Introduction
There are four important stages for consumer buying behavior that every online marketer needs to be aware of, including: 1) Research Stage, 2) Decision Stage, 3) Buying Action Stage, 4) Post-Sales Follow-Up Stage. If you investigate these four stages and understand more about your customer buying behavior, your marketing strategic will be more effectivity and you are easier to earn their money. Hence, I am going to detail analyze those stages in the following in order to help you plan your online business and hope you enjoy the following tips on online consumer buying behavior analysis.
1st stage) Research Stage
In this stage, consumers start to do research and think about what they need to buy. Consumers usually find from advertisement in the newspaper, on the radio, on TV, or in a magazine for searching products to buy. Online marketer should see this as an opportunity to take full advantage of customer online.
Before marketers select a product to sell or promote online, they should ask themselves how well they know the product and whether it is a right niche market for them. Here is some tips to find a correct niche market that marketers can easily realize themselves whether or not the product or the niche is their interest or passion by examination themselves with the following questions:
- Do they read regularly about the product or the niche?
- Can they effectively communicate with others in the niche?
- Do they comprehend customers issues?
- Can they come up with their own “pros and cons” for each customer situation (product, service, etc)?
- Do they understand the core problems within the niche?
If they answer all the above questions in “yes”, they should know the way to attract their target customers. Then, they are easier to succeed and earn money.
Remember as writing blog post to promote product in the niche. Using target keyword is very important. An example of a keyword that would target people within this phase would be “product_name”, “order product_name”, “buy product_name”, “best price on product_name”, etc. As promoting product online, try to include those keyword in the blog posts which will benefit to SEO search engine.
2nd stage) Decision Stage
In this stage, consumers have already made up their mind of what they are going to buy. We call this stage as consumer buying decision stage, and this is a very good status to pick up potential customers. Customers are very likely to buy if they feel comfortable with product review during research stage, and is building trust to a web site promotion.
Customers who search product-related keywords are typically very far along in the purchasing lifecycle because they are already knowledgeable in the subject area and they have already been exposed to some form of branding or advertisement. Someone who is searching the term “(niche product) + review” has probably already done a significant amount of research and are into the Decision phase. These keywords have very little competition and can be leveraged to attain targeted traffic that is far along in the customer purchasing lifecycle. If you can deliver the product information they are looking for (the program is excellent; the program is good, however check out this better alternative), then the marketer will likely be able to convert the product centric audience at a very high rate and earn money.
3rd stage) Buying Action Stage
In this stage, customer takes action to pay money to buy your product or service. It is the target of any online marketer business, and they can make profit and earn money in this stage.
If you want to find an actual example on the customer buying behavior, here is tips that you can take reference with your own experience and ask yourself the following questions:
- Where did you start and where did you end up of buying stuff ?
- Did you purchase the same day that you started looking, and why or why not?
- Were you exposed to positive or negative advertising about a product?
- Did you see the product/service in a magazine or on TV before you saw it online?
- Was the price an issue for you, why or why not?
- What was the last phase in the analysis process before you actually purchased the product?
- Did you go on Facebook or Twitter for some purchasing guidance?
Although closing a deal is important, you should not over-promise or over-sale your product during product promotion. Creating trust and keeping a long term business relationship which is better than just earning one sort of money. If your fish have already been on your hog, do your best to hold and catch it, and you have better try your best to serve your customer and provide all necessary support in order to close the deal by your whole heart, however, do not push too hard on your customer to close the deal and give the customer a negative and hard feeling.
4th stage) Post-Sales Follow-Up Stage
Once you have been able to walk your customer to the action phase of buying, your relationship should not end-up there. It is at least 4 times harder to sell to a prospective new customer than an existing customer. You could do follow-up at the point of the initial customer action by getting them to email you for any support. You could also create a relationship with them through your follow-up email and social networks. You will need contact details to maintain and organize these customer relationships.
Conclusion
Consumer buying behavior analysis is very critical for online marketer to prepare and plan their online business, as well as to help to work out their marketing promotion plan. If marketers can fully understand their customer buying behavior, they are easier to succeed and earn money. I hope the above tips of online consumer buying behavior analysis is useful. Good Luck.
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