Your Buyer’s Journey

Most consumers are making 60% of their buying decisions before ever contacting or engaging with a business. If you’re not creating an online presence and experience where potential buyers can learn more about your business, it’s likely you’re missing out on a lot of clients (and it’s costing you lots of money!).

If you want to stand out from the crowd and really grow your business then it’s time to step up your marketing game and create an experience for your potential clients. The first step to strategic marketing is understanding your buyer’s journey: aka the path that your clients take to discover you as their solution.

But before we dig into the buyer’s journey, let’s stop for a second to think about what the core of marketing is.

Marketing in it’s most basic sense is telling a story. The best marketers grab someone’s attention and take them on a journey through stories.

Marketing in it’s most basic sense is telling a story.

There are three very basic stages in the buyer’s journey when investigating a solution for a problem they have or looking to make a purchase. The secret is knowing the stages, weaving them into a cohesive story, and helping your buyer’s find the answers/solutions to their needs.

Awareness Stage

The first stage of the buyer journey is awareness. During this stage the buyer may not be aware that they have a problem or that a solution is needed. For example, if someone is having lower back pain, they may not know the cause of the pain. You can produce content that will help them identify (aka made aware) that their core may be weak.

More examples of this would be someone finding your YouTube video on healthy lifestyle habits, seeing a testimonial video, seeing your Facebook post or ad about Healthy Weight Loss Nutrition Recipes or even reading a blog post you did on the best core exercises.

Discovery Stage

Once a buyer is aware that they have a problem and are in need of solution they move to the next stage which is the discovery stage. This stage is where they begin looking at all the possible solutions.  They know that they have a problem/challenge, and are looking for possible solutions to solve it. Going back to our back pain example, they now know that they have a weak core, and they are looking for ways to strengthen it to eliminate their pain.

Remember that stat about 60% of the buying decisions being made before a customer engages with a business?

The buyer will begin looking through your website, your business social media pages, checking out review sites, talk to some of your clients, etc.

Buyers are looking to find a solution that connects with them and that they feel understands their problem and has a solution for their specific needs.

How do you create this content and experience for the buyer?

It’s not difficult, but you must first understand who this buyer is and what they want.  Do a little research and spend time creating a profile for your Ideal Client.

You need to know:

• Your target market and how you serve them
• An detailed profile of your Ideal Client
• Your marketing differentiator and positioning statement

This information will help you determine the blog posts to write, videos to create, testimonials to use and sites that you need to have a presence on to ensure you’re in front of your Ideal Client when they are looking for solutions.

Decision Stage

The final stage of the buyer’s journey is the decision stage.  This is where they will reach out to schedule a consult or Success Session with you or sign up for your trial programs.

To complete the back pain example, you may recommend strength training 2x-3x a week to a client that is experiencing back pain. They know they have a problem, know some potential solutions, and are at a place to decide if strength training with you is the answer. Most likely if you’ve told the story effectively and it aligns with their objective— you’ll get a new client. 😉

Unfortunately, most fitness pros are only getting 20% of the leads they could be getting by neglecting the first two stages of the buyer’s journey. If you only focus on the final stage, you are missing the opportunity to make more potential clients aware of your products and services.

Once you’ve taken the time to get to know your Ideal Client more closely & spend a bit of time creating a great sales funnel — you are well on your way to getting more leads and clients.

Want to create a winning marketing strategy?

At Fitness Revolution, we have worked with hundreds of fitness business owners to help them create their ideal client(s) & develop their marketing strategy.  And now you can access the same resources inside The Academy.   Inside you’ll discover the equivalent to getting your Fitness Business MBA!   Join today and see how we’ve helped trainers double, triple or even 10X their businesses…