If there is one thing your online agency can help you with, it’s understanding buyer behaviour. In the digital world, the speed at which transactions move is quicker than ever.
This speed changes buying behaviour and the habits of the digital buyer. Online agencies are perfectly positioned to provide advice, so that you know the latest on buyer behaviour and can implement it into your digital marketing strategy.
Why understand buyer behaviour?
Many businesses underestimate the value of buyer behaviour. However, when understood and implemented in a digital marketing strategy, a good understanding of buyer behaviour allows businesses to increase online conversions, and, therefore, increase profit.
Knowing how a customer behaves when they come to a website and are looking to buy particular products is vital for online businesses who are serious about making sales.
By understanding what drives a customer to shop at one website and not another, a business can ensure their website falls into the category that customers want to buy from, and not onto the scrapheap.
Why is understanding buyer behaviour difficult?
The issue with understanding buyer behaviour often lies in the time and resources it takes to find the data and give it a robust review to draw high-quality conclusions.
Customers are diverse and have different needs and intentions when buying a product.
Another issue with understanding buyer behaviour is that there is so much information out there on the internet – numerous articles promise you increased conversion rates and the online presence you dream about if you ‘just take these five steps’, and so on.
The problem with this advice is that it is often based on a specific industry.
Sadly, what works for one business doesn’t work for another. An example of this would be to compare someone shopping for the perfect summer dress, with someone looking for a high-tech AI microchip.
Obviously, the criteria that the two are looking for in a product are completely different and, therefore, the way they want the information presented will differ, too.
So, how can online agencies help?
Online agencies devote their entire business to knowing online markets and the buyer’s decision-making process through and through. This gives an agency the knowledge required to deliver their promises to businesses.
Whether it is increasing conversions, getting more people to a website or designing a new interface that results in a dramatic increase in sales, online agencies can deliver it because of their specialised online knowledge.
Online agencies can help you truly understand your customers’ needs and, as a result, help you to improve your online presence and drive growth.
What is buyer behaviour?
There are many models and frameworks that aim to describe buyer behaviour as simple as possible. Online agencies will have their own models or frameworks that they will use to identify your customers’ journeys. The most common model has five stages:
1. Reaching for recognition
This stage begins with a need – perhaps a someone has just broken their lawnmower and now can’t cut the grass.
2. Solution searching
This is where the customer will search for solutions to their problem. For example, this could include searching for websites that sell lawnmowers, or content on which items can cut grass.
3. Evaluation of alternatives
After finding a few different lawnmower sellers (or ways to cut grass), the customer evaluates the different websites, items, prices and so on.
4. Deciding to buy
Once they are ready to buy, they decide on the website they will purchase the lawnmower from.
5. After the purchase
After the purchase, they may have further questions about the lawnmower or problems with delivery or packaging, or they may leave a review.
How online agencies can make a difference
Good online agencies are worth their weight in gold when it comes to decoding your customers’ desires and driving them into your business.
At stage one of the model, an online agency, with its knowledge of SEO, can ensure you are top of the click list for the researching customer. You have to be in it to win it, so ensuring you are on the list of possibilities for that customer gets you ahead of the competition.
Moving onto stage two, online agencies have knowledge of the customer and what they want. This will help you tailor your website so you are what they want. If you’re what they are looking for, you’ll be guaranteed to be on their shortlist.
Stage three is where online agencies can really make an impact. With their advanced knowledge of your buyers and wider insights into what else they are interested in.(perhaps everyone interested in your brand of lawnmower also happens to love inspirational pictures, or websites with a high-quality blog)
Online agencies can ensure that your website appeals to their wider needs while remaining easy to use and accessible to the customer.
Get to Stage Four: The Buying Process
If stages one to three go well, your customer will be in stage four, the buying process. This process is all about speed and ease of use. Ensuring that customers who have made the decision to buy from you can do so quickly and without any issues will ensure that they also do not change their minds.
If you are struggling with buyers having full shopping carts but never finishing the checkout process, this may be where you call in an online agency to help out.
The final stage is all about customer care and instilling loyalty. It costs more to gain new customers than it does to make an existing one come back.
By inspiring brand loyalty in your new customers, you can also turn them into marketing machines, through the power of social media. If you aren’t up to date on your social media accounts, then definitely ask your online agency to help you with this.
How does anova fit in?
At anova, we are completely up to speed with buyer behaviour and the decision-making process and are here to help you at all stages. We are a well-established online agency with a particular focus on buyer behaviour and are passionate about helping businesses reach their full potential.
So, contact anova today and find out how we can harness your customer decision-making process to increase your business’ buzz and drive those sales.
