In consumer behavior, the aim is to find out what influences the buying decisions of consumers based on their emotional, mental, and behavioral responses.

In simple terms, consumer behavior refers to people’s decisions and actions to meet their wants and needs through purchasing goods and services.

Adapted from the American Marketing Association, consumer behavior occurs dynamically, fosters interaction, and involves transactions.

• Dynamic: Consumer groups, targeted consumers, and society has dynamic thought processes, emotions, and behaviors.
• Involves Interaction: During this process, thoughts, emotions, and actions of the individual have interacted with the external environment.
• Involves Exchanges: An exchange of goods or services between two or more parties. People give up money and other valuable items in exchange for the goods, services, and products they want or need.

Understanding the difference between ‘customers’ and ‘consumers.’

• When we say ‘consumer,’ who are we talking about?
• Also, What is the difference between this term and ‘customer’?

The terms are synonymous, but there are some significant differences between them.

Customers are individuals or organizations who purchase products, goods, or services from a seller.

By contrast, a consumer is a person who uses this merchandise, product, or service.

Even though the customer purchases, they are not always the purchaser since they may have been intended as a gift or resold.

The parent who buys their child lunch is a good example. Their child is the one who gets to eat the goods, not them. They purchase the goods, but their child is the one who gets to eat them.

Also, it is essential to mention that the customer may sometimes also be the consumer. End-users of the purchased items are entitled to this. The clothing, food, or book is worn, eaten, or read by the individual.

Consumer behavior is beneficial to marketing

Why is a study of consumer behavior valuable to marketers? Check out the details of each of these goals below.

#1. Determine which products are necessary and which ones are obsolete

The last thing any business wants to do is invest a lot of money producing something that won’t sell. By knowing consumer behavior, you can determine whether your product can meet a specific need, provides something better than its competitors, or fills an entirely new – but essential – market niche.

#2. In a competitive market, to figure out the price at which a product or service will be offered

Businesses would experience constant headaches if they did not analyze consumer behavior. Ultimately, you don’t want to be too cheap when pricing your product to make a minimal profit. Still, you also don’t want to be too expensive when pricing your product, causing consumers to look at your competitors’ more affordable products instead.

#3. Determine which distribution channel is best for your product

Essentially, distribution channels refer to the places and means through which individuals and companies will access products and services. It is essential to take multiple factors into account when planning your distribution strategy, such as the quantity needed, the convenience of online or offline channels, what competitors do already, and more.

#4. In the interest of marketing

Consumer behavior should provide valuable insights into which channels will produce the best results since different types of consumers respond differently to each marketing method. What are the consumer’s preferences? Does the target audience prefer reading a magazine or browsing Instagram? An expensive marketing campaign can ruin a business’s marketing efforts, so no one wants to waste resources.

#5. The purpose of boosting revenue

Knowing how consumers behave allows you to identify valuable insights that drive valuable outcomes. Studying consumer behaviors and their decisions can help you understand how, when, where, why, and for whom people buy certain products. To boost sales and revenue, we need to ensure we implement the correct methods to make our products, goods, and services in demand.

#6. To personalize content

The importance of content personalization might be surprising for you if you thought it wasn’t a priority. Research has found that 41% of customers switched companies because of poor personalization in 2019. Technological advances, as well as the desire for highly personalized, unique content, are growing. When you collect consumer behavior data, you can tailor your content successfully to the needs and wants of each consumer.

#7. The value of customers

Identifying the ideal customer characteristics is feasible when you can correctly predict the customer’s overall value. Using this method, you can identify specific customer personas, and you can target them to engage brand-loyal customers before they discover your competitors.

#8. Optimization of content

As we have discussed, it is possible to customize the content, but how can it also be optimized to succeed? In addition to providing you with data to optimize your marketing campaigns, your consumer behavior analysis should also help you narrow down your focus on the most valuable customers, engage them via their preferred channels, or deliver content at the best time.

#9. Maintaining a customer base

What if you knew the difference between increasing customer retention by 5% and increasing profits by 25%? Retaining existing customers is also 6-to-7 times cheaper than acquiring new ones. In other words, loyalty to a business is essential, but maintaining them is even more critical. Identifying ‘good customers’ that are willing to be rewarded can be accomplished by understanding consumer behavior.

Can Small Businesses Benefit from Digital Marketing?

Let us cut to the chase, “The answer to this question is yes.” It offers more of a chance to compete. With digital marketing, the status of your business can be leveled up to start on the same level as your competitors, regardless of how large they may be. If you are using the right digital strategies, it is possible to create a massive following for your social media; you could even rank the highest on Google and/or have oodles of customers to sell your products to via email.

Wait, there is more! Here are a few more advantages that digital marketing has to offer you, which are not only for small businesses. These offers can benefit any business with an online presence.

Related:

• SEO VS PPC
• What Is Marketing Automation, Why Is It Important For Small Businesses?

Digital Marketing Helps PinPoint and Engage with the Audience You Choose

Investing in traditional marketing, such as magazine articles and/or television ads, will let your audience be targeted to an extent; however, this is something you can surmise somewhat already. Those of you who are interested in knowing more than that should try digital marketing as it will give you the ability to pinpoint the audience you are looking for and help you to optimize your business’s budget.

Whether the audiences you are seeking to find are unemployed parents or they are CEOs, it does not make any difference. Having digital marketing gives you the capability of identifying and engaging the buyers’ personas that you feel are right by using a variety of marketing tactics online, whether big or small and even if they seem to have no interests at all.

With Digital Marketing, You Can Reach Your Audience

Few people read magazines, newspapers, or even turn on the radio. In the United States during the year of 2018, the circulation of newspapers was at its lowest since back in 1940, and the audiences of local news have been at their lowest for over 10 years now. What has the audience of the local news been doing instead? Glad you ask; they have been browsing online!

Furthermore, nearly 70% of all internet users are on Facebook daily, while 90% of American adults are on the internet daily as well, and 75% can be found on YouTube daily. So, you want to know how those percentages are affecting businesses, huh? Those who are using the right strategies with their digital marketing can reach out and connect to their audience wherever they may be.

Digital Marketing Makes Monitoring and Tracking Easier

It is not that simple to get the tracking out of traditional ad campaigns. Although you may have an idea of the number of times your ad(s) showed up, the number of people who responded to your newspaper and/or television ad(s) would be impossible to know.

The fact is, launching a digital marketing campaign will allow you to virtually track all the details you want to. With only a couple of clicks, you will be able to visually see the number of people who have clicked your ad, including whether they purchased anything. Digital marketing even makes it possible to target those same people using another one of your ads.

Digital Marketing Lets You Scale & Adapt the Efforts You Put into It

With digital marketing, you can scale the digital strategy you feel works best for you, and just think, you will no longer be stuck watching television ads or no longer having to send mailings several months ahead of schedule. This will give you a chance to put more out on digital, and you could adapt more to the needs you have as they come up.

So, how do you go about finding what works best for you? There are analytics tools available for measuring your results. Just think, you will have complete control over your digital efforts, and now you also will have the time you wanted to try some newer ideas. If you find any ideas that you can not get out of your head, you can scale them.

If it turns out they were not what you had hoped, you are in control, which means you can stop them prior to going broke.

How to build a successful sales process: the sales cycle

Improving sales efforts rarely results in success. A tiny percentage of companies employ a lot of random tactics and see if they stick. A business that consistently succeeds in sales offers some level of guidance to its salespeople.

To know what to do next, salespeople often need a step-by-step plan to guide them. A sales cycle is often referred to as that infrastructure.

This article will provide you with an overview of a sales cycle’s various stages, along with tips on how to put one into motion.

Related:

• What Is Marketing Automation, Why Is It Important For Small Businesses?
• What is a sales funnel

What is a sales cycle?

The Sales Cycle refers to the steps salespeople take to close a new customer. There is a common misconception that sales cycles are akin to sales methodologies – frameworks for implementing sales cycles. The sales cycle generally contains stages such as prospecting, connecting, researching, presenting, and closing.

An established sales cycle is in the best interest of your company. Organizing your sales pipeline, prioritizing leads, and ultimately evaluating the results of your sales efforts becomes more manageable with this tool.

When your sales cycle is clearly defined, your reps will have a roadmap and common reference points, ensuring they can work together and communicate effectively. Teams that work well together are more successful.

If they are required to pick up where another left off, your representatives must be flexible and know how to do so. If there is no sales cycle to guide their efforts, there is no “where they left off.”

Using a sales cycle allows reps to prioritize leads and understand how far prospects are along their buyer’s journey. In this way, they can figure out how to approach the leads they are nurturing at the right time.

Additionally, it is possible to evaluate sales efforts via a sales cycle objectively. Is your sales team doing well? How did they succeed? Was there a mistake or a right decision? Have they strayed from the cycle? If they did, what would happen?

It is essential to have a perspective for evaluating how your business and your reps are doing – a sales cycle provides that perspective.

Understanding a sales cycle requires understanding its stages. Each one is listed below.

Stages in a sales cycle

1. 1. Prospect
   2. Connect
   3. Research
   4. Present
   5. Handle objections
   6. Close
   7. Follow up and generate referrals

1. Prospect

As part of this stage, any SQLs will be identified in your pipeline who may be interested in hearing more about your product/service and buyer persona.

2. Connect

Identifying prospects is the first step in contacting them. You can reach out via email and phone, or you can ask acquaintances to introduce you. You can also reach out to your prospects using social media like LinkedIn and Twitter.

Ask if they’d like to learn more about what you have to offer.

3. Research

You should set up a discovery meeting if your prospect wishes to learn more. The more you learn about their business, their needs, and how you can fulfill those needs, the more prepared you will be.

You may discover that you are not the right fit during discovery calls. Other users will provide you with the insight to convince them to adopt your product or service.

4. Present

This is the moment when the presentation will begin. In most cases, your sales team tailors a pitch template to meet the business needs of each prospect.

The presentations will be held in front of a team of decision-makers, and key stakeholders will ask questions. Are you looking to improve your pitch?

5. Handle objections

There’s a good chance your sales cycle will encounter some snags along the way. At this point, expect your prospects to push back. Your product or service will probably raise some questions and concerns.

Your presentation must be followed by a response to objections from your prospects. Your pitch might involve asking about price, budget, competitors, comprehension of the product, and any other issues that may be asked about. It’s important to listen attentively and to ask questions to understand their objections better.

6. Close

Following the presentation, you will likely need to take some action. Legal and IT might need to be consulted for logistical details. Following these steps, ask the prospect whether he is ready to buy. This is the sales jargon for asking if someone is ready to buy.

Prepare the contract and give it to them for final review and signature if they say “yes.” It might be necessary to discuss other objectives or just walk away at that time if they say, “No.”.

7. Follow up and generate referrals

Landing a deal isn’t the end of the sales cycle. Your goal after a sale is to excite any of your customers, keeping them and then leveraging them to refer you to others. By providing exemplary customer service and following up on your customers, you should do everything in your power to satisfy them.

Ensure your customers are well taken care of. Your chances of up-selling and cross-selling them will increase if you keep them close. Referrals and new business are also excellent sources of happy customers so that you can keep your cycle spinning, foster more relationships, and increase revenue.

Sales Cycle Management

The sales cycle management process helps salespeople, managers, and leaders follow the sales process from beginning to end. These metrics are used to identify the most successful or least successful steps in the process.

Sales cycle management gives sales leaders and salespeople a way to evaluate where they must improve or adjust during the sales cycle. Tools like CRMs aid the management of the sales cycle.

When sending a new product or service out into the world, a flashy launch party won’t do the trick. Here’s how to spend your marketing budget wisely

Your public launch of a product or service should be designed to raise the profile of your company. Think of it as a marketing event kickoff party of sorts. What you need for launch is a compelling product or service, plus a handful of early customers providing gushing testimonials.

Don’t spend money on a flashy launch party when you have no accomplishments to show off. Spend your marketing budget on making the press and blogging community aware of your product and the companies that are using it, as well as the problems your product is solving and the specific benefits that have resulted from its use.

It would help if you prepared for your launch by answering the following four questions. Which companies are using your product/service? What specific problems are being solved? What associated “pain” is your product/service removing? What have the tangible and quantifiable benefits been to your clients?

Your goal is to provide a clear message about the customer’s problems, and the benefits your product or service has provided and will continue to provide. This is what the press should be made aware of when you launch. This is newsworthy.

From those four questions, you’ll be able to formulate a few customer case studies that will illustrate the many benefits of using your product. Case studies should tell the story from the customer’s perspective. You can offer case studies to journalists who are working on a story about your company.

There’s no magic number of customers or amount of sales you need to execute a launch. If you’re a privately held company, you don’t have to disclose either to the press. You’ll launch when you are ready to gain traction and when you have the infrastructure set up to handle an increased number of inquiries and sales. Make sure you’re ready, though many startups sell their product for six months or more before they officially launch.

Pick a point person for the launch. This person will be internal or external and have a blend of marketing and PR skills. They’ll spend a great deal of time on preparing marketing materials such as customer case studies, customer testimonials, and product fact sheets.

They’ll also distribute press releases, pitch journalists and influential bloggers, answer frequently asked questions, book customer interviews, and a lot more. The pre- and post-launch activities take months of dedicated time. Doing it right is well worth it.

It might be helpful at this point to tell you more about the critical steps from founding to sale to better understand how your launch process and timeline should look. In the 1990’s I got an idea for an Internet promotions company while chatting in line with a man at Starbucks. Over time, we built a team and funded the company with venture capital, built it up, and a few years later, I sold my shares to Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. The route I took ended up having 12 main steps. While your launch process will be tailored to your specific industry and product or service, seeing how one of my companies progressed provides a case study, you can use to get started.

1. We wrote the business plan to clarify our vision. We wrote our funding pitch in a PowerPoint presentation and our first year’s budget in an Excel spreadsheet. We created a formula-based dynamic model so we could plug in numbers for different “what if” scenarios (what if our expenses were higher, what if our revenue were lower, etc.).

2. We mocked up our Web pages so others could visualize how our site would work and how consumers, retailers, manufacturers would interact with it. Always do this. Many people you’ll pitch to will be visual.

3. We designed the architecture so others could visualize how we’d do certain product functions such as data analysis and data mining. Providing a schematic of the backend architecture helped boost our credibility with the potential client’s information technology teams that would have to interface with our backend.

4. We got our first round of funding! We sold 33% percent of our company for 18 months’ worth of operational cash.

5. We hired key staff: a VP of engineering, a VP of Sales, and a VP of marketing because this company was very engineering- and sales-intensive. We needed to have a solid architecture, and we needed to get started on the incredibly long sales cycle for retailers and manufacturers.

The marketing worked on collateral sales support material like brochures and data sheets while the sales folks hung out with potential customers and asked for their suggestions on our product design. This helped get the potential customers more emotionally engaged in our success and increased their likelihood of buying a system they had helped design.

6. We secured our first customers (both retailers and manufacturers) and Web site strategic alliances. We raised our profile with trade associations and distributed a white paper we had written that illustrated the future of our business: online, targeted promotions. We positioned ourselves as experts. This is like declaring victory as you’re stepping onto the battlefield. Do it!

7. We launched a 90-day beta test.

8. We got our first consumers using the beta system. We gave countless speeches to manufacturers and retailers. Then we cranked up the PR engine and started getting press.

9. As a result of the above, we got more funding.

10. We demonstrated our product’s data analysis capabilities to customers. They were wowed, and we were able to up-sell them to a more premium (read: expensive) service.

11. We expanded our customer base. We released a complete Version 1 of the system. We did zillions more speeches. Whew! That was a lot of talking for my executive staff and me! So we got more press.

12. And yep, you guessed it. We got more funding.

So you see, the launch process is cyclical. Each time there is a progression and growth associated with customers and press, more funding follows. You must repeatedly demonstrate growth with each step of the launch process.

I prefer gaining credibility from customer case studies, from showing specifically how you are solving problems as opposed to paying someone to write about you. You’ll be written up once you’ve gained traction. So hunker down and get to work! That said, you may need the credibility boost of a research report from a third party if you are selling a six-digit product to enormous enterprises and your executive team doesn’t have fabulous accomplishments in their past.

Article originally written at The Startup @ Medium by: Mark W Lamplugh Jr

SEO Compared to PPC

It would help if you considered the differences between pay-per-click advertising and
search engine optimization when deciding where to invest your time and marketing
dollars, including the differences between PPC and SEO.
The use of PPC advertisements such as Google Ads does not lead to higher SEO
rankings than other paid online advertising, despite some myths and claims. They are,
however, helpful in connecting with a larger audience online.
What could your business get from using: SEO or paid search advertising? Let’s look at
how these work and explore the benefits of both.

What is the Difference Between PPC compared to SEO?

SEO

SEO is the practice of including SEO-friendly content on your site that can serve as its
optimization tool for users and search engines, improving your chances of appearing on
relevant search pages.

If you’re looking for SEO improvements on your site (or if you’re hiring SEO experts to
assist you), then look for several things. First of all, make sure your website’s content is
informative, helpful, and descriptive. Make your article easy to understand by using
simple, straightforward language, and consider including words a user might use when
looking online for what you offer.

Don’t overuse keywords when writing site copy; instead, talk to the people you intend to
reach, and don’t try to trick Google. The bottom line is that it’s essential to not cram your
page with too many search terms that have no context or create fake pages that you
never expect a customer to see create since this could make Google consider your site
deceptive and disregard your site. Please do not use text images like titles, content, or
links to ensure that the Google bot understands them correctly. Think about how you
can make the subject easy for your readers to understand and stick with it.

Links to your site can help you with your ranking as well. Such hyperlinks can be
created by listicles, business associates, satisfied customers, or much more.

The cost of appearing in Google organic results is no more than $2 per click of the
search bar, and one small change to your website can have a dramatic effect on your
ranking. You can find out more about Google organic search here and how Search
Console will analyze your content.

Why might I need PPC? What does it stand for?

PPC advertising is the pay-per-click (PPC) advertising product that gives businesses
and websites, such as you, the chance to advertise on Google.com as people search on
the search engine for the services and products you offer. Your ads only cost you when

someone clicks on yours to visit your site or contact your business, and they offer an
inexpensive way to advertise your business. Plus, you can edit your ads at any time, so
they reach people in a specific location or promote a specific deal or offer. These
updates can be helpful for small companies who don’t have the resources to regularly
update their SEO to reflect seasonal changes, sales, and promotions.

Google Ads will also provide you with an option to promote your business outside of
normal Google Searches by showing your ads on relevant sites within the Google
Display Network. This network is made up of thousands of websites, and you can
connect with more customers. You can pick out specific sites from the network or select
the people you want to reach, and then Google Ads will make a list for you.

Because of its flexibility, Google Ads can help companies of any size make the most of
Google Ads by targeting people online when their searches for businesses like yours
are relevant.

What Do I Need to Invest In: PPC or SEO?

It’s important to consider that SEO can help your business in different ways, but both
PPC and SEO options are viable in different ways. Today, people turn to the Internet
first when they seek restaurant recommendations, reviews of businesses, or answers to
burning questions. Both SEO and Google Ads can help you connect with them where
they want what you’re offering. Online marketing is a traditional cornerstone of success
because SEO plays a massive part in helping your business get found, even if the
optimization process takes time to perfect.

No matter how small or big your business happens to be, Google Ads lets you reach
customers quickly, and you can customize any campaign while you are on the go. But
you must keep in mind that both SEO and PPC can help you. Today, people turn to the
Internet first when they seek restaurant recommendations, reviews of businesses, or
answers to burning questions.

Both SEO and Google Ads can help you connect with them where they want what
you’re offering. Online marketing has traditionally relied heavily on SEO, ensuring your
business is found because it takes time for your site to be optimized correctly. No matter
what size or type of business you have, Google Ads can help you get in touch with your
customers more quickly. Additionally, you can change and adjust your campaign on the
fly.

Using SEO and Google Adwords together can improve your chances of getting traffic to
your website and enhancing your business’s foundation for long-term success online.

Start a Business Youtube Channel – Today!

Setting up a YouTube channel for your business is almost a no-brainer these days, but if you’ve never done it before, you might be feeling a bit apprehensive. That’s ok, because we’re here to guide you through the process and give you some tips on how to get the most out of this powerful marketing technique. Here’s how you can set up your own YouTube channel devoted to marketing your business.

Getting Started

You’ll need a Google account to create a YouTube channel for your brand, so head to Google.com to create one if you haven’t already (it’s a good idea to set up a separate Gmail account for your business anyway, so you can keep it separate from your personal email). Once you’ve done that, sign into YouTube with your Google account.

After you’ve signed in, click your account at the top right corner of the screen (it might have the first letter of your first name, or your profile picture if you have one). Click settings from the dropdown menu, then under the “YouTube channel” subheading, click “Create a New Channel”. You’ll input your brand name and then click create, and from there you can upload your logo on your profile picture.

Fill In Your Profile

Once you’ve created the channel, it’s time to fill it out and put in some information about your brand. The About Us section is a great place to start, where you can help your viewers understand your brand a little more, as well as point them towards your website and other social media profiles.

You also should put some effort into your cover photo, which is the first thing people see when they click on your channel name. YouTube recommends uploading a picture that’s 2560 x 1440 pixels for optimal viewing. If you’re looking for a good picture editor online, check out ipiccy, which gives you a variety of options to resize your photo, create collages, or otherwise make it look great.

Create Some Content!

Now that you’ve got a channel built, it’s time to fill it with content! If you already have videos you’ve created for social media or your website, it can be a good use of existing resources to use those on your YouTube channel. This makes all videos for your brand easily accessible in one place, but you also should start creating YouTube specific content and then linking to that from other social media.

Keep your content on brand, and come up with a strategy for it. Your videos should be part of an overarching marketing strategy that stays on message and is consistent across all marketing platforms. You also should know what you want your content to do; how to use your product tutorials are good, testimonials from satisfied customers, or inside looks into your operations or story are always a good start.

Use SEO to Title Your Content

You shouldn’t neglect SEO when titling and describing your content. You want your videos to show up on the first page of Google results, so you need to optimize the descriptions and titles of your articles to do that. Check out this handy guide on how to use SEO principles to get people to your channel.

Advertise Your Channel

Once it’s created, it’s time to advertise your channel everywhere. Post links on your other social media accounts, put links on your webpage, even stick it on business cards (which you can design for free here). The point is, you need to get word about your channel out there to the masses.

Engage With Followers

Part of the appeal to social media is the ability for people to interact with their favorite brands directly, so don’t neglect to respond to your followers’ comments on your videos. Allow people the opportunity to influence your content as well, and get people excited about your brand.

Analyze and Adapt

As you’re posting new content, you should be analyzing previous content to continuously adapt to what your customers want. Staying on brand and consistent in your messaging is critical, but you should be constantly looking at what has performed well and try to keep that in your future videos. Luckily for you, YouTube Analytics can give you a treasure-trove of data about your videos so you can get it all in one convenient dashboard.