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As I travel and speak to business owners and industry people I have been asked if I could simplify how this “new” customer is shopping. How it affects their interaction and what can they do to improve their sales.
Let me begin by saying that just because I am in digital media, I do not feel how you have been using traditional media in marketing your business in the past is wrong. What I want you to understand is what that media is doing for you and how you may have to change some of your budget in the future.
The customer of today is over-worked, way too much is on their plate and time is precious. They now rely on technology to help them use their time more efficiently.
What this means to you is that all the traditional media you use drives consumers to the web, not your front door. If you are not on the web in a way where your busines can easily be found you are off the list of places a customer will visit when they are ready to purchase.
This is real and happening right now. The problem with some of you reading this is that you are still selling inventory or services and are successful. Changing tactics may be hard for some of you because times are good. Please understand that if you do not embrace this, your business will be affected.
The affect will not be a drastic drop off, but a slow trickle. What will happen is you will sell a little less and blame it on the economy, you will sell a little less and blame your competition as being lucky. Then one day you wale up and are selling 25-30% less and wondering why. Then you end up increasing spend on traditional and speeding up the process of your demise.
Let me give you an example of what I mean.
At a recent automotive dealership workshop I asked the audience who sells Hondas. 6 people raised their hands. I asked them if they would sell me a 2012 civic
They all said yes. So how do I determine whom to buy from since I am no longer figuring out what car to buy? What I need to know from each of them is “Why should I buy from you? “ The thing that they began to understand was that If I can’t find your “Why buy from me” message online, you are off my list.
I can’t find the first one’s website…off the list
Second one’s website is not helpful…off the list
The other 4…1 has no reviews…off the list
The other 3…2 have more reviews than the third…the one with less reviews off the list
Out of other 2…may go to both, may choose one based on videos I found on one of the site.
I am not saying they buy from this one that depends on what happens when I get there but 4 of the 6 are not even given a chance to compete based on what I did or did not find online.
The days of throwing kids into the car and spending Saturday driving to multiple dealerships to talk and test drive are done
For most customers, 2/3 of the buying experience is done online or “on the couch” because as I mentioned, we are busy. My kids got karate, or swimming, or things to do around the house. I don’t have the luxury of time to waste anymore. We are going to pick one place to go because I got a lot to do and technology makes it easy for me to do so
If your website is not optimized, if your Google places is not right, if I don’t see videos of happy people who shopped with you, if I don’t see a video of you telling me why I should shop or service with you then you are off my list and I am on to someone who WILL do this for me.
Money is tight and I need help not homework. I spend time debating about spending $10 on the new Matt Damon movie. I better do research on that restaurant I want to take my wife to because go forbid I spend $100 for a dinner and it stinks. Now I feel ripped off.
Don’t you think that if I am stressing out over $10 for a movie or dinner that I am really going to be stressing out putting down such a large amount of my hard earned money for a product or service you may be offering?
I hope you are understanding that what I am buying from you is the experience of doing business with your company because as we saw, with the example of a car purchase. I can get the car from 6 different places locally, I can get the car from another state, heck someone would ship it across the country.
So what’s the experience you are selling at your business and can I find it clearly and loudly online. The real question to ask is, are you doing enough to get me off my couch and come to your business.