerry.com/repurpose to get an inside look on creating a repurposing plan and a workflow for actually getting your content out into the world, simplifying that process, making it easy peasy to show up consistently for your audience.

Watch the full video here!

P.S. Ready to build a revenue-generating brand? One that not only stands out online but also makes it easier than ever to create high-value content? Tune in to my free brand class and learn my Build a Better Brand Method. Watch now at brandmerry.com/class.