How To Personalize The Tech Buyer’s Journey

Making a tech purchase is a big deal, and one that is likely to impact most departments in a company. The decision-makers for this purchase are in control of their own journeys. They are doing their research and looking for what product will best meet their needs long before they talk to your sales team. Targeting these decision-makers in the right way can help you accelerate the sales cycle. So, how do you reach them?

Personalization: it’s time to stop focusing on you. Outbound marketing techniques like cold calls, email blasts, and traditional advertising, won’t work when your leads have started on their path to purchase before interacting with your tech company. Personalization in the tech buyer’s journey is about building a relationship with the person who found your blog post, tweet or white paper. Think about when you meet someone new; you listen and learn things about them, and then use that information to have a better conversation that aligns with their interests. People are not interested in being sold to and feeling like they are just another number in your quota. They want to have a conversation with someone they trust.

Start With a Customer Persona

First and foremost, your customer persona is the foundation of your efforts to personalize the tech buyer’s journey. If you haven’t already, take the time to establish who your customer persona is. You won’t be able to produce content that is relevant and valuable to your customers if you don’t know who they are, and what questions they have.

Remember, you can’t personalize for someone you don’t know.

So, What Exactly is the Buyer’s Journey?

HubSpot defines the buyer’s journey as “the process buyers go through to become aware of, evaluate, and purchase a new product or service.”

There are three possible stages for a person to be in: the awareness, consideration, or decision stage. To personalize the tech buyer’s journey effectively, you need to know what information your customer persona is seeking at each stage.

Content is King

Inbound marketing strategies for your tech company are based on offering the right content to the right person (your customer persona) at the right time. This strategy becomes the key for personalizing the tech buyer’s journey.

With your content, quality over quantity is a good rule of thumb. According to data cited by Kissmetrics, 48% of B2B tech decision makers will only consume between 2-5 collateral assets before making a purchase decision. This may vary somewhat based on your industry or particular product, but it is important to keep in mind that you have a limited opportunity to make an impression on someone; make every interaction count. If you are looking for more great tips on creating content and optimizing your blogs check out out free whitepaper Business Blogging! 

What Type of Content Should I Be Producing for Each Buyer’s Journey Stage?

Awareness

In the awareness stage, a person has identified a problem they are facing and are looking for solutions. Getting more people to see your content starts with perfecting your awareness strategy to generate more leads.

• Blog posts
• Social Content
• E-book
• Tip-sheets
• Checklists

Consideration

In the consideration stage, people understand what their problem is and have begun to eliminate solutions that aren’t a match for them. It is also important to have a lead nurturing strategy during this stage.

• White paper
• Webinar
• Testimonials
• Case studies

Decision

At this point, a lead is ready to make a decision. Content in this stage should make your leads fully understand how your product works and will solve their problem.

• Free trial
• Consultation
• Product literature

Don’t Bail After the Sale

It costs about five times as much to obtain a new customer as it does to keep a current one. After you’ve put so much work into personalizing the tech buyer’s journey, don’t neglect your customer after the deal is closed. Consider setting up a series of emails to send to your customers at set points within their first 90 days with your product, highlighting features and reminding them of where to find additional support. They need to see the ROI for their new tech product.  

Developing your customer personas and using them to create content will help you personalize the tech buyer’s journey, and move the conversation forward.