3 Tips to utilize your customers buying cycle to get more business.

Marketing professionals use a ton of professional terms to explain what a buying cycle is and how to best utilize it.  I'm sure we've all heard about the death of print, the new mobile mobile trend, the evolution of video and many others (hint: Display advertising will be overtaking pay per click within the next 18 months).  Before anything else I have to let you know that ALL methods of advertising work and to abandon any of them is to close doors from consumers to your business.  But that is for another time.  Today I will cover something that marketing professionals don't talk about which is what you need to know about basic statistics of how people buy and how to take advantage.  

ALL IMPORTANT FIRST IMPRESSION

We all know that Google is the king of search and the easiest way to be found is to be as relevant as possible to your customers on a Google search for your specific services.  We also know that any buying cycle begins with a Google, Yahoo or Bing search but certainly does not end with it.  Which is why social media, content marketing, websites, videos and sales teams have all become massive industries.  Engaging potential clients after the search is just as important as being found in the first place.  If you have a aggressive search engine strategy in place be prepared to take information on your potential customers.  Your website must have a call to action phone number, a web lead form and a reason for you to be contacted. It has to be mobile friendly and up to date.  It also needs to be full of engaging and up to date content on your business.  The buying cycle only begins after the search because statistics show that a Google search sends a potential customer to a number of options to solve their initial problem.  You then have convince the consumer to choose your business over your competitors.

COMBINED STRATEGY

I will say over and over again that all forms of advertising work and the best thing to do is to do them all and allocate your budget based on your results.  But when targeting your online strategy it's important to know the facts about online search.  Organic search results attract 80% of the clicks and Payed search accounts for only 20%.  Which means that having an Search Engine Optimized website is 4 times as effective as investing heavily on Google Adwords in your immediate area.   If you have a large service area the best option is to use paid search to capture all of the business outside of your immediate area for expansion and to use optimization to show up as high as you can in organic search traffic for all keywords relevant to your business.  Because optimization usually is a longer process and paid search generates immediate results, an early aggressive strategy is to use both paid search and optimization to attract new business right away while developing your long term organic ranking to cover you for your relevant keyword so you are available every time someone searches for your services.  

End Of Cycle Search\Emergency Search

The above two strategies combined will help to win customers who are searching for education and information before making a search after finding your business in the first place.  There is another type of search altogether that is consumers that need a service.  These people must purchase and don't have the time to review all options.  An end of cycle or emergency search customer wants a variety of options right away and will resort to the best option to find a ton of businesses willing to solve their problem.  This is the reason search directories like the Yellow Pages exist.  The most cost effective way to gain new customers is to be available when people are at the end of the buying cycle in need of your service.  They will go where people go to find businesses and they call the ones they want to do business with based on the information provided.  The most important thing with end of cycle search is that someone is available to answer every call.  The worst thing you can do for your business is not answer the phone as your potential customer is in front of a number of options that are one click away.  If you can't answer the phone at any time consider hiring a secretary or assistant to take information for you.  Many articles suggest that a consistent presence on an online business directory like the Yellow Pages or Yelp is even more cost effective than pay per click advertising because you are available at all times and you can be present for every single search unlike the inconsistent bidding process of pay per click advertising.

Best practices are only found by trying all verticals of advertising.  Engaging content such as video and social media marketing has the potential to attract customers to your business who weren't evening thinking they needed your services.  Signs and direct mail are known to convert at low rates, but for the cost of engagement are one of the top ROI methods of advertising.  But in the digital landscape working towards having an up to date, vibrant and optimized website is the most important step and then being represented on high ranking business directories as well as paid search is the most effective practices to convert your browsers into buyers and prepare your business for more advanced methods of digital advertising.  As always I'm just a message away for great advice and I also provide digital solutions for the Yellow Pages and am willing to give you an assessment on cost effective ways to drive new customers to businesses across Canada.