Riding the New Buy Cycle
Welcome to 2012, and if you didn’t get one of these over the holidays, we are happy to present you with a shiny, brand, new 10-speed buy cycle for the New Year. It may not be as glamorous as “items du jour,” such as Big Data, Cloud Computing or device mania, but for marketers, the new buy cycle demands attention.
Without exception, every marketing campaign or initiative begins with strategy formulated from research and ideation. While sales organizations are mostly focused on the “sales cycle,” marketers must also focus on the “buy cycle.” The framework for strategic planning in marketing is structured to address the stages of this cycle.
Throughout the years, strategic marketing leaders have presented buy cycles with various stages and numbers of stages. Nowadays, the proliferation of social media, content marketing and the new behaviors that fall out of them means that the buy cycle philosophy must evolve in order to reflect the new process.
The first iterations of the buy cycle (also referred to as the buyer’s journey) contained three major stages: Discovery, Consideration and Decision. Over time, this three-stage cycle evolved into the six stage cycle, consisting of No Awareness, Awareness, Research, Consideration, Trial Use and Exclusive Use.
The six-stage cycle simply does not take into account the new buyer’s behaviors, which have become part of the modern buyer’s journey. As more organizations understand the need for content strategy, mapping the appropriate content to the stages of the new buy cycle is essential for engaging buyers throughout their journey.
Here is the new 10-stage buy cycle, based upon the modern
buyer’s journey.
Stage 1—Distraction from work.
Everyone takes a break, which in the modern workplace usually means going online to visit social networks or to surf the Web. Social media is a distraction; however, marketing to people and trying to distract them from their distraction can become a little tricky. Content mapped to this stage would include viral type video, infographics, and guides or playbooks.
Stage 2—Recognize need.
After the buyer has been distracted with the distraction content, the buyer will recognize their need for the product or service. Blog articles, top 10 lists and other neutrally positioned content can help the buyer to recognize need.
Stage 3—Solution search.
Once the buyer has recognized their need, they search for solutions. While SEO is vital to this stage, other content can help the buyer with their search, such as newsletters, third-party trend reports, surveys or quizzes, and a new type of content that is gaining wide popularity—video white papers.
Stage 4—Seek vendor solutions.
The buyer knows the solution to their need, now they need to seek out vendors who provide the needed solution. Again, this is a vital SEO stage for those searching for a vendor solution, and the appropriate content would be Webinars and press releases; presence at events is also a well-practiced tactic for this stage.
Stage 5—Evaluation of solutions.
Now the buyer has been distracted, recognizes the need, searched for a solution, found several vendors who are in the consideration set and must evaluate those vendor solutions. During the evaluation process, content such as case studies, video, video demos and interactive demos can persuade the buyer.
Stage 6—Justify solution.
Buyers need justification to feel comfortable and confident with their decision. How can your content help at this stage? Third-party content really does the trick. White papers, analyst reports and comparative reviews should be in your content set for this stage.
Stage 7—Social research.
Also known as the validation stage, social research can help validate the decision that the buyer has made. As a member of WOMMA (Word of Mouth Marketing Association), we firmly believe that all social research, both online in social channels and offline with associates, friends and family, are essential to this validation stage. Obvious content would be that which appears on social channels like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and others, such as customer testimonials, which provide peer validation.
Stage 8—Cost analysis.
To prevent the worst form of “buyer’s remorse,” which is usually caused by the cost associated with the purchase, the modern buyer enters into the stage of cost analysis. Here, not only the actual purchase price is analyzed, but the cost to the buyer over time is considered. Content that can help the buyer through this stage would include data sheets and checklists.
Stage 9—Purchase.
The moment of truth in the buyer’s journey is the actual purchase. Content that can help in this stage would be pricing guides and general onboarding collateral.
Stage 10—Decision evaluation.
Perhaps the most important stage in the buy cycle is the evaluation of the decision which usually takes place over time. Here is where brand loyalty, brand evangelism, brand advocacy and brand extension are percolated. Content can include retention, loyalty and customer experience driven pieces across all channels.
Content is only “king” if it maintains a high-quality level and is delivered at the right time and in the right place. Enjoy the ride of strategic marketing planning on your shiny new buy cycle!
Categories: Strategic Marketing
