credit: miss_rogue

The goal of marketing is to focus advertising at the active target audience to reach them at the moment they decide to buy. This reduces the cost of advertising and increases the likelihood of success.

Digital marketing allows the advertiser to reach the consumer at the moment the consumer decides to buy.

Let’s look at the steps involved in buying. When someone buys a product, they go through a process known as the buying cycle, which has 4 phases:

- awareness
- research
- comparison
- purchase

In general, consumers first become aware of a need or desire. They then research the market and compare the products. They finally select what they want and purchase the product.

Depending on the researcher and market, this is a also called the marketing cycle, purchase cycle, sales cycle, purchase path, buying funnel and similar concepts, and these have 3 -7  phases.

For example, Laura is looking at her yard and she would like a pond with fish. She thinks off and on about this for a few days. This is the awareness-of-need phase. Laura then begin to ask friends and family about fish ponds.

She slowly realizes that needs a fish pond with a filter and pump. She learns about fish and finds that large Japanese fish called koi would be the best. She begins to use the Web and search engines.

She is in the research phase. Finally after several weeks, she has narrowed it down to the general type of pump and the breed of koi. Immersible or external pump? Asagi or koromo koi? She compares the products.

Finally she knows what she wants (it fits her yards, her needs, her budget and her tastes) and Laura turns to the Web to find a vendor who can deliver what she wants. This is the purchase phase.

In the awareness, research and comparison phases, Laura isn’t ready to buy. She is learning about the products. She is looking for information. She will ignore ads and “buy now” pages.

Lesson to note: Remember to NOT bid for informational searches keywords. Use them for content network ads instead to drive traffic to your content-rich website.

In the purchase phase, Laura has decided what she wants. She knows the make, model and features. She also knows the price. She won’t pay attention to other products.

She is looking for a vendor who can reliably deliver her selection. This is when researching buying keywords is highly necessary. Depending on the industry, such “buying keywords” need to be appealing and stand out.

Using terms like discount offers, free installation and delivery and adding other value-added services will sway her favorably.

The length of the buying cycle depends on the product or service. For low-cost consumer products, this may be a few days. For large purchases, this can take a month or so. For industrial equipment, this can take 6 months or more. For real estate, this can take 6 years or more.

During this entire process, does it mean that your product should pop up and appear ONLY when consumers are at the purchasing stage? Well, the answer is yes and no. If in the course of Laura’s search she suddenly finds your brand consistently appear, it will make a great impression on her. It tells her there is authority and there is security in your brand or product.

But if your brand appears only during the “last lap” so to speak, it will speak less favorably about the strength of your product. So do consider seriously the management of your brand awareness and online discovery.