Enter the customer journey. Buyers tend to go through four distinct phases before deciding to purchase or repurchase a product or service. If you know what your customer is looking for, you can use content more strategically. A white paper might not be right for a returning customer but a webinar on upgraded product features could be.

The four phases in the customer journey are discovery, consideration, decision, and relationship.

No matter where a customer is at on their journey, content matters. According to Demand Gen Report’s “The 2014 B2B Buyer Behavior Survey,” 65 percent of buyers said that the winning vendor’s content had a significant impact on their purchasing decision.

In the discovery stage, buyers become aware of a challenge or opportunity and actively seek a solution. To change the status quo of your potential customer’s mindset, you need to introduce your point of view and establish credibility.

In the consideration phase, buyers identify several possible solutions and compare and contrast the benefits. Here, you can help buyers narrow their options by introducing your solutions and positioning your company to meet their needs.

During the decision phase, buyers confirm, justify, and finalize their transaction. When it comes to customer outreach, at any stage of the journey, 79 percent of best-in-class marketers rate blogs as more effective than any other tactic.

During the relationship stage, satisfied customers become advocates for your brand and buy again over time. As a matter of fact, in a Forrester survey, 40 percent of business buyers cite “peers outside the organization” as influencing their decision making. The key here is to use content to drive advocacy and future sales.

So now that you know the stages in the customer’s buying journey, how can you accelerate their journey with meaningful content? See our infographic for more on the customer journey, and why using your content wisely is so important.