Why the Buyer Experience Matters

Let's paint a picture. You've just created the greatest social post ever. It's fun. It's engaging. It showcases your business perfectly. It's even done so much as to convince someone to take action and purchase your product or enlist your services. You were smart enough to add a link to the post, or direct someone to the link in your bio. Everything is going exactly as planned, and now all you have to do is sit back and wait for the sales to start coming in.

You wait one hour... three hours... 7 hours... Your post has a few thousand views, hundreds of likes, and a ton of comments. You check your sales numbers and you see you're in the low tens, or worse yet, single digits. Something isn't adding up. You've been studying digital marketing for your business, you've been keeping up with current trends, and following all the guidelines for SEO and social media posting. Why are you not seeing better numbers?!

Before we go into the solution, I think it is equally as important to understand the other side of the story. 

You lead a busy life. You work, or you're a parent, or you run a business. Social media is a brief escape to see what is happening beyond your own four walls. You try not to let yourself be persuaded by ads too often because you hate the feeling of being "sold" something. A sponsored post comes across your Instagram feed though that catches your eye (you know we've all been there). You click the profile and they seem like a fun or trustworthy (hopefully both) company so you decide to treat yourself. You've just passed the point of interest into the point of taking action.

The post leads you to a link to purchase. You've been scrolling for a few minutes, life is calling you back to reality, but you're going to get this done quick before you get back to your responsibilities. The link takes you to the business' home page. The product or service you wanted to buy is nowhere to be found. Just information on the company, a link to a products page, and some menu features. OR, the link takes you to a checkout page and you see a form longer than a loan application. You don't have time to go on an expedition to find the product again, or to fill out enough fields to complete your own autobiography. And even if those challenges didn't seem outrageous, at least half of you are then going to tell yourselves that you'll come back to it later. Most rarely ever do.

At this point, I can almost guarantee that I've just described YOU at some point in time. We're all guilty of it, so it would be ignorant to believe that your customers would be any other way. Sometimes it just boils down to the fact that a customer doesn't know if they are going to enjoy the product or service, so minimizing the amount of time (their buy-in other than their money) is crucial. 

The Solution

Now, i'm not so naïve as to believe that point of interest to point of purchase can be an A to B path. You need shipping information, contact information, size information, etc. You can, however, make this a more efficient path. The goal of a business is to drive sales. Once a person has made the purchase, they are invested in the process of receiving the service or product. At that point, they have made the decision that you are going to be the provider of the solution to their problem, an experience, or their new product. How can we cut down the time that the customer has to talk themselves out of the painful process of spending money, even though you may be the right fit for them. It's all about making the process from point of interest, to point of purchase as efficient as possible.

This is not a one size fits all solution. Every business is different, both in its offerings and the required information before a person can purchase. That said, this four part flow should be a good starting point for you to tailor it to your own business. 

A. Point of Interest

We're at the beginning stages here. This is the part where you wow the suspect with a blog post, ad, or social media post. The person has now become a prospect in your sales cycle.

B. Point of Taking Action

The prospect has made the initial decision to go to your site or fill out your contact form. A form that has maximized efficiency should be 7 fields or less. The link that is associated with the content from Part A should lead directly to a product page or a place where they can select the thing featured in the actual content. Here, your form should only be collecting the basic contact information and payment information. If you're able to allow prospects to sign up with Facebook or Google, that is even better.

C. Point of Purchase

You may be thinking that this is the same as the part before, but it isn't. It is certainly dependent on Part B though. This is the point where they click that Submit or Complete Purchase button, and if you haven't made Part B simple enough, you aren't going to get the Prospect to become a Customer here.

Now, for some of you the process can end here. Congratulations, you've made an efficient buyer experience. For others that provide a more personalized experience or solve a deeper problem, you may need more information. That's where the next part comes in.

D. Follow Up

The prospect has become a customer and you just made some money, but now you have to execute the deliverables and you need more information than what was on your sign up sheet. Having email automation can make this a very easy process, but sending a post purchase confirmation email with a simple form to gather the additional information can satisfy that need. At this point, the person has already financially invested in this service and they will want to get the best possible outcome. It is important to make it known somewhere on the form from Part B that additional information will be required (a checkbox or post-submission pop-up can achieve this) so that they know to expect it. But at that point, they can complete it on their own time and they will most likely not be shopping around or forget because you have their money. Put in the confirmation that it is required before the service can be completed, and then the ball is in their court, but the sale has been completed.

The Takeaway

How does this all relate back to the marketing strategy? It doesn't matter how much time or work you put into your marketing. You can have the most popular social media accounts on a platform, and still be outsold by a competitor with less than half your following. You're not in the business of getting likes or shares, you're in the business of making money from a product or service you provide. People value their time and information, so making it feel like you value theirs as well can help you exponentially. I implore you to take the path given above on your own platforms as a consumer. If you were in their shoes and knew only what was provided in a social post, would you make it to the point of purchase? Assume people are at least twice as impatient as you are in todays world of convenience and you will see your sales start to rise.

If you are in need of an audit on this process, please reach out to us at info@marketingtmc.com!