Many of the visitors that land on your website or blog are in one of the following 6 stages of buyer readiness. When it comes to what stage they’re in or how much buyer intent traffic you’re getting, it depends on the type of content you’re publishing. In this article we’re going to look at the stages of buyer readiness and how they relate to blogging and affiliate websites.
Let’s get straight to it.
The 6 stages of buyer readiness in affiliate marketing
A quick Google search will tell you more about the 6 stages of buyer readiness. In a nutshell though, they represent 6 psychological stages that a customer goes through when making a purchase for a product or service.
In the below list I’m just going to discuss each of the stages as it relates to things like affiliate marketing and content website marketing. These are my own opinions.
1. Awareness
This is a visitor that lands on your site that is aware of a problem they have. They know their problem exists, and would like to fix it, but they don’t know how. They’re likely hoping that our content can help them solve it. They are often willing to make a purchase in order to solve their problem if we’ve presented a convincing solution, which can mean a commission for us.
Search keyword example for someone in this stage: why do my feet hurt after hiking?
2. Knowledge
At this stage, the visitor has arrived on the site with some knowledge of their problem as well as how to fix it. They may have a vague idea of the types of products to buy or steps they must take in order to solve the problem. It’s our job to present them with the best option and convince them why it’s the best option. They are likely more motivated to make a purchase if given a nudge than stage 1.
3. Liking
At stage 3 the visitor that has landed on your content is not only aware that they have a problem, but they are beginning to develop some favorite solutions. There may be some products that they like better than others. Again, we can educate them further on these options and help them along their choice to the best option to solve their particular problem. This stage is a little more motivated to buy than stage 2.
Search keyword example for someone in this stage: hiking shoes vs hiking boots
4. Preference
The customer has decided the type of product they want and maybe even the brand, they are zeroing in on the exact product to buy. Their mind is almost made up but they still are partially in research mode. Their mind can still be changed at this point, and they are very close to making a purchase. They are likely still comparing different products and trying to decide the final direction to go in.
5. Conviction
In this stage the consumer has decided on the exact type of product or service to buy, but they are waiting to make their purchase. They are likely searching for the best deal and the best quality product. A lot of highly sought after keywords are being typed into Google in this stage. Stage 5 is often the traffic that everyone wants because it can be the most valuable, since no final decisions have been made yet other than a purchase will be made. This stage has the highest conversion rate and the most affiliate commissions.
Search keyword example for someone in this stage: best hiking shoes
6. Purchase
This is the final stage and the decision has already been made, so if you didn’t close the deal already then you’re out of luck. They may want some last minute information, but they’ve likely already decided the exact product they are buying as well as where they’re buying it. This would be equivalent to someone going directly to Amazon and adding the shoes into their cart and clicking purchase.
With that being said, if you know how to operate within the previous 5 stages you can get plenty of conversions.
How these stages relate to content marketing and blogging
Everything we do as bloggers revolves around e-commerce. Some type of e-commerce is responsible for you getting paid each month if you make money online as a blogger or content marketer of some sort.
If you run display ads, you’re getting paid because e-commerce shops and maybe big SaaS companies are running ads on your site. If you do affiliate marketing, you’re driving traffic to e-commerce stores who then pay you a commission on your sales.
These customers making these purchases online all go through the stages of buyer readiness.
Who you should target with your content
That depends on what your goals are. Are you mainly an affiliate site that wants to make sales? Then go for stages 3-5. If your goal is to be an informational blog that is monetized with display ads then I’d probably stick to 1 or 2.
Choose keywords that are going to attract the audience that make your site money in your preferred way. So first you need to answer that.
How to target different stages
You target different stages of the buying process with different topics, otherwise known as keywords. The first 2 stages will likely be in the form of questions or require an informational answer rather than a commercial one.
Plain and simple if you want to attract the high-converting audience in any niche, you’re going to have to target the people that type the word “best” before the name of the product they are searching for.
- best hiking shoes
- best camping tent
- best car cover
To name a few, you get the idea. When someone types in one of the above queries, they are in stage 5 and likely ready to buy very soon.
However if someone types in “are hiking shoes better for your feet” like the stage 3 example above, there is some buyer intent there. They’re aware of a problem they have a product that might fix it. There is a possibility for a conversion in that article, it just probably won’t be as high converting as a “best” article.
Conclusion
So this is something I’ve thought about often, the different stages of the buying process that various visitors are in when they land on one of my sites. First hand I know that my top 5 best articles bring in the most in affiliate commissions, but there are many “how to” articles that are mostly informational, that also bring in a good deal of commissions each month.
It’s just something to think about. Understanding the psychology of your audience can help you convert them into sales.