Last updated May 11, 2022
Even if you know your way around a trade show and what it takes to get people to your booth, if you’ve been using the same tools for years, now would be a good time to invest a few marketing dollars to upgrade your trade show presence and create a big buzz around your booth (and your business!).
Growth Marketing Firm, Aug 16, 2021
(Last updated July 5, 2022)
The tidal wave of options available to buyer heroes can create an overwhelming journey toward your business. To help them along their way, you must first understand their experiences as they move through the three stages of the Buyer’s Journey: Awareness, Consideration, and Decision.
Growth Marketing Firm, Jun 29, 2021
(Updated March 31, 2022)
In last week’s Growth blog, we talked about how the Buyer’s Journey mirrors the journey of the hero and therefore decided to call our prospective clients “buyer heroes” (because they are).
This week, we’ll show you how appealing to the buyer hero at every step of their journey with valuable, high-quality content that aligns with their needs at each stage is fundamental to creating the trust that will make them yours forever (and inspire them to bring their friends).
Growth Marketing Firm, Jun 18, 2021
In 1949, American professor Joseph Campbell wrote The Hero with a Thousand Faces, an anthropological work that outlines the universal concept of the hero’s transformative journey in story and myth throughout time.
Campbell’s theory states that we create heroes that mirror exactly who we are. It's said that stories that survive over time are those that present characters with whom we can empathize because we recognize ourselves in them.
A famous example of this theory in our stories is George Lucas’s use of The Hero with a Thousand Faces as the scaffolding for Star Wars. He deliberately followed the structure that Campbell outlined to create the journey of Luke Skywalker.
Lucas envisioned Luke as the protagonist, but, when I was a kid (and a grown-up) Princess Lea was my hero. And that works, too! Literally, every character in any story is a potential hero because, at the end of the day, we’re ALL heroes. Even the villains (but that’s another story).
At some point early in every story, a guide or mentor appears who is uniquely qualified to empathize with and assist the hero.
If we apply Campbell’s theory to our idea of inbound marketing and the Buyer’s Journey, that mentor archetype represents your Business Development Team. Their job is to help the buyer make it safely and happily ever after to the sale that eases their pain.
Our Business Development Lead, Will Davidson, is going to show you the importance of entering the Buyer’s Journey at the right stage and how he ensures our client's safe passage home by applying this concept to his process.
Every one of us—every hero—begins a journey with significant pain: an abduction, a loss, a threat of imminent destruction, so, one could say that our initial problem creates our path. Otherwise, we might never grow, change, or leave home. The Hero’s Journey.
Along that path, we experience the pain of the initial problem or other problems that must be recognized, figured out, and solved. That, my friends, is often about being a buyer—seeking out an elixir that will soothe or solve the problem. The Buyer’s Journey.
Though Campbell’s structure has more detail, both theories have three main components.
| The Hero’s Journey | The Buyer’s Journey |
| Separation | Awareness |
| Initiation | Consideration |
| Return | Decision |
With the hero archetype, we only need to think of any of our favorite films or novels to get the gist of it:
The main character is hurled out of their peaceful spot due to some major trauma that sets them out on the “road” where they face trials and tribulations until they are transformed by knowledge gained at which time they return back to where they were before—only smarter and bearing gifts to their community that brings peace.
Similarly, the buyer realizes something is causing them to suffer, so they seek information about how to solve it. Once they figure it out and commit to one solution, they buy which returns them back to a place of peace (and often bearing shopping bags).
Combine the two, and you’ve got it.
Almost immediately after our buyer hero realizes they’re neck-deep in proverbial quicksand, the mentor appears. Now we’re talking marketing: for this is the moment at which your Development Team enters the story.
The most successful team has this tool in their main hand: empathy. Your Development Team has to understand the pain before they can help, and help they must. They are the Obi-Wan Kenobi to the buyer’s Luke. Got it?
Will Davidson knows this well. He remembers exactly what it’s like being in the shoes of our clients when they find us at Growth because he remembers his own pain. He knows their story because he lived it, too.
Two years ago, Will was running his own business without a CRM. “That’s a specific memory that drives me to show our clients what onboarding to Hubspot can actually do. The difference is drastic: pain vs. relief from pain, and I want them to experience that feeling. I want them to succeed in their own businesses, and a powerful, intuitive CRM like Hubspot is key to that.”
Will comes by empathy honestly. His dad was a billboard company owner, and he remembers how his dad did it differently than everyone else. “He wasn’t that pushy, salesy guy. He was the guy who got exactly and only what you needed and then became a part of your family. His clients loved him because he genuinely loved them. He looked out for them. He was way ahead of his time.”
“Now, we know that the Buyer’s Journey requires someone who helps, someone who’s more interested in assistance than making a sale. But, back then, that’s not how salespeople were trained to do it. My dad was just being himself, and he knew that when you care about people, the rest takes care of itself. And it did. His clients thrived because of his help.”
When I asked Will who his hero is (and I was thinking, you know, from movies or books, from stories)—Will said, without hesitation: “My dad. He’s more than my dad; he’s my mentor.”
Will Davidson, Business Development Lead
Growth Marketing Firm
Growth Marketing Firm, Jun 14, 2021
Question: Does your business create content specifically for existing prospects with the purpose to convert them into customers?
Answer: Let’s find out.
Ashley Lilly, May 7, 2021
