Marketing Automation Consultant’s Guide to Customer Buying Process

You can’t turn the blind eye on the buying habits of the consumers while making a marketing and sales plan. A product is on someone’s wishlist or in the cart. The buyer either buys the products or doesn’t. But, there are significant steps in the buying process a consumer goes through in between these two situations or decisions. Knowing this process helps the marketers and sales representatives better understand consumer habits. And, by knowing consumer habits, marketers can pitch the right content to the right consumer.

Regardless of the marketing automation tool, you are using, this buying process is critical to know. The nomenclature of this process could be different in different marketing automation software, but their essence is the same.

The six phases a consumer goes through in the buying process are…

1. Rise of Necessity
The necessity of the purchase is the reason for which the consumer is looking for that particular product. The desire of having that product is always there. It could be for personal use, a gift item, whatever is the reason, that desire is always there. Marketers can utilize this human notion and create a desire in them for the particular product. This could be done by offering a discount on that product, creating an urgency, emotional aspect attached to it, etc. The content is pitched in a way to create a desire in the consumer. You need a good marketing automation consultant that can tell how to pitch right content to the right customer as per the marketing automation tool you are using.

2.Research & Alternatives
Once the desire is ignited in the consumer, the next thing a consumer does is research about the product and resources that inform about that product and prices. And, in this research phase they can get introduced to a new product that can replace their original option. This makes the research phase highly important. There are a lot of influences on a consumer in this phase. Here, better branding of the company and the product matter as consumers are likely to choose a trustworthy brand.

The good customers always cross-check for the authentication of the information. And, that they do through research work. They review and compare the alternate options to choose the best one. You can leverage the situation by offering them a comparison table on your website, so they don’t have to leave your website. By tracking the consumer activity in your marketing automation tool, you can know what products your consumers are looking as an alternative. Consult our marketing automation consultants to learn how to track consumer activities.

3. Buying Decision
The buying decision is not the final phase, of this process. After comparing and reviewing the alternate options for pricing, quality, brand, payment options, source, they funnel down their choices to one product only. That’s when they decide to buy the particular product. A consumer can step back from this phase too. To avoid this situation, marketers can again pitch to the consumers the emotional desire after buying that product. This is the phase the makes or breaks the deal.

4. Booking Order
Desire has been generated, research has been done, alternates has been checked, the product has been reviewed, buying decision has been made, now is the time to make the purchase. Marketing and sales team’s task isn’t over yet. The thing that needs attention is the purchasing process. How many stages a consumer has to go through to book the order, what are the shipping methods, is the payment gateway methods secure, is it easy to purchase, in how many minutes the order can be booked, what are the delivery options, what information is asked during the process, all these questions matter in the purchase process. If the buying process is too difficult, then the customer is likely to leave your website and purchase from another one. Our inbound marketing experts can tell you how many steps should be there for an easy checkout and our Marketing automation consultants can tell you how and where to implement that.

5. After Sale Service
In how much time the product is delivered to the customer, was the delivered product up to the expectations? Is the customer satisfied with the product he has purchased, are the returning policies customer favorable? These are critical and important to know for a marketer. Following after sale services helps to create plans for the future.

Knowing the exact phase of the customer in the buying process, you can easily pitch the content. If you need any assistance understanding the buying process of the customer in your business model and as per the marketing automation tool you are using, then contact RichestSoft’s marketing automation consultants.

Give us call or send us an email to book a consultation with our expert marketing automation consultants.

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