Wow, did I ever butcher this joke.

“The CEO, CFO, and Marketing Manager walk into the bar…”

You can watch the video below to see how I killed my stand-up career before it even started…

…but here’s what I was trying to convey.

Depending on WHO you are, you probably have a different need for the same outcome (i.e. a drink).

When I was building my startup Flowtown, we had customers who bought our product at $20/month, some at $200/month and even a few at $2K/month!

Were they the same? Yes and no.

Yes, they all had the same need….

… but no, they all had a different motivation and reality they were coming from.

That’s why I think it’s important to map your marketing strategy to your buyers.

Fail to do this and you’ll only be speaking to one type of customer – or the one stage of the buyer’s journey.

The cool part is there’s a simple framework you can use to clearly identify the type of content that you need to create to help customers move through the funnel quickly to purchase.

Here’s a mental model you can use to think through the process…

… starting with each role and the type of information they need.

The CEO wants to learn about problem space so he can be better informed to evaluate his need against his vision for the company.

The CMO wants to learn more about the specific solutions available and companies using them so he can feel good about his timing decision, and the specific vendor to avoid looking stupid.

The Marketing Manager needs to understand the specific features and benefits of each platform so he can map his strategic goals to the product’s key strengths.

Each one is potentially looking at your solution under a completely different lens, and searching to answer their questions from a different type of position.

Many in the industry call it TOFU (Top of Funnel), MOFU (Middle of Funnel) and BOFU (Bottom of Funnel).

My buddy Sujan likes to call it Kung-Fu! :)

Regardless of where you’re at, you need to address each stage of the journey with the right content.

That’s how you map your marketing strategy to your buyer’s journey.

So what stage of business do you have the hardest time creating content for?

Post your situation in the comments and let’s get some ideas flowing.

Just remember, no more bad jokes – I’ve butchered enough for the day.

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Dan Martell has advised more startups than his hometown has people and teaches startup founders like you how to scale. (Get the free 3 videos to grow your business here.) He previously created, raised venture funding for and successfully exited two tech startups: Flowtown and Clarity.fm. You should follow him on twitter@danmartell for tweets that are actually awesome.

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