Getting started with Buyer Journey Content Mapping

Mapping content to the buyer journey is and essential success factor in B2B content marketing. Content should always be thought of in terms of the buyer perspective. Naturally many organizations are used to communicating from their own context, resulting in messages from themselves or regarding the products or services they offer. But in B2B content marketing we want to map content to the journey of the buyer. This is exactly where content marketing differs from traditional marketing.

In order to give some necessary structure with regard to issues arising from your audience and answers that can help people in forming their ideas, two commonly used marketing concepts can be applied: the buyer journey and the decision making unit consisting of buyer personas. Insights into these concepts will help you in determining what messaging in your content will work for which buyer and in which stage. Let’s get started with buyer journey content mapping!

The buyer journey

Commercial decisions are generally not made overnight. Decision makers undergo a process known as the ‘buyer journey’. Before making investment decisions, people generally first arrive at an idea. The current situation, for example, is no longer sufficient, or external developments create the possibility for new opportunities, or threats, which need to be dealt with. Subsequently the possibilities are examined, for which improvements can be made and implemented. Finally, the various options are assessed and decisions are made. This ‘journey’ can be divided into five stages:

• Discovery: the starting point is recognition or acknowledgement of a problem or challenge. Followed by acceptance that a solution must be found.
• Consideration: subsequently it’s necessary to find solutions. Internally wishes and requirements are reviewed and externally all the possibilities are lined up. This search generally ends with the preference for one, or a limited number of, suppliers.
• Decision: finally you move towards the execution of a choice. Therefore the chosen option must be justifiable and give the ‘feel good’ factor.
• Implement: after the actual purchase the product or service needs to be implemented or taken into use. As supplier it’s key to optimize this process.
• Use: finally the service or product is taken into use. Now it’s essential to turn users into fans!

The phase in which the buyer finds himself within their journey, influences the type of messages he is open to. Someone busy forming ideas, is not necessarily open to the hard sell, or a message pushing your unique selling points. Messages that stimulate the discovery phase, could be more relevant. Think, for example, of content related to trends, developments and possibilities.

The phases that comprise the buyer journey, can be translated to suitable messages as displayed in the diagram below. This will be your foundation for buyer journey content mapping.

Inspiring content

Content to raise inspiration is meant to activate the discovery process in a customer at an early stage of the buying process.

Informative content

Informative content is aimed at supporting companies, or individuals, in the consideration phase. In this phase you can for instance help setting up the right requirements, identifying pitfalls and reviewing all potential solutions to a specific challenge.

Convincing content

Convincing content is used for the actual promotion of your own solution. It can be sensible to distinguish stimulating content from other content. This way, the reader perceives awareness content and informative content independent from each other. Independence is important to retain the reader’s attention.

Assisting content

The purchase or investment, is followed by installation or use. This first confrontation with the product or service is the moment to form the basis of customer satisfaction. Through assisting content, the organization can, at this stage, provide maximum service to the newly acquired customer.

Binding content

The commissioning signals the start of the ‘permanent’ relationship with the customer. Content can play an important role in increasing customer satisfaction, brand engagement and customer loyalty.

The decision making unit

A smart B2B marketing strategy doesn’t merely look at the buying process, but also considers the various members within the decision making unit (DMU). The DMU includes the group of people with an organization that influences the decision making process surrounding the purchase of products or services. Kotler, inventor of the term DMU, defines six different DMU roles:

• Initiator: The initial problem owner that went in search of the solution to his or her problem.
• Users: The actual users of the products or services, they influence the specifications. Customers’ customers can fall under the category of users.
• Influencers: They influence the buying process by setting preconditions. They are in every layer of an organization.
• Buyer: The person that actually conducts negotiations for contract terms with the supplier.
• Decision maker: The person that eventually decides on the supplier.
• Gatekeeper: The gatekeeper takes care of the information distribution within the DMU and can therefore significantly influence the decision making process.

The DMU members can fulfill any number of roles during the buyer journey.

Buyer Journey Content Mapping Framework

If we combine the buyer journey and the decision making unit, we can establish a buyer journey content mapping framework. This content mapping framework provides an overview of the stumbling blocks and the motives involved in the buying process of more complex products and services. By analyzing and examining this content mapping framework on each item, we can establish the relevant communication messages per buyer journey stage. The figure below provides a basic illustration of a standard overview in such a content mapping framework. This framework can be set up for each product-market combination.

This simplified framework, for example, consists of a director, a manager and a user. In terms of discovery at executive level (director), his or her perspective is the starting point for shaping the relevant messaging. At this level, strategic aspects could be relevant. The executive board could question whether or not the organization is ready for the developments in the market. Furthermore, the executive board wants to have an idea of the relevant trends the organization should anticipate. However, if we look at the same phase (discovery) in terms of the user, aspects that could influence them to consider change are, for example, operational issues in the day-to-day functioning of the business.

Content format per buyer journey stage

Which content formats can best be applied, is of course an interesting question. The Content Marketing Institute. 2018 carried out relevant research on this subject matter. Approximately 1500 B2B marketers that took part in the survey, were questioned as to the effectiveness and the use of different content marketing tactics. The tactics that are perceived as most effective, are shown in the figure below.

The effectiveness of a format depends very much on the mapping to the buyer journey, but also, of course, on the quality of the content and reach of the audience. It’s impossible to single out one format or offer advice on the best application thereof. It is possible however, to logically map content formats to the buyer journey. In order to stimulate the discovery process trend analyses, vision and infographics can be suitable. The consideration phase, however, lends itself to formats that can transmit more in-depth messaging, for example, whitepapers, checklists and demos.

Furthermore, the chosen content formats must be suited to the DMU (Decision Making Unit) member they are targeted at. When establishing the content mapping framework for the use of online messaging, the DMU members and the phases of the buyer journey should serve as the starting point. As such, downloadable research reports and vision documentation can be interesting for executive board members, and whitepapers about organizational issues for line managers.

Here, individual content items are not standalone entities, but rather combined in order to reinforce one another. In the example above, research can be combined with roundtable sessions. But that same research, can give rise to, among other things, blogs for blogsites and infographics to be applied on social media. The same basic content is then used in a different context, aimed at different DMU members.

Your B2B content marketing plan

When it’s clear what messaging the organization will aim at which DMU members, or buyer personas, an important step has been taken. Based on this context, a tactical B2B content marketing plan can be established. The plan will contain a description of how the market will be approached, fed by the knowledge from the buyer journey and DMU.

The tactical B2B content marketing plan makes choices regarding buyer persona’s, messaging, content formats and media. This is not a one-time exercise, but a process that, based on the dynamics of the market and the response of, and interaction with, the target audiences, is continuously adjusted, expanded and developed. Forming the concept is the basis, the starting point of the tactical B2B content marketing plan. In order to further solidify the process and to provide the conversion from concept to market and organization shape and content, the content marketing plan includes:

• objectives
• starting points and preconditions
• choice in content formats
• production- and editorial planning
• (social) media plan
• conversion mechanisms
• organizational implementation
• technical implementation

Next steps

Download our e-book to implement the perfect B2B Content Marketing Plan!

Download our B2B Buyer Journey Template to organize a messaging workshop

Download our B2B Buyer Persona Template to develop personas