It's easy to grasp the basics of your consumer's buyer journey, but it can be a real challenge moving them from one stage to the next, particularly from consideration to decision. The first stage, awareness, can almost immediately persuade your target audience to consider your brand as a viable solution to their problem if you play your cards right, but it's not always so easy or even immediate to persuade them to go to the next stage and decide to take action.  

However, it's arguably the most important transition to encourage. After all, moving consumers from the consideration stage to the decision stage leads to converting your prospect into a customer and making a sale.   

Considering that 63% of consumers who ask for more information about your business or products will take up to three months to make a purchase— there's no time to waste. Speed up the process with our secret to moving customers from consideration to decision.  

The Consideration Stage  

The consideration stage is a lot like it sounds. It's the second stage of the buyer journey, where the consumer has already become aware of your brand and its product solution and is now considering their options between you and your competitors to determine which one is a better fit for resolving their problem.  

Following the awareness stage where blogs established you as an authority in the industry and introduced your brand, consumers are looking at all their options — which is why you want to continue establishing authority. Consider the following marketing tactics that will reach prospects at this stage: 

• Downloadable content — downloadable content like tips, checklists, templates, eBooks, and more can go a long way in benefiting your audience and building trust in your brand through resources that help solve a part of their problems. 
• Video content — particularly Live streams, webinars, and comparisons (your product/service versus a competition - without negative selling). Considering 82% of internet traffic is video, this is a popular method for your consumer's continued education on your brand and product.  
• Blogs and articles — by this point, your blogs and articles should take a new direction and layout all the options for your consumer to consider. Meanwhile, you should be sneaking your product into the limelight without coming off as salesy or disingenuous.  

The Decision Stage  

Moving forward into the stage where customers make their final decision and are ready to take action, it's time to step up your game and close the sale before your competitors swoop in.  

At this point, your content should all be aimed at positioning your brand and product as the best option for solving their problem. Marketing tactics that lead to closing the sale in this stage include: 

• Build trust and credibility — showcase all your best tutorials, customer reviews, and case studies, so consumers know what they can expect from you and that it's all positive. Nine out of ten consumers read reviews before making a purchase, three out of four shoppers say they trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations, and 56 percent of consumers read at least four reviews before buying a product. 
• Give them a piece of the pie — if you want consumers to choose you, why not give them a taste of what they would get to drive the sale home? This could be done through a free trial or even product/service demos.  
• Wrap it up — there should be no unanswered questions by this point, and the consumer should have all the detailed information necessary to make a decision.  
• Special offers and discounts — sweeten the pot with a special offer or discount on your product/service to encourage sales that might be 50/50 with a competitor. 

With that being said, it's also important to note that completing a sale in the decision stage does not mean your job is done. It only means you have more tactics to nourish relationships with your customers to promote loyalty, word-of-mouth referrals, and repeat purchases.  

What's the secret to moving customers from the consideration stage to the decision stage?  

The secret to moving customers from the consideration stage to the decision stage is quite simple and easy to execute once you get it down. It takes the right mix of educational and promotional messaging at the right times. 

For the consideration stage, you'll want to: 

• Help your leads understand the problem — use a mix of educational and promotional tactics. They may know they need Y or Z to fix their problem, but in-depth content (written and video) that educates them on the problem and how to resolve it will be more successful than simply saying you're the best product (i.e., show me, don’t tell me!).  
• Showcase your value — how the value of your solution and the results your client can get from purchasing your product. This is where something like a case study could make all the difference in laying out what the consumer can expect for results.  
• Give the limelight to past clients — focus on the problem, your solution, and positive results you've achieved for clients in the past. If consumers know you understand the problem thoroughly and have experience solving it, then they can trust you'll do the same for them. 

For the decision-making stage, you'll want to use: 

• Sales promotions — Use tactics that are promotional and help you sell your product or service, like sales promotions, discounts, freebies, and more. When a consumer gets a promotional product, they’re 83% are more likely to do business with the company. 
• Influencer promotion — make personal contact via a relevant influencer in your industry or an appropriate radio influencer aligned with your target market and have them promote your product to their audience. This can help boost your trust and credibility, especially since 70% of teens trust influencers more than traditional celebrities, 86% of women use social media for purchasing advice, and 49% of consumers depend on influencer recommendations. Not to mention influencer marketing campaigns earn as much as $6.50 for every dollar spent.  

There's no better time than now 

It's a challenge giving that extra consumer a push from consideration to a decision, but it isn't impossible with a mix of educational and promotional content to speed up the process. It's much easier when combined with an expert media partner who can help you find the right mix of educational and promotional tactics to convert your leads from consideration to decision.