Social Media and the Customer Buying Cycle

Social Media and the Customer Buying Cycle

DEFINITIONS

Social Media: online interactive communities that feature user generated content.

The Phases of the Customer Buying Cycle:

•          Awareness: customers/clients identify a need and begin the process of identifying products or services that meet that need
•  Comparison- customers/clients evaluate how your product or service meets this perceived need relative to the competition
•     Selection: through a combination of  analytical and  emotional considerations,  the customer/client makes a purchasing decision
•    Purchase: The customer/client purchases a good or service from your business.
•  Repurchase: Through emotional and logical consideration, the customer/client chooses to do business with you again.

Awareness: Whether we need a new computer, or our car breaks down on the way to work, or we have a legal matter and need an attorney, it is natural for us to communicate this need with friends, family and colleagues. We put the word out and invite suggestions that help us decide which products to consider and which ones to avoid.  Social media broadens the network of people that we invite into this conversation. If there isn’t already an expert in your network of connections, a simple shout out will produce a lot of volunteered information.  People in social media networks love to be helpful.

Comparison: When a consumer narrows their choices down the next natural step is to do a side by side comparison of features, benefits and costs of prospective products or services.   Social media has a growing impact on this stage of the purchasing cycle as there are conversations, blogs, and videos that extol the virtues of certain products and excoriate others. 

The influencers in these online conversations are likely to be engaged in specialized social media activity around that interest.  Make-up enthusiasts, for example, are blogging, tweeting and sharing YouTube videos on Facebook or in forums such as http://www.makeupalley.com    Meanwhile the cosmetic industry is also actively engaged in these conversations feeding enthusiasts’ interests with engaging content and shaping the conversation.    

   Selection:  The selection process may be the most private process in the buyers’ cycle. After going back and forth and talking it through, it’s the moment of truth.  It’s time to make the choice and put your money on the line.

     Purchase: You may have a friend or loved one with you as you go to the cashier or click on the “purchase” button on the e-commerce site but you are most likely NOT conversing with the twitter-verse or live streaming your activity to an audience.   All this changes as soon as the purchase is made.  After the purchase you call your mother, you call your friends, you take a picture of your new purchase post it on Facebook, and you tell your coworkers about the amazing deal you got. 

     Repurchase: The importance of brand loyalty has changed drastically as a result of social media.  It used to be that if you liked a product or service you would tell your friends and if you didn’t like it you would tell EVERYBODY.   Well the same is true now only the number of people that a person doesn’t know in the social media world is literally everyone.   

When Netflix raised its rates by 60% they received 4,100 damning comments on their company blog within minutes of the announcement.  The outrage throughout the rest of the social media world resulted in a 60% decline in the value of Netflix stock within 6 months. Ow! 

Companies have to actively cultivate brand loyalty and also be responsive to disgruntled consumers.  They must be involved in the conversations that are already taking place regarding their businesses. 

The Buying Cycle has become a Buying Continuum: By bracketing the traditional buying cycle with these ongoing social media conversations the cycle has become a continuum.  Business can be engaged in conversation with consumers or the people who influence their purchasing decisions (early adopters, taste makers, mavens) before a customer has even conceived of a need for a product or service. 

Heather Gorringe, owner of Wiggly Wigglers in rural Herefordshire, England puts it this way: “We sell products that people may not think they want…..It is essential that we embrace new technology.  The reason for that is, if we didn’t do that we simply wouldn’t have any customers.  No one is going to wake up in the morning and think, “Ahaaa, I really DO need to compost my kitchen waste using worms.”  We need to be able to engage people and communicate with people on a nationwide basis and also on a global basis.”

      The Promise of Social Media: Business is engaging and empowering influencers and is helping to shape the conversation and win brand advocates.  More importantly business has the ability to LEARN valuable information about their own products and services that can give them a competitive advantage in the traditional buying cycle. Empowered consumers are in vibrant dialogues with business, the market, and each other.  This represents the true promise of e-commerce and social media and a revolution in how businesses market themselves.  

The author, Philip Stephano, is a social media marketing strategist in Bucks County,  PA and founder of PrimalTweet.  He is passionate about helping local and regional business around the country to use social media as an effective tool to find local prospects and customers. To learn more about Stephano go to http://about.me/philipstephano