Every year experts from different fields investigate consumer behavior. It’s quite obvious that all people can’t have a typical behavior. It depends on the type of the purchased goods and individual psychological characteristics. The regularity of purchases depends on how well you know different segments of your target audience and how exactly you use this knowledge in everyday marketing campaigns. So, if you are seriously interested in increasing sales online, scroll down and see the most typical consumer behavior patterns and ways to convert it into sales.
Complex behavioral patterns
Let’s imagine the situation when different companies sell goods of the same kind. The choice is rather wide. So, the customer faces a dilemma. When the desired item is expensive there is always a risk. For example, you want to buy a laptop. In order to make the right decision, you will first find out all the details about the item. When all the necessary information is already collected, the customer forms his personal attitude to the definite product. This opinion will help to make a decision about the purchase.
What should be done? A marketing specialist should pay attention to the client’s curiosity and understand how the customer collects and analyzes the information which influences the decision about the purchase.
If a marketer understands such nuances pretty well, one of his main duties is to explain all possible details about the product (technical characteristics, reviews of other customers about the product, info about the manufacturer, warranty and support, comparison of similar items), the qualities and advantages of every single item.
Hint: if the item is expensive and there is a necessity to include lots of technical information about the product, you should highlight the most essential and critically important info for the customer. You can emphasize it with the help of design and bold type. The thing is that the customer’s attention may be quickly distracted. Don’t forget that video review of a satisfied customer is a very convincing argument. When there are several video reviews, doubts melt like ice under the sun.
Important: when you face an abundance of information, the most vital part of it may not be found. You may never know which phrase will influence the customer’s decision about the purchase. That’s why help the customer to see the key phrases.
Habitual customer behavior
Such behavior occurs when a small number of customers is being interested in the product line and there is no difference in qualitative characteristics in the product offering. Remember yourself buying sugar. You don’t analyze its qualities and do not compare which brand is better and which is worse. This happens because you are getting used to a certain product. This type of products is not very valuable for a customer, that’s why he decides not to waste time on considerations.The customer’s opinion is being formed on the background of mass media or advertising campaigns. Correspondingly, you won’t have any negative emotions after making a purchase, because the item is not estimated and not compared with similar products.
What should be done? Marketers should use the variety of promo campaigns, discounts or sales. Such product category needs effective branding and creative advertising campaigns. Consequently, the customer will associate the product with something pleasant. Billboard and TV advertising will be a good option as well as online marketing campaigns.
The condition of uncertainty in customer behavior
This condition is connected with a customer’s willingness for self-fulfillment. The situation is such: people are interested in a certain product, its price is rather high, but there is no abundance of choice in manufacturers. Again, customers feel that there is a risk. Such a product category is very attractive to customers, but its benefits are practically identical. On one hand, such a situation helps the customer to make a decision about the purchase much faster. On the other hand, the choice is rather complicated and a customer makes a decision on the background of his personal preferences, not the useful features of the product. Such matter of things may have its consequences: doubts concerning a certain purchase, disappointment in the products small disadvantages.
What should be done?
- Advertising materials should contain the information which won’t cause the discomfort and make customers doubt.
- A marketer should provide the information, which will prove the customer the correctness of his choice after making a purchase.
Search behavior model
Such behavior is observed when there is a diversity of manufacturers or brands, but the customer engagement is low. This happens because a customer constantly changes the manufacturer. It’s not because people are getting disappointed about certain products, but a human’s wish to try a variety of assortment.
What should be done:
- Encourage a customer’s choice with the help of opinion leaders
- Use memorable, non-standard advertising
- Offer free testing products and additional services
A marketer wants what customer wants
The success in your relationships with customers depends on certain principles:
- Proximity to the customers. A successful marketing solution depends on three factors: experience, intuition, investigation. Due to some reason the majority neglect consumer research. And it’s weird. A human being is the main object in sales, right? Why not reading the appropriate materials to learn how to approach a customer from the point of view of psychology and marketing? If we paid more attention to these nuances, we would have much less ineffective promo campaigns and higher sales for sure. The good news is that it’s never too late to change the situation for the better. The first step in doing this is acknowledging the importance of this aspect and its impact on your business. Place emphasis on corresponding terms like quality and the trademark. The more your customers connect the term “quality” with your trademarks, the more they will buy.
- Personalized marketing. Marketing managers deliberately seek ways to decrease the influence of advertising. Instead, they want to return the time proved conception – a personal, one on one relationship with the customer. One moment, please! Nowadays it’s impossible to decrease the influence of ads. Just look around. We have never been surrounded with such abundance of ads like today. Such kind of marketing works ideally when you know your customer as good as you know your best friend and you are knowledgeable about the ways of increasing the customer LTV. This is one of the most effective ways of forgetting about problems with sales.
What does it mean: it means that the top priority policy of your company is satisfaction and retention of regular customers. It’s much more difficult to attract a new customer than to keep an existing one. The company is doing everything possible for the customer to be fully satisfied…and guess what? THIS is the KEY to maintaining his position as a regular customer.
WHAT IS MORE SURPRISING: this info is not new. So, why don’t we devote time to inventing cool and useful things to strengthen the customer’s loyalty? A customer doesn’t own anything to a brand. That’s why it’s the brand who should take pains to give the customer a reason to stay. And that’s another reason why I remind our readers about the importance of finding out the answer to this: what’s important for your customer? When you know this, you know how to make him satisfied…maybe even enormously happy. For example, I have two cats and I have been making purchases on a certain online store for 2 years. Why do I prefer exactly this store?
- They don’t let me down when they promise to bring the order at 5 pm. Always punctual
- They are knowledgeable about their products and they know what will suit my pets best
- They do everything possible for I could feel a personalized approach towards me and my pets
- They provide good discounts regularly
- They provide a good and easy navigation on their website for I could quickly find what I need. If I don’t see something on the website, a manager will easily help me with this (a very friendly manager, by the way, who really shows care and kindness). Not the one who demonstrates indifference and the wish to get rid of me as soon as possible
- They cooperate with official importers and guarantee the highest quality of products
- They offer different payment methods and I can choose the most convenient for me
- They even call me when my pets have their Birthdays!
They give me the reason to return. All the time. But if I don’t find what I need in their store, I will go to another. That’s not a crime and they realize it. BUT! I will ( most probably) return to them because they know how to pamper me, they know how to keep me satisfied.
Customers who are eager to increase sales in your business
Diamonds are a girl’s best friend and Loyal customers are best friends of your business. What does your company get when it has a large base of loyal customers?
- Word of mouth. Your loyal customers become your brand ambassadors. As a result, you get the most effective marketing channel – referral marketing. Your brand awareness experiences a skyrocketing growth
- A constant flow of incoming requests
- High sales
Important: try to focus on satisfying your customers, not on maximizing the revenue. Why? When you make maximum efforts to achieve the first goal, you automatically achieve the second. No jokes. It’s just an even exchange. I wouldn’t advise this if it wasn’t a time-tested approach. I hope that you got inspired a little bit, so now all I can do is to wish you fruitful results in your business.
