While setting up your online marketing strategy, it’s important to consider that each marketing channel will target people in different stages of the buying decision who will have different intents. Sometimes, you will even reach people that are not considering buying the product or service you’re offering.
It’s important to consider buying stages and user intent because they determine your message, call to action, and strategy for conversion.
For example, someone browsing through Facebook may not be ready to buy a new hosting solution, but if the hosting business stays top of mind, then the user will consider the business when the need arises.
These stages were first introduced by Engel, Blackwell and Kollat in 1968 and are as follow:
- Problem/Need recognition
- Information search
- Evaluation of alternatives
- Purchase decision
- Post-purchase behavior
Here is a breakdown of different marketing channels together with potential user intent. Note that these results vary between services and products.
Social Media
- Users may not have an immediate need since they are not actively looking for the product or service.
- Try to capture their email address to nurture the lead through email campaigns.
- Will mostly engage with content that is less “salesy”, more fun, controversial, or useful.
Adwords
- Users are most likely evaluating their alternatives. Therefore, try to differentiate yourself from the competition.
- Use your Adwords campaign to pre-qualify leads. You can take them to different landing pages according to the keywords they are using in their search. For example,“buy-ready” keywords could have a landing page that enables fast purchase vs a landing page that encourages the user to get a free consultation.
Organic
- User is most probably in the information search stage looking for articles to gain knowledge on the service or product. This is when they will most likely click on an organic listing.
- Remember that people are looking for valuable content. Make sure your articles are useful to the reader and proof your company is an expert in your field.
- Try to link your articles to other articles in your blog to promote further reading. Also, provide a way to capture the user’s information. Offering an ebook or a guide at the end of the blog is a great way to do this.
Takeaways:
- You can estimate the buyer level stage by the channel you are targeting
- Tailor your message to address different buying stages
- Always have a way to capture lead’s information so you can nurture them to become customers. Lightbox or newsletter subscriptions pop-ups work well for this purpose. You can even set up an automated drip campaign (will write about this in my next article)
Consider this information when estimating the time it will take to close a lead. Some marketing channels have longer closing periods than others, because you will find users in different stages of the buying decision process.
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