Your marketing campaign may be working against you. If your promotions are focused on what your product does or the features it has, you may be only attracting browsers, and not buyers. It’s sales that matter. Media Relations Agency’s team of strategists, writers and publicists – some of the industry’s best – compose campaigns that incite consumers to take action and buy your product. And isn’t that what you really want?
First, the sad news: About 80 percent of all new products fail. Some of these products never realized their full potential because they didn’t consider consumer buying behavior during their marketing campaigns. Once I explain this to business owners, most want to know more about Media Relations’ recommended marketing strategies for addressing each step.
Before we take out our credit cards, we go through a process. Generally this is longer for big-ticket purchases and much shorter for impulse buys, but it’s the same consumer buying process every time.
1. Needs recognition. We realize we want something, perhaps a great-tasting snack or younger-looking skin.
2. Information search. We discover ways to meet that need. We may review our options in the store, or often in this technology-focused world, on our mobile phones.
3. Evaluation of alternatives. This is where we narrow our options by evaluating the pro and cons. Should we choose the almond-cranberry granola bar or the bag of pretzels? The lotion loaded with extra nutrients or the serum in the fancy bottle?
4. Purchase decision. We make our choice. One product wins, the others not-so-much. There’s no benefit in being the product a consumer considered, but didn’t buy.
5. Post-purchase behavior. Do we regret making the purchase or are we ready to tell others about our fabulous buy?
Too often marketers spend all of their resources on the first two steps of this process. That’s a mistake. Good marketing must do more than inform, it should encourage shoppers to make a decision and then act on it.
Watch this Marketing To Go Video to learn more about the Consumer Buying Process.
How today’s shoppers makes purchase decisions
Let’s face it: We no longer rely on advertisements to inform our purchase decisions. We simply don’t trust them. Some of us ignore ads, while others may even avoid products that advertise too much. Today, we crave reliable, authentic information. In addition to reading technical articles and blogs, we look for personal recommendations and reviews. In fact, nearly 70 percent of us seek out online reviews before making a purchase. Good recommendation can do wonders for sales. A recent study showed that more than 50 percent of us will visit a website after reading a positive review.
Bottom line: Publicity can help you gain those sales-boosting personal recommendations. At Media Relations Agency we embed your product’s messaging into trusted content such as magazines and newspapers articles or TV shows. Our Pay Per Interview Publicity® is not perceived as advertising. It’s closer to a personal recommendation, the kind that greatly influences buyer behavior.
If you’re attracting browsers instead of buyers, it may be time to stop spending resources on outdated marketing promotions. Instead, invest in a proven marketing tactic that will incite shoppers to take action. Our clients know that publicity sells. That’s why many of them have been with us for years and years.
See what Media Relations Agency can do for you. Get started by watching this short video about our trademarked Pay Per Interview® pricing model. Then request your free consultation and publicity estimate. You’ll be glad you did.
