The Importance of Intent in the Buyer’s Journey
The Buying Journey is the process a buyer goes through to make a purchase. Each stop along the journey identifies the intention or purpose of the searcher when he or she googles’ something.
Intention frames well-written content – gives it purpose. You need great content to increase your site’s organic traffic from people who want to buy (qualified visitors).
How Does Intent Move?
Intent flows in a cycle:
1. Research Intent – Customer has a question, need, or curiosity
2. Compare Intent – Point out what makes your solution the best option
3. Buy Intent – Closing the Sale
4. Succeed Intent – Keeping the Customer through after-sale support
What does Intent do?
Intent’s influence is vast. It determines the web page’s
- Tone
- Format
- Function
Intent frames how to phrase your keywords to weed out the digital window shoppers with no intention to buy. For example, your customer is curious about shoes. If you use the word “shoes” as your keyword, you will have several billion (over 4.6 billion to exact) other pages with the same keyword.
How To Be Heard Over The Noise?
That is too much competition with too much volume to maybe get that one person who is interested in buying your shoes.
The sale could happen. But so can a snowstorm in Georgia during a heatwave. It is technically possible but highly unlikely.
The query “shoes” is not enough information. To get the customer to your site, you need to know
- Who: Shoes for men, women, or children?
- Type: Boots, sandals, slippers, athletic, hiking?
- Special Features: Cleats, support insoles, walking support, or moisture-wicking?
- Color?
- Brand?
- The list continues
Intent frames the use of the keyword “shoes” to sift through the casual passersby to focus on those whose problems you want to get paid to solve.
Compare Intent Example
For example, use Compare Intent to show how your product, service, or solution meets the customer’s needs.
With search engine optimized and well-written product pages, you can stand out from the rest – even when you are required to use the manufacturer’s product descriptions.
Then show how your solution is better than your competitor.
Why Does “Compare” Intent Matter?
Compare Intent answers the most feared interview question on the planet: “Why should I choose you over ABC product or service?”
If you are not providing comparison pages with links to buy, your competition will. Goodness only knows what they are saying about you.
Take back the narrative. Define the conversation with your own, well-optimized (SEO’d) comparison and product pages.
Take-Aways
Good content moves your customer through each phase of the Buying Journey. Great content does it without your customer leaving your website.
- Intent has stages in a cycle
- Intent determines tone, format, and function of your web pages.
- Intent frames the use of the keyword
- Use search engine optimized (SEO) content to transform the potential buyer into a life long customer.
Want to leverage intention to get your business ahead?
Call us at Springboard Writing Concepts, we would be happy to help!
