Understand When Customers Buy Online

Everybody likes buying stuff

Regardless of lifestyle or budget, people enjoy getting the stuff they want and need. Nobody likes spending money though. So understanding how to help people justify the decision to part with their money is an essential step in converting more website visitors into paying customers.

online buying processA good place to start is to develop a marketing message for each stage in the buying process (also known as the Sales Process or Buying Cycle) in order to move potential customers to the next step towards completing your goals, whether it be to make a sale, an email sign up or a contact form submission.

The 4 Stage Buying Process

Imagine all of your potential customers in just 4 distinct groups at different stages of the process:

  1. Need or want stage – when they decide they need to buy something to solve a problem
  2. Knowledge stage – when they search for information to help them choose what to buy
  3. Preference stage – when they decide on things like style, colour, quality and price
  4. Justify and Buy stage – when they buy and justify their purchase – “it was on offer”

Delivering specific messages to target people at different stages of the buying process can be best achieved when using a range of internet marketing methods such as “searcher intention” keyword research SEO for the Need and Knowledge stage and Pay Per Click advertising for people who have already done a bit of research and are searching for particular brands, preferences and prices.

Of course you’ll get best results when incorporating your Justify and Buy messages into your web page design and conversion rate optimisation campaigns to increase sales from those who made it to your product pages to select justify and purchase your stuff.

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