Don't Ask Her to Marry You on the First Date!
I am sure you have been on a date before with someone that seems ideal to you! Perfect chemistry, funny, attractive and she can't stop talking about your interests! Would you ask her to marry you on the first date? Of course not! Then why do this with your clients?
Businesses usually fall in the trap of saying too much within a marketing push by asking immediate conversions or sales. The result: few conversions or no conversions at all.
In this article I am going to talk to you about three different types of customer intent and how to optimize your communication efforts for each type of intent.
Let's say Barney, a random guy has a problem. He's dissatisfied with the car he owns. He's not sure why - maybe it's not fuel efficient, or the seats aren't comfy enough, maybe it's too old, or he doesn't like the color. He's not ready to buy a new car yet but he is open to finding more information about his options.
As Barney is reading the daily news on his favorite portal, one day he sees an ad about new cars and clicks through. What triggered him to click depends entirely on the creative that matched his intentions. Since Barney is not actively seeking for a new car but only thinking about it, he may not respond to an ad that calls him to buy now. What would actually be valuable for him at this point of his purchase journey will be an ad calling him to explore all the different types of models of cars he could find out there.
As you understand, not everyone is ready to buy on a single click. In fact different people are in different stages of their buying process; thus many marketing messages need to address different people. In order to simplify things let's separate these intents in 3 different types. See-Think-Do,
See represents the broader audience. These people might have similar demographics to your current customers but this doesn't mean they are interested to buy your products. What you need to do with this audience is grab their attention and raise awareness towards your Brand. What you need to do is make sure that your ad is centered on branding. Make sure you are effectively targeting potential buyers but don't be product oriented. Give them the chance to create an initial connection with you (follow, like, share, views) and track their status.
Think is all the people who are "flirting" with you. They are the people who are thinking to buy your products but haven't decided yet. In order to help them consider your Brand to their final decision you need to provide them with valuable information and content of high emotional value. You need to explain all of your brand values and benefits, seek to drive engagements and try to find them where they spend most of their time online. What matters at this stage is your ads click-through rate, the bounce rate of your landing pages and the number of leads you obtain.
Do ask them to marry you. Those are the ones ready to make a decision. You want them to choose you, and you want to make sure they can do that with ease. Be clear and to the point. Whether it's going to be: "Will you marry me?" or"Buy Now!" make it clear, simple and Bold! At this point you might consider re-marketing in order to optimize conversions and minimize costs, minimize risks and make processes simple. The most important metrics to track at this point are your revenues.
Of course we don't think Barney would buy a car online but differentiating our message to his intent will help him decide which Brand and which model online, ask questions, make up his mind, provide his contact information and finally sign up online for a test drive!