Influencing Buyer 2.0: Aligning PR to the Buyers Journey

Buyers – businesses, consumers and governments — are changing their behaviors, driven by changes in the communications channels and technologies they use to research purchases and share information with peers, bringing new opportunities and challenges for public relations to the fore.

Earned media mentions hold particular sway with potential buyers, which means PR can deliver measurable top line business impact. To capitalize on this trend, however, PR professionals must improve and rethink the way they create and distribute their messages, designing them to support the purchase decision and aligning them with the buyers’ journey.

Buyer 2.0: Informed and In Charge

Buyers are influenced more by their own research than they are by traditional sales pitches. By the time a buyer contacts a company, the buyer has already made many decisions, including the elimination of potential vendors. In fact, much of the buying cycle has already taken place.

Additionally, buyers seek advice from their friends and peers, whose opinions they trust more than advertisements, according to an article in “Harvard Business Review.” (1) They also look to traditional and online media for information — consumers consult more than 10 sources before making a purchase, and nearly 9 out of 10 reach what Google calls a “zero moment of truth” before making a final buying decision.

3 Challenges for PR

There are many touch points along the decision path the brand at which the brand can inform and influence the decision, presenting public relations pros with three primary challenges:

1. Produce content buyers want to consume and share. Brand storytelling — wrapping a compelling narrative around your product or service — delivers the message buyers want and produces the results that companies need if the message reaches a brand’s audience.


2. Produce valuable content frequently. Consider all outbound messages – press releases, blog posts, social updates, articles, press kits – a part of the external dialogue and fine tune messaging to align with buyer interests.


3. Distribute content across channels that achieve visibility for their brand. Producing brilliant content is one thing. Getting it viewed by a company’s target audience is another hurdle altogether.

Right Message, Right Channel, Right Result

Today’s consumers are savvy and discerning. They don’t want to be tricked or misled, but they do want to be informed and entertained. They trust themselves to make smart decisions and respect companies — and the public relations specialists — who make it easy to access the information they seek.

Public relations professionals face a new challenge in the age of the Buyer 2.0. But the way to meet the challenge is clear:

Deliver the right message on the right channel and you will get the right results. For an expanded discussion of how PR can benefit from supporting the buyers journey with outbound messaging, read the free article: Rethinking Your Marketing Communications and PR Strategy: Understanding How Buyer 2.0 Impacts Your Approaches to Demand Generation; Closing Gaps in Your Content Marketing Approach.

Influencing Buyer 2.0: Aligning PR to the Buyers Journey