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In the Loop
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Creating a Modern Buying Experience
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In recent years, the traditional marketing funnel has undergone a transformation, bending and shifting until the linear buying cycle—Awareness, Familiarity, Consideration, Purchase, Loyalty—has come full circle to form, well, a circle.
The most surprising thing isn’t the shift itself; after all, the availability of comparison shopping, social media and reviews sites over the past decade have changed the way we shop for just about everything. What’s interesting to note is that the purchasing behavior between consumers and businesses has become so similar. Sure, their triggers may differ, but in essence, they follow a very similar journey. More than anything, what technology has done is put the buyer in the driver’s seat. Today’s buyer has the power to do their own research, find their own information, ask friends or colleagues for advice or recommendations, even demand timely information from companies in the form of social media or content. Regardless of whether you’re a B2B or B2C business, the terms have changed.
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What technology has done is put the buyer in the driver’s seat.
So what does this tell us? A new buying experience is
emerging, one that dumps the old straight line approach and acknowledges the new
1. Initial Consideration: During this first phase, the buyer considers an initial set of brands, based on a recent touchpoint or general awareness.
power held in the hand of the consumer. McKinsey, a global consulting firm, actually foresaw this happening back in 2009 and and posited their own idea for what this new buying experience looks like: You can see how this journey fits both consumer and business buying habits, with key differences in triggers, of course. But for the most part, the journey itself is the same. Consider the options, research them, make a decision, then hope they meet your expectations with good postpurchase customer experiences. Your job as a marketer is to make their buying decision an easy one by making every possible touchpoint with your brand a clear, enjoyable and informational experience. Today’s consumer comes at a brand from all angles, and you have to be ready to not just engage them at the point, but continue to offer valuable information throughout their evaluation phase.
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2. Active Evaluation: This is when the buyer does their homework and adds or removes brands from consideration based on their findings. The buyer will engage in information gathering, learning about the brand’s offerings, reading reviews, engaging on social media and soliciting feedback from others.
3. Moment of Purchase: After careful evaluation, the buyer selects a brand and makes a purchase—hopefully, it’s you.
4. Post-purchase Experience: This phase is about more than loyalty; it’s ensuring the customer has a consistently great experience with your company, which ideally won’t stop after they’ve forked over a check or credit card. This experience can lead them into the loyalty loop, which is a quicker path to purchasing additional products and services from you. They may still go through steps 1–3 when looking to make another purchase, but a great experience with a known brand can go a long way.
Marketing Automation:
Your Best Friend
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As the buyer journey has shifted, so has the means for delivering content that serves the needs of the modern buyer. Marketing automation as an industry abides by the mantra of delivering the right content to the right person at the right time—a sentiment tailor-made for the buyer who wants things on their terms.
With a marketing automation system comes the power to engage buyers in the evaluation phase with relevant content that nudges them closer to a buying decision. But you have to be smart about it. It’s not about you anymore. The modern buying experience give the buyer the control—it’s their time, their needs, their money, and if you can’t understand that, they’ll happily jump to the nearest competitor that does. So what’s the most effective way to create a compelling modern buying experience? 4
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