You may have nailed down your strategy for the awareness stage, but what about the next stage? Each piece of your inbound marketing campaign matters because they lead prospects further down the buyer’s journey. The consideration stage in particular is what teaches the buyer about the possible solutions to their newly identified problems. But if you don’t do it correctly, the growth of your influence will become stagnant. To make sure that doesn’t happen, here are the most common mistakes to avoid during the consideration stage.
1. Your Content Isn’t Related
When someone is in the consideration stage, they’re looking for more information on how to fix their problems. So in order for you to remain on their radar, you must provide them with content that is related to their problems. You might have a new of piece content that you’re using to market a new product, but just because you want people to see it, doesn’t mean you should be sending it to everyone on your contact list. There’s no need to push this information on someone whose problem doesn’t relate to it. This can be a big issue because, not only will you lose their interest, you’re also throwing away a possible sale. On the other hand, if you deliver content that will help a prospect deal with their issues, you begin to gain their trust and they start to see your company in a more positive light.
2. Moving Too Quickly Through The Process
Some people get antsy with their inbound marketing strategy. They spent a lot of time creating content for the awareness stage so they just want to bypass the next steps and go straight for the decision stage. This is a huge mistake that will cost you too many customers. The consideration stage is all about a prospect weighing their options. They need the education necessary to choose what to buy and it’s up to you to provide all the information you can and in a timely manner so that you allow your prospects to make the best choice possible. In a world of instant gratification, you need to play the long game because it’s how you will get the best responses.
3. Social Media Promotion Is Only For The Awareness Stage
When a marketer hears social media, the awareness stage of an inbound marketing campaign usually comes to mind. But many forget that you can use social media as a great way to enhance your consideration stage. Create follow up posts for content that targeted the awareness stage. These posts should provide educational information that relates to problems you’ve solved with past content. So, if you posted and promoted a blog that discusses why your blog isn’t gaining a larger audience, you should provide a follow up social media post discussing different solutions on how to fix this. Social media also allows you to connect directly with someone who is in the consideration stage so that you can form a one-on-one relationship with them.
4. Tracking Isn’t Necessary
One of the biggest things you can do wrong is not track what your prospects are doing. You should know what they click on, what they look at, which pages they come back to and which pages they don’t. The more you understand their process, the more you’re going to know about their problems and what types of solutions they're looking for. You can use the tracked information to tailor your content accordingly or to send them messages with items you know they haven’t looked at, but would benefit from. But the most important reason to track someone throughout this stage is so you know when they’re ready to move to the decision stage. We talked about how moving them into the next stage too fast is problematic, but doing so too slow can also be damaging. This ensures that you do so at the correct time- when they know everything they need to know and are ready to buy.
If you find yourself making these common mistakes, don’t worry they’re easily fixable. It can be difficult to get them right and it may seem like you’re spending way too much time baiting your prospects, but if you avoid these four pitfalls and take the time necessary to help people out, you are going to see the reward soon enough. It just takes patience and perseverance.
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