People will find your company website through many different methods and not all of them will be prospective customers for your organization. But the visitors who have a need for your product or services will arrive with various goals, and often times they will not be ready to make a buying decision.
My study of the millions of unique visitors to my business websites has allowed me to organize these visitors into 3 groups, which I have identified as the three stages of the Internet Buyer. They are information seekers, comparison shoppers, and ready buyers.
Information Seekers
Information seekers consist of the visitors who have just started the process of buying your product or service as well as people who need to know something about your industry or organization. This is a very broad group of people and not all are real prospective leads for your organization.
They are drawn to large generic sites that offer basic information about the process of buying a product or service similar to yours. In real estate, information seekers end up at sites like realtor.com, zillow.com, trulia.com, etc. They want to see pictures of homes (even if the homes are in markets where they will not be buying).
Comparison Shoppers
Comparison shoppers have read enough content to move beyond the information gathering stage of the buying process and are ready to refine their focus. They have learned enough from reading content on your site (and others) to allow them to have fairly specific needs identified and a rough budget established.
Much like the information seeker, the comparison shopper is not likely to be making a purchase decision during this visit to your website, so it is important that you have the tools and resources that will keep this future buyer engaged on your site in order to develop familiarity with your company. This is the stage in which a customer "relationship" can be forged.
Third - Ready Buyers
The third and final stage of the buying process occurs when the comparison shopper has identified what they want and all they are lacking is an emotional trigger that will cause them to buy. This stage of the cycle could be minutes, or it could be months, depending upon the nature of your industry.
I have found that on average, the entire buying cycle (all three stages) for the real estate consumer is about nine and a half months. Your industry could observe all three stages in just a few hours. The most important thing to understand about consumers on the internet is that for best marketing practices, you must learn the length of each of these stages for buyers of your product or service, and to have a plan for each stage that you intend to target.
My study of the millions of unique visitors to my business websites has allowed me to organize these visitors into 3 groups, which I have identified as the three stages of the Internet Buyer. They are information seekers, comparison shoppers, and ready buyers.
Information Seekers
Information seekers consist of the visitors who have just started the process of buying your product or service as well as people who need to know something about your industry or organization. This is a very broad group of people and not all are real prospective leads for your organization.
They are drawn to large generic sites that offer basic information about the process of buying a product or service similar to yours. In real estate, information seekers end up at sites like realtor.com, zillow.com, trulia.com, etc. They want to see pictures of homes (even if the homes are in markets where they will not be buying).
Comparison Shoppers
Comparison shoppers have read enough content to move beyond the information gathering stage of the buying process and are ready to refine their focus. They have learned enough from reading content on your site (and others) to allow them to have fairly specific needs identified and a rough budget established.
Much like the information seeker, the comparison shopper is not likely to be making a purchase decision during this visit to your website, so it is important that you have the tools and resources that will keep this future buyer engaged on your site in order to develop familiarity with your company. This is the stage in which a customer "relationship" can be forged.
Third - Ready Buyers
The third and final stage of the buying process occurs when the comparison shopper has identified what they want and all they are lacking is an emotional trigger that will cause them to buy. This stage of the cycle could be minutes, or it could be months, depending upon the nature of your industry.
I have found that on average, the entire buying cycle (all three stages) for the real estate consumer is about nine and a half months. Your industry could observe all three stages in just a few hours. The most important thing to understand about consumers on the internet is that for best marketing practices, you must learn the length of each of these stages for buyers of your product or service, and to have a plan for each stage that you intend to target.
About the Author:
Joe Manausa writes about internet marketing, showing how to generate real sustainable business from buyers on the internet. He is a trainer for attracting buyers in each stage of the internet buying cycle and using list marketing systems to develop profitable relationships with shoppers online.
