Posted by Jason Harling on Tuesday 7 April 2009
Customer buying lifecycle
Do you know at what stage your customers are in their buying lifecycle? I attended an event yesterday which was designed to challenge what companies communicate to their clients and when.
All too often, it is simply easy to lay down a blanket strategy where one size fits all, however you may be missing out on the opportunity to convert your prospects or develop a relationship with a customer to make them an advocate of your brand and products. The challenge is balancing your budget and manpower with what could potentially develop into quite a complex communication strategy. However, my experience shows that even some simple segmentation of your audience helps improve the quality of message both delivered and received.
Traditionally, we would think of the customer buying cycle as having five steps: problem recognition, leading to information search, evaluation of alternatives, decision and purchase, and finally post-purchase evaluation. As such, it is clear that when your customers or prospects are just looking into a problem, they may have never even heard of your company, let alone know you and trust that you can help them reach a decision to purchase. On the other hand, by the time they have reached an evaluation stage, if you aren't part of the mix, you can't be part of the decision. It takes time to build up trust with a client or prospect, particularly if they intend to spend more than a few pounds with you - you have to establish your reputation as a credible brand/ company, as well as having the right products in place.
Clearly, it takes some time and energy to understand where your customers are in their buying lifecycle, and for high ticket items or services, these buying cycles can last a long time. The relationship needs to be nurtured and slowly built up over time. Whether long or short, the important thing is to know your customers and prospects better, or at least gain some key points of understanding in order to say the right things at the appropriate time. I've covered this need to know your clients better in a previous blog posting http://http://breeze-marketing.co.uk/blog/2009/03/24/listen-to-your-customers, but I cannot emphasis the need enough. You need to know what are the key issues and concerns facing your customers, in order to be able to allay their fears or provide more information. You need to know how important the purchase is in terms of the customer wallet - is this a one-off purchase, or are you embarking on an on-going relationship with your new client. Is this a life-changing decision, the next luxury treat or the first item on the shopping list at the supermarket?
Tailoring the communication programme to answer these queries is, I believe, more straightforward than people imagine. Think about what you would like to communicate, then think about the best medium to be able to achieve your results. Personalisation may be appropriate, but may not be necessary. Generally speaking, your clients need to have a broader understanding of you than just one point of contact, so make sure this is built into your plans.
Contact us if you have any questions about this article and how you can investigate where your clients are in their buying lifecycle. Check out a list of our services in digital marketing or marketing strategy.