Why AI Is Reshaping Every Stage of the Buyer’s Journey

0:08We've always said strategy before tactics. AI really is just another tactic, but it's one that affects really the whole system. And I think that's probably one of the greatest differences. A lot of the tools and technologies that have come along have given us more access to potential customers, have given them more access to us. I think we need to rethink, or not rethink, and just revisit, and then intentionally think about each of those stages of no like, trust, try, buy, repeat, and refer in an AI-driven world. Hello and welcome to another episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast. This is Jon Chance and I'm doing a solo show today.

0:46I want to talk about something that I've been talking about for about 20 years, maybe. And that is the buyer's journey, the customer journey. So with each impending new platform or new technology, you hear all kinds of people talking about, oh, this changes everything. Marketers have to do this. Marketers have to do that. Now, certainly the websites came along, social media came along, mobile came along. I mean, all these things have created this seismic change. Well, AI is clearly in that category of creating change. But what I've always found interesting is most marketers talk about the changes in marketing.

1:26And I think the thing we sometimes forget to think about is the way that somebody buys or chooses to buy now has changed every bit as radically as anything to do with how we do marketing today. And so I think we have to consider that idea with every decision we make is not just how do I master this technology or how do I use this new tool? It's how is the buyer using this? Buyers, customers are using AI every bit as much as the marketers that are trying to market to them. So I've been talking about this idea of the customer journey and the buyer journey as being really a significant element that frames what we do as marketing.

2:08Really, since I wrote Ductite Marketing back in 2005, I created something I called the Marketing Hourglass, which I think was a better representation of the customer journey in that the traditional customer journey that had stages of awareness and interest and desire and conversion, and usually stopped there, was really incomplete and that we didn't drive people in this linear path. Once websites came along, the linear path, I think, kind of went away because the buyer all of a sudden started having the ability to find information and to know everything about an organization before they ever reached out for a sales call.

2:46And so I think that's the day that the buyer journey really changed. And I created the Marketing Hourglass, our seven stages. You've probably heard me say I'm here before. Know, like, trust, try, buy, repeat, and refer. And I was trying to do two things with that idea, is that we have to intentionally think about what the buyer is doing, what they want to do, the questions they have, the goals they have at each of those stages, and that we guide them. We can't necessarily move them in a linear path. In fact, I've used in many presentations a slide where I've got all these lines running all over the place that the buyer journey is not this straight line, that it is people revisit.

3:23There's almost this continuous loop of going back in one stage and then backing up to another stage and that we have to just put ourselves there in the path, I guess, that they're going to eventually travel. But I also spent a lot of time in the hourglass and the idea behind the shape of the hourglass is that post-purchase, once somebody becomes a customer, there's a whole lot that we can do to build momentum, to retain those customers, to turn them into repeat customers, to turn them into advocates and referral sources. And I think that's where a lot of people leave a lot of money on the table is by not even thinking about those.

4:01Well, that from 2005, say to 2020, has really been the thinking that I've had, at least around this idea of the journey and something that we've brought to hundreds of businesses. But I think we're in another change as well. I think the stages are fundamentally the same, fundamentally true. But I think AI is rewriting that journey. Most buyers, B2B, B2C, I think are today going to a chat GPT type of tool before they ever visit our website in a lot of cases. Or maybe they're asking AI to summarize reviews, to compare features, even write RFPs based on what they want to see. And I think that what that means is that we have to rethink everything that's going on at every one of these stages.

4:42How people find us, how they come to know about us is changing dramatically. What are we doing to make sure that we're showing up in the new ways that they're doing research? What are we doing to make sure that the brand mentions of our brand are allowing us to be favorably compared to competitors? That's one of the things I think that a lot of these tools that make research so much easier, analysis so much easier for the buyer are really allowing people to do a lot more comparison shopping, I think, than they ever did before, because let's face it, it's fairly easy. It's changing the way that I think buyers still need this content.

5:22But I think that the AI engines and even the traditional search engines and the way they're using AI are really going to change how people consume and find that content. You know, recommendation engines now, I think, are going to become the norm. People are going to have or want to have, they've already demonstrated this, a frictionless, maybe self-service type of buying experience. We're starting to see people buying very expensive B2B type of services without a salesperson involved. And I think, again, we have to think in terms of, does that mean we need to have price estimators? Does that mean we have to allow people to put together their own packages all the way down to the point where they then just need, okay, what's the link to buy this or how do I sign the contract?

6:12So I think that we have to make a point of really revisiting this entire idea of a journey map for your business. Where are buyers using AI today in their process? What are they asking? What tools are you asking yourself? Ask ChatGPT what it says about your business and about your competitors. You can get some real insight to what that customer is going to find when they're out there. We got to rethink SEO. Ranking is not the key anymore for keywords. It is answering. Today's SEO is about answering questions and the content that is going to drive SEO is about answering questions. So tools like they also answer the public.

6:56Like even chat GPT can really help in formulating what those questions are that are being asked so that you can be an answer engine. I think that's how we have to think about it. That's why, you know, for a number of years, I've been saying every one of our web pages needs to have FAQs on it because that's the content that the search engines really want to turn up because that's how people are using a search today. All right. So I've been talking about technology and parts of the journey that involve self-service. And I think that's going to be a real key. It's like we have to actually get people to the certain point with this ability to do self-service, ability to do research, just knowing that they are doing that.

7:36But then, you know, how do we add the human touch, the stories, the differentiators, emotion, trust? I mean, these are things that AI can't really replicate. I mean, it can replicate your voice, but it can't replicate the true stories, the true emotion, the human touch that really exists only in your business. And I think we have to double down on those things. So it's not a matter of saying, oh, we need to be more authentic and we need to use stories. I mean, we've been saying that for a long time. I think we now have to actually double down on bringing small communities together, doing more things, more one-on-one video, more one-on-one meetings that with clients or with prospects are going to need to be part of it.

8:17It's like they want to come up to that certain point. But once you've built that trust and actually want to take the next step, I think it's that human touch that's going to be a key part of it. So, you know, we've always said strategy before tactics. AI really is just another tactic, but it's one that affects really the whole system. And I think that's probably one of the greatest differences. A lot of the tools and technologies that have come along have given us more access to potential customers, have given them more access to us. But I think AI actually impacts the entire system. So I think we need to rethink or not rethink and just revisit and then intentionally think about each of those stages of no like, trust, try, buy, repeat, refer.

8:58in an AI-driven world. It's already part of your buyer's world. So the question is, are we adapting? Do we need to overhaul what we're doing? Maybe not, but we definitely need to start testing. And not just testing, testing and asking. Testing and engaging prospects and customers. Is this the approach that they want? Because I think we're all learning and of course things are changing dramatically. So this is something I love to talk about. As you know, I've been talking about it for years. I think that it is something that I know that it's something we're going to continue to talk about in the very near future.

9:33And I appreciate you coming along this journey. No pun intended. Anybody who is bought into this idea of the customer journey needs to really start analyzing every single one of these stages and start thinking about ways that you need to, A, make it a better experience for the buyer and B, add that human touch that is quickly going away in a lot of what we do. All right. That's it for today. I appreciate you tuning in. Love those reviews. Let me know how I can help you. It's just john at ductapemarketing.com.