For this buyer’s journey-meets-AI blog, we’re going aquatic. Do you feel like AI showed up at the pool and won’t go away? If you’re on team, ‘welp, this is how it is now,’ this blog is for you. Today, we’re diving into the deep end of how to choose swim and use AI to help your content along in the buyer’s journey.
Wait, what is the buyer’s journey?
As our frequent visitors know, our team at Content Matterz enthusiastically designs marketing content around the buyer’s journey. New here? Hello! The buyer’s journey is a prospect’s path to becoming a customer.
To keep our water-themed thought stream afloat, think of the buyer’s journey as a very specific training regiment an elite swimmer might do to help win a big race. They might start by researching how to improve their stroke only to realize they must also adjust their nutrition, add in some weight lifting, and insert more lane work to build up stamina. Oh, and maybe they’ll work with a specialized coach. Keep in mind, this race is not tomorrow but perhaps a few months away — the journey is all about the process they will take.
In the B2B landscape, a buyer often follows a typical sequence of realizing/discovering they might have an issue, figuring out what they can do to solve said challenge, evaluating options to help solve the problem, and then choosing a vendor to help them do it. Sales and marketing teams must create content designed for each stage of this process to support the decision to purchase the product or solution.
While either journey (swimmer or buyer) sounds like a lot of work, there are tools to help out along the way. As you can probably guess, it’s AI.
4 ways AI can support your buyer’s journey
In the sink-or-swim marketing world, we need all the help we can get to better connect with our customers; AI is just the ticket. Here are four ways AI can help you along the buyer’s journey:
Use AI to save time
Marketing to match the buyer in their journey takes a lot of time! Not that anyone is holding a stopwatch for every heat, but you want to quickly disperse the right content at specific times to ensure your prospect has everything they need to move to the next stage. AI can be your best friend, especially if you use a marketing platform like HubSpot.
When you leverage a tool like HubSpot’s AI Campaign Assistant, you can quickly generate copy for landing pages, emails, or ads in just a few clicks. This gives you precious time back to focus on tasks that need more human direction. (And if you need assistance setting up your HubSpot, we’re pros and would be happy to help!)
Get over writer’s block
Sometimes, the hardest part of getting started is just that: getting started. Where our swimmer friend might ask a tool like ChatGPT for training program ideas just to get the ball rolling, you can use this platform (or one of a hundred others) for help with your bank page program.
With the right prompt, AI can:
- Outline your content
- Perform keyword research
- Enable you to quickly understand the audience
- Brainstorm different title options
- Provide feedback and suggest revisions to improve clarity, coherence, and engagement
Superpower your customer service with chatbots
Just like how prolonged chlorine exposure affects the eyes, the line between AI and automation grows blurrier by the day. Marketers can now utilize AI-powered chatbots in numerous ways to streamline operations and enhance customer engagement, including providing instant support, handling routine inquiries and freeing up human agents for more complex tasks.
Additionally, chatbots can help with lead generation by engaging website visitors, qualifying leads, and capturing essential contact information for further marketing efforts. They can offer personalized recommendations, guide users through the sales process, and even collect valuable feedback. And, let’s not forget that AI-powered chatbots assist marketers in delivering targeted content, promoting events and boosting social media engagement.
Talk about making a well-timed and placed splash!
Adjust and refine your approach
This one isn’t a tip, so much as a reminder. Lately, our team has been thinking more critically about our approach to AI. And what we’ve learned is that it boils down to asking more frequently, “Why are we doing this?” This questioning also applies to your buyer’s journey and customers; you must remember to check how things might have changed for them and adjust accordingly.
By climbing all the way up—just like a diver on the high dive platform—and examining your objectives from far away, you can apply big-picture thinking (and spot when that big picture looks different). Sometimes, your buyer’s journey will shift and you need to adjust how you approach it. AI is a great tool to bring with you for that.
A thing to remember is that just like your customer, AI is always evolving. And while you can spend all the time looking for the perfect tool (or swimsuit, if you still have the pool on your brain), every season will bring a new style.
Get the help you — and your AI-supported buyer’s journey — need
At the end of the day, AI is only as powerful as the data you input. Successfully reaching and converting prospects takes serious strategy and even more serious content that, yes, meets buyers along their journey to help move them along. Whether you use AI to kick-start your planning or swim the final leg of the race, having a partner next to you at the starting and finishing line can make all the difference.
Ready to see what happens when your AI-boosted content gets aligned to the right buyer’s journey with the support of an agency that just *gets* it? Just reach out; we’re ready to jump in.