The Secrets to Generating Real Results
Buyer behavior has changed forever. That means the time has come for companies everywhere to either get on board or get out of the way because there’s no going back to the old way of doing business.
To truly understand this new shift in buyer behavior, you need to take a look at how and why it came about: In the beginning, before the invention of mass media, buyers everywhere relied on salespeople and word of mouth to inform their purchase decisions. Then mass media came along and advertising was created to take advantage of the reach associated with mass media.
All of a sudden, you could reach millions of people with a single advertisement. This helped spread sales and marketing messages far and wide. Reach and frequency was the name of the game. Tell as many people as possible, as many times as possible about your product or service and hopefully, when they needed it, they would remember your message and choose to purchase from you.
In the early days of the internet, marketing professionals adopted and adapted advertising’s interruptive best practices and broadcast-style approach. That was a mistake based on an old, outdated way of thinking. The fact of the matter was, just like with every other mass media invention (print, radio, television) that preceded it, the internet permanently changed the way people interact and exchange information.
Today’s buyers have access to more information from more sources than ever before. They ask questions, get answers, read reviews, do comparisons and start conversations with people they’ve never met; all on the web, all on their own terms and all on their own time schedule. Look at the buying patterns of your own prospects and clients.
Chances are, they are researching the purchase of your services or merchandise via the internet long before they ever step into your store or give you a call. Today’s buyers are looking for informative educational content followed up by a consultative, guided sales process.
As a result, the traditional outbound advertising and marketing techniques that worked so well over the past century just don’t perform like they used to. Faced with that reality, businesses have two options: throw increasingly large sums of money at the problem or find an alternative approach. Inbound marketing techniques are perfectly aligned with this new buyer behavior and they do a much better job delivering a remarkable purchase experience that helps to differentiate and ingratiate prospects with your business.
