Defining the purchasing behaviour model for your company's products and/or services is the first step. Google "Purchasing behaviour model" and get about 22,000,000 results. The majority are linear and based on the traditional Awareness-Interest-Desire-Action funnel. Others, like McKinsey's Consumer Decision Journey spiral, subscribe to the belief that with the dawning of the digital age consumers are no longer bound by the limitations of the traditional behaviour funnel.
I have been reading a great book called Search Engine Marketing, Inc by Mike Moran and Bill Hunt that cuts out a lot of the marketing degree and consultant speak and proposes a much simpler take on how your potential customers behave on the internet and more specifically on your web site.
I really like this model as it's not reinventing accepted traditional marketing tenants, just presenting them to us in plain english. It also accepts that a funnel approach to behaviour modeling is not appropriate in the digital realm and consumers may enter and leave the purchasing cycle at different stages.
In the Learn stage consumers are looking for information about a problem they have to solve or a need to be fulfilled. They might need a new digital camera and the first step is to learn about whether they need a high end digital SLR or simple point and shoot digital camera.
In the Shop stage they might have a particular brand or model digital camera in mind and begin to look for retailers. Ideally you are already on their list of possible retailers because you provided some or all of the answers they were looking for in the Learn stage. In a traditional model the list of potential retailers would become smaller at this stage of the funnel. This is not necessarily the case anymore where a well written AdWords ad for example might appear in front of someone who has searched for a specific digital camera model.
In the Buy stage they are looking for the retailer that can offer them the best price, fastest delivery or best value extended warranty. Even if you did not make the short list in the learn or buy stage, if you are to present the best value offer that suits their needs and requirements at this stage of the cycle then you can still win the sale.
The Get phase involves completing an order online or alternatively visiting your bricks and mortar site to buy the product.
The Use phase might involve looking for help on how to use the camera or complete a warranty claim.
The whole cycle might then start again when the digital camera owner decides that they have a need to also own a wide angle lens or an additional memory card.
From a digital marketing point of view you can simplify the cycle even further and just focus on the first three stages. Learn, Shop and Buy. In my next post I will explain how to best align your digital marketing strategy with the different stages in the behaviour model.
This article was posted by Bret Buckland. Bret is a Google
Qualified AdWords Professional and Account Manager at Traffika. You
can follow Bret on Twitter
@bjbuck
