Consumers have a buying cycle. They go through a series of steps before actually making a purchase. Understanding this cycle is the first step to understanding how to attract customers. Here are the 5 steps of the consumer buying cycle:
- Awareness – Consumers become aware of your product.
- Consideration – It’s time for them to determine if they want what you’re selling, and why they should buy it instead of your competitors’ products.
- Purchase – They’re ready to take action! This is when you’ll make your sale.
- Use – The customer will use your product and see if it fulfills their needs or not.
- Repeat – At some point, the consumer will revisit the purchase stage.
Awareness
Awareness is the first step of the buying cycle. It’s the moment a person becomes aware of a product or service for the first time. You can attract a customer’s attention by advertising, public relations, social media, and word-of-mouth.
Awareness is just the beginning, but it’s a crucial step in the buying process. If a customer never becomes aware of your product or service, they’ll never consider it as an option.
The good news? You don’t have to spend a lot of money to attract customer attention. There are plenty of low-cost ways to spread the word about your business.
For example, you could advertise on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter to reach a wider audience. Or run a “buy one get one free” promotion for a limited time to encourage customers to take action right away.
You should also use public relations methods like press releases and blogs to get the word out about your business. Word-of-mouth has always been an effective way to get people interested in your products or services.
The key is to strategically reach potential customers. Consider which methods would work best with your target audience and budget before deciding on the best course of action.
The “Share a Coke” brand awareness campaign is a good example of this, developed to increase brand awareness, sales, and brand love among the flailing Millennial audience.
Consideration
The consideration stage is the most important stage in the consumer’s cycle. They will determine if you’re worth considering. If they don’t feel that you’re trustworthy or that you’re a brand they’re interested in, they will leave and never think about you again.
In order to get to this stage, you need to do a lot of work. You need to advertise your company’s trustworthiness and credibility. You also need to make your product or service stand out from the rest. You need to be able to convince the potential customer that they should buy from you instead of your competitor.
Taking a look at your quality, price, and value of your product are all things you should consider when trying to sell it to the consumer. Keep in mind that these are not the only qualities of your product that will attract customers, but they are good places to start. Make sure your company is trustworthy, has great products or services, and offers competitive prices. You will see an increase in customers if you do this, and it will be worth it!
For an example, Figma show exactly how their SaaS offering works by combining screen capture of the tool in action with footage of their target audience using it. This well-balanced product video combines both benefits (working with colleagues outside of the office) with features (cloud-based design tools). When leads reach the consideration stage of the buyer’s journey, they’re more open to hearing from you about your products and services.
Purchase
The purchase stage is when you make your sale! Some consumers will make a purchase without any consideration. Others will go through the 5 steps before completing their purchase.
The purchase stage is critical because it’s when you make your sale. This is also when you get the most feedback about the product. Based on their experience with the product, your customers can determine if they want to purchase it again in the future.
Part of what makes this stage so important is that you can measure how many people are making a purchase. You can also see how many people are buying repeatedly.
Use
The customer will use your product and see if it fulfills their needs or not. If it does, you’ll have a repeat customer!
Repeat
The last stage of the consumer buying cycle is the repeat stage. After using your product or service, the customer will come back to the purchase stage. If things didn’t go well, they may go back to the consideration stage and find a different product.
The consumer buying cycle is a common and simple system for understanding consumer behavior and the motivations behind it. Understanding the buying cycle is the first step in understanding how to attract customers.
If you want to make a sale, make sure to take the time to understand the buying cycle and what stage the customer is in. If you’re in the consideration stage, focus on offering your best reasons for why they should buy your product, and why it’s better than your competitors’. If they’re in the purchase stage, then focus on offering them incentives and deals to take action. You’ll want to offer something that they can’t get anywhere else.
The key here is to understand where in the cycle your customer is and what will motivate them to take action.
