Episode 228: The Buyer Cycle - why you need it
The buyer cycle is the foundation. It is the backbone of so much marketing and brand work. In today's episode, Fiona talks does a complete episode about how important a buyer cycle is as a frame work. Tune in!
Topics discussed in this episode:
Introduction
The Buyer Cycle
The AIDA Model
Awareness
Consideration
Intent
Purchase
Post-purchase
Conclusion
Get in touch with My Daily Business Coach
Resources and Recommendations mentioned in this episode:
What I see so often with some of the clients that I work with and just in general DMS and everything that we get sent is people that work so hard to get the sale, and then they just never do anything. So they'll say, “Oh yeah, I've got 9,000 people on my email list”. And I'm like, “how often do you talk to them?” Never. That is 9,000 people that are happy to give you their details that have potentially bought from you and had a great experience. And you are not talking to them. You're out here chasing another hundred people to follow you on Instagram, who may never buy from you. And you've got 9,000 people sitting on an email list that are happy to hear from you.
Welcome to episode 228 of the My Daily Business Coach podcast. I am Fiona Killackey a business coach, podcaster speaker, author, mom, wife, sister, friend, and all sorts of things, but outside of business coaching, we also run a bunch of courses and programs, eBooks, and content plans. So if you listen to this and you're like, “gosh, this is useful.” I really hope that that's actually how you found it. But if you listen to it, anything, this is useful. I would like to go further in any sort of area of business, please check out our shop because it's more than likely you're going to find a course. We have a lot of short courses or an ebook or something in there that can help you. So you can find that just at mydailybusinesscoach.com/shop.
So today it is a coaching episode and somebody actually sent me an Instagram DM asking for this information. And I was like, “haven't, we recorded a whole episode on this which will really help you?” And then I went through the processes and systems for podcasting, and I looked at all the podcasts and did a quick search. And I was like, “gosh, I cannot believe in 228 episodes that we have not done an episode about this.” I actually was kind of shocked. It's something that I've mentioned in many episodes, but I have not done a standalone episode. And it is so important. It is something I talk to every single client about it is something that we bring up so many times in group coaching. It is something I mentioned probably in every speaking gig and every class that I run.
So that just gives you some inkling into how I felt when I was like, “how have we not got a whole episode on this?” So this is today's episode. It is a really important one. If you have the ability to get a pen and paper or to get somewhere that you can do some scribbling. I don't know if you're one of those digital people with fancy Mac Pens. I actually have one of those. I bought one and I never ever use it. I thought that I could go digital, but I can't, I'm still old school. I still need to write and draw with a pen and paper. So if you have the ability to go and grab one of those, I definitely would, before we get stuck into this important coaching episode, I just wanted to, of course, acknowledge the traditional owners and custodians on the land on which I record and work and play and live. And that is the Wurrung and Wurundjeri people of the Kulin nation. And I pay my respects to their elders, past, present, and emerging, and acknowledge that sovereignty has never been ceded. All right. Let's get stuck into today's coaching episode.
So what are we talking about? We are talking about the buyer cycle and I know I'm just gonna go straight in with it and people be like, “yeah, I've heard about it before,” but I have never done a whole episode on it. And I was thinking, how has that happened? The buyer cycle is the foundation. It is the backbone of so much marketing and brand work. And my entire career for 20-something years has predominantly been in marketing and brand, particularly with content marketing, branded content, custom content, and getting a brand to build loyalty. And that is what the buyer cycle helps you do. So the buyer cycle, what is it? It's a framework. And if you imagine, and if you can draw, you don't have to be a good drawer, don't worry.
Literally, you wanna draw a circle like a cycle, so a circle, but it's got a little arrow at the top because it keeps going. It just keeps going. And this is what I love about the buyer cycle. So in any kind of marketing, anything you've watched about sales or marketing or building a brand or anything like that, you will have come across anything that sounds like the customer funnel, the customer journey, the sales funnel, the customer map, whatever you wanna call it, quite often, what you're shown is a funnel. It is kind of like a funnel. Like if you're using a funnel to, I don't know, do some cooking or pour some oil into a smaller container, you'll have a funnel that is wired at the top. And then it gets narrower and narrower. And that is quite often seen as the kind of customer journey.
And so you've got this wide bit at the top where you're kind of gathering people in and they're your leads. And then you're gonna nurture the leads and nurture the leads and nurture leads and hope that at the bottom of the funnel, you get a sale. And, and it makes sense. If we imagine, I don't know if you look at say, like reach on social media, which is often a metric, which I often find very interesting that social media agencies will be like, “yeah, we'll show you how much reach we got because cool.” What can I do with reach? Great. Lots of people saw it. What did they actually do? But if you think about the top of the funnel and something like reach, yes, you're going to get your product or your post or whatever it is in front of a lot of people, it will very rarely happen that all of those people take an action, whatever the action is, whatever you want them to do.
So they may do some percentage of them might do the first action, which could be to move to a certain place, say off social media to the website, or maybe to click on something or to maybe not even download something that might be a bit further along, but something taking an action that doesn't require that much of them. So clicking off something, clicking on something, liking something, engaging, whatever, then they're gonna move further down the funnel. And at each step, you are acquiring more from them. So it might be them signing up. And now they've given you their email address, or it could be them clicking onto a webinar or, or doing all sorts of things. And then at the end, the ultimate is that they're transacting with you in some way. And that could be financial, it could be transacting through referring somebody.
It could be filling in a coupon code. It could be all sorts of things. But the reason I don't like that concept is that it sort of has this idea that you spit people out at the bottom and that once you get the sale, or once you get whatever you need, they're kind of not no longer relevant. And I just don't like that, which is why I like the idea of the cycle because it keeps going, it is like a wheel and it keeps turning and turning and it gathers more people, quite often, if you do a good job. So if you imagine the circle or the cycle, so you've drawn it, you've got five to six stages. I like to think of this as kind of five to six, but some people will have four or five or whatever.
So I like to start if you think about if let's say it's a clock that you're thinking of around number two on the clock, if you're thinking of like a normal clock face, you would put awareness. So this is really the start. How do people become aware? And I'll go through each of these in a minute. So you've got awareness then a bit further along, maybe like between, well maybe around four, you'd put research, then at six, you would put evaluation at maybe eight you'd put purchase at 10 you'd put post-purchase. And at 11 you'd put advocacy. So if your post-purchase is done well, you will create advocates for your brand, brand ambassadors that will go off and talk about you. And therefore the whole thing starts again because more people are now aware of you. And then they're in the cycle.
The cycle continues forever and ever. And that's what I love about it because marketing and building a brand, it doesn't stop. I'm not saying like, “hustle, hustle, hustle,” but you wanna be aware of it. It's not like, “we did that campaign. We can just like, take our foot off the gas now and just never talk to people again.” And I think that has really been a detriment of this whole sales funnel, get people in, spit them out, never care about them afterward, the way that I run my business, the way that I work with people to run theirs is to really align it to their values and to really think about the customer, the end user, whatever you wanna call them as actual people, they have people, a lot of what I talk about and work with people aren't is really how to humanize their brand because that's the biggest differentiation you have.
The people behind the brand, the stories behind the brand, and the way that the brand operates, that is different to the next thing in line that might be in the similar industry. So I like to use the cycle and you've got the five to six stages. The thing that I wanna point out at this sort of earlier stage is this is not a new concept. People are like, “oh, let me teach you the latest sales information.” And they go through something similar to the sales funnel or the customer journey map or whatever you like to call it. It's not new people have been trading since the beginning of time. Like we have seen that in these beautiful artworks that we are lucky enough to see that are left behind by other civilizations and ancient peoples and tribes and groups that have left this information for us.
From the beginning of time, when people could trade, there was a sales funnel, there was a way of getting people aware of what your product is or your spice or whatever it was that you were trading and getting them through the whole funnel. One of the first instances of this, and I know it because I had to look for this. When I was writing my book, Passion Purpose Profit was recorded. And I think it was in around 1898. And it was this advertiser in the US, Elias St. Elmo Lewis. And he created this or his, I guess, given the recognition that he created it, I'm sure he wasn't the first person in the world, but he created this concept called the AIDA Model. And really it was this upside-down triangle, like a sales funnel.
It was attention or awareness at the top, for the A. Then, I is for interest, D is for desire, and the last letter A for AIDA is action. So attention or awareness, interest desire, and action. So the AIDA Model, I mean, that is like a hundred twenty-four hundred twenty-five years ago. If my maths is correct, that is a long time. And again, he's not the first, this has been happening forever. So just keep that in mind, next time you're sort of being sold anything like this is the first way. And let me show you a revolutionary way. Majority of the customer journey, mapping, sales funnels, whatever people are going to show you. Yes, they might use a variation of terms, but basically, they're going to say the same thing as the AIDA Model or as the buyer cycle. Again, the AIDA Model is this upside-down triangle. I mean, I get the concept that that's the larger pool and it gets smaller and smaller and smaller.
However, I just personally like to use a cycle and the buyer cycle. And so in the buyer cycle or the AIDA Model or anything else, but let's think about the buyer cycle, because that's what's today's episode is on, like I said, you've got these stages, so let's talk about each of those stages. So the first stage, as I mentioned is awareness. So if you are drawing this, if you're like, playing along at home, you can just sort of make notes around that awareness area of the cycle. So in awareness, that is really where people are becoming aware of you. They are literally discovering that you exist, that you and your brand exist. And so this can be where predominantly we see a lot of marketing effort done. And yes, it's very important, especially when you are starting out. I mean, it's equally important the whole way through your brand journey, but it is really important at the start.
But what we can do is we can actually get stuck in awareness marketing only which can be driving cold leads to our website through maybe different marketing tactics. It can be doing market stalls, getting onto panels, being in media, or all sorts of things. And those are all really important. They really are. And you have to have an awareness strategy for your business. And when you're looking at your marketing, you wanna be thinking, even if you've been in business for a long time, how are we driving new customers? How are we getting more people to discover us and know about us? And that can be through so many different tactics, but some of them that are more common and more commonly known would be things like social media, social media has made it incredibly, not easy, especially not now, but incredibly accessible for people to discover new brands, new businesses.
And they're doing that through all sorts of things through the explore tab on Instagram, through hashtags, through collaborations, with other people, partnerships with other people where you're kind of both equally leveraging each other's audience. Advertising is a huge one. Google Ads, SEO making sure that you are coming up with certain search terms. Influencer marketing can be a big one. And when I say influencer, yes, it can be influencers in like inverter coms, but also it can be people who actually have influence. And sometimes I think people can get those two things mixed up. Sometimes you can have the influences with the big numbers and followings, but you can also have people who have much smaller followings, but very great influence over the people that do follow them or not even on social media, take it offline.
Maybe you've got, let’s say you sell supplements. You may very well work with a yoga teacher in your area who has a great amount of influence over the people that work and use their services. And so that is an influencer as such. It may not be an influencer in terms of what we've become known to think of with social media, but people who influence, who have influence over whoever it is in the different types of target markets that you are trying to attract. So you've got social media, you've got traditional media is another big one that people forget all that time. And as someone who has been working in, I feel like in clueless when she's like, “how old are you, Ty?” And then Ty's like, “my birthday's in May.” And she's like, “well, my birthday's in April. And is somebody older than you?”
Even though it's a month. Anyway, that's a side note on clueless. But as someone who has been in marketing for like 20 plus years, believe me, when I say that media still works, media has always worked, and too much we've gotten caught up in social media. Only when we forget to look at the media and I know people will be like, “I'm not buying newspapers anymore”. And it's all come plummeting down. Media still holds massive credibility, massive readership, and massive viewership on things like TV, and radio. And quite often they're looking for stories. They're looking for content. So we can so often have this great story, this great hook, this great angle. And it's like, that would be so good for insert X, Y, Z media. And yet we're not going after that. We're still trying to get eyeballs onto our posts on Instagram.
So media traditional media can be a great place to look at. And if you think about some of the best brands that are out there. So one that I often talk about is Warby Parker in the US. They started by pulling together all their money and investing in a PR firm to get them the best media that they could buy to get them in the best fashion magazines. Because they knew that if they could get the fashion crowd, they'd get everybody else. Now, Warby Parker sells eyewear, they were valued at like 1.2 billion, less than 10 years after they started it. I think the guys hadn't even turned 30 yet. And they've been able to build this incredible brand by just doing so many amazing activations by learning, by not trying to be the biggest and the best on social media, but trying to work strategically.
And it's interesting that they pull together a relatively small amount of money. I think it was like five or $10,000, which is not small. I'm not saying, “oh, that's no money,” but between the four of them, they kind of pulled that. And they invested in PR and media. So please don't forget about the power of media. So you've got kind of social media, you've got media, you've got things like SEO, Google AdWords, and other things that you're doing. Pinterest Ads, influence people who actually influence as well. And then you've got things like collaboration, which is a huge way to drive awareness. And like I said, you've got this, people who influence, but you might collaborate on an event. You might collaborate on a webinar. You might collaborate on Facebook live, Instagram live, and all sorts of things that can help you.
So that's really in the awareness part. Thinking about how are we driving awareness and not just on social media. I know people get sick of my like, love, hate relationship with social media, but I just think it's done a lot of damage. And I also think that there are so many other ways to market outside of social media. And if you're listening to this going, “I really need to understand what she's talking about and really understand how to market more.” You can get the Marketing for Your Small Business Course. You can just go over to marketingforyoursmallbusiness.com anytime and we will be doing a course in coaching program shortly. I think that is kicking off in September. So if you're interested in that, please let us know if you own the course, you can always upgrade to the coaching program for a very small amount of money.
So there's awareness, and then from awareness, once people are aware of you, let’s say we are using this analogy because it's easy and easy to play along with, from home. So I wear big earrings. I love big earrings. I would love to have like an earring company myself. And let's say I'm wearing earrings to a book club. And one of my friends at the book club says, “oh my God, I love your earrings. Where are they from?” And then I say, “they're from this great brand called XYZ.” And then the next thing that you're gonna do. So that's word of mouth, which is also a huge part of awareness. And we can help that awareness happen through our post-purchase marketing, which I'll go to in a second. So if you've already worked with people or if you've had people buy from you definitely be asking them to spread the word as well.
So you've got awareness once somebody knows XYZ earrings. They're so cool. I wanna check them out. They will go to a stage of research and research is where they're going to the name suggests research you, this is where we're going to type XYZ earrings into Google or into any kind of search engine. It's where they might search for that on social media, they might ask from the Instagram handle, and they may look it up on other platforms. And what they're trying to do is figure out, let me know about this brand. My intention to learn is great. And so what you want to do is make sure that things like your Instagram bio are really clear as to what you do and how to get in touch with you. You want to make sure that your website is very clear again, what do you do and how do I get in touch with you?
How do I buy, how do I move through the buyer cycle further? So in the research stage, in addition to what I've said, being really clear on what do you do and how do I buy from you, and how do I get in touch? And all of those things, you also want to kind of qualify people. And this is sort of leading into the next stage, which is evaluation. But one of the things that I think particularly service-based businesses does not do enough of is qualifying people. So part of somebody's research is looking at prices, can I actually afford you? And I know this is controversial. I am a somebody who does think you should your prices on your website, even if it's from, or even if you've got a range in there, or we work with people generally that have a budget of starting from the other thing that you can do, if you don't wanna put your prices up, which will help people in the research stage is when you have a contact page or a contact form, making sure you've got dropdowns.
So dropdowns would be when are you looking to start this project? And if you cannot take people on for six months say you are a landscape architect and you are completely booked up, go you well done, and also go you well done for surviving because the last few years have been particularly hard for anyone in that sort of interior design architecture space. And so, if you can't work with people for six months, you may have, what is your timeline? And then a dropdown starting from four to six months, six to 12 months, 12 to 18 months, whatever you wanna put in there. The other thing you might have again with the pricing is you might have, what is your total budget for this job? And it might have starting from, if you don't work with people who have, let's say you don't work with people who have a sub $100,000 budget.
Like you don't work with them. There's no point in them at this point of research thinking that they can start working with you at some point, if they just can't if your budgets don't align, it's just a waste of time for everyone. So if you don't want to put your prices up and I get it. Let’s say with the landscape architect, I mean, there's not really a way that you could put your prices up because you don't know what the project is yet, but you may have, what is your total budget for, or what is your estimated budget for your landscape design and have from a hundred thousand, from 500,000 from a million, gazillionaire, but having that is allowing them to at the research stage, decide, do I wanna keep going with the buyer cycle? Is this the right fit for me?
Or is it not? And again, that kind of goes into evaluation a little bit as well, but in the research stage, some things that you wanna do is, like I mentioned, social media being very clear on your social media accounts and platforms, who are we? Who do we work with? What do we do? How can you get in touch with us? Very clear. The other thing is, and I'm all about humanizing your brand, put your name. People do not put this. Even if you've got a big team, you might have founded by a name, for example, it depends on where you are in your business. But I feel like particularly in service-based businesses, I do not see this enough and I'll go. And so people will send me a DM and be like, “oh my God, I love your podcast,” which is really nice.
I love them. Thank you to every single person that sends them. But so often I wanna reply like “Hi name” and I can't find their name. And even I will go to their link and go through like link tree or go through whatever their link is and have a look at their about page. If they've got one and again, can't find a name. And I don't really like saying, hi, because they know my name and it's like, I wanna know your name, it's social, it's social media. We should be social. And yet people don't have their names. And so, if you're an architect or an interior designer and you don't have a big firm, it's maybe it's you and one other person, please put your name because it just makes it so much more social.
It makes it more human. And so that's kind of part of the research as well. But other elements in terms of sort of marketing in that research area would be like I mentioned, social media, Google, and Google can also include things like Google My Business, Google Reviews, any kind of reviews, to be honest in that space, it could be looking at, do you have a Facebook group? What kind of things are you posting about? It could also be looking at like which stores or stockers have, your brand in them. And again, that is going to give somebody an idea of the kind of the audience or maybe they're a stocker looking to stock you. And they're like, “oh, let me see who else is stocking this brand.” And so if you have that information, show that information and be putting that stuff, particularly on your website and anywhere else that you think it'll really help people.
I mean, the research is really it. It's trying to build the kind of no-like trust factor and the no is really in this early stage it's awareness and research. That is really where you are like, let me tell you about myself. Let me tell you about my brand and my business. And so that is the research stage. You've gone awareness and then research the next stage when you're guiding people through. So once they've found out, I know about this brand. Now I've gone and researched this brand. And I like what they're about the next stage is evaluation. And this is so important. I actually did do an entire episode just on evaluation marketing, because I actually think it is one of the least focused areas that people look at, even though it is the most, not the most I'd say post-purchase is the most, but it is one of the most important parts.
All of the stages are important, but if you can get people through the evaluation stage, they are like, “take my money. Where do I sign up?” But we don't spend enough time on evaluation marketing. So I will go through it in a little bit more detail. But if you are like, “oh my God, I need a whole episode on that.” Then definitely go and check out Episode 105 from June 2021, that was a long time ago, but all the things will still be relevant. So evaluation marketing is really the point at which people evaluate that you are the right fit for them, not you personally, but your brand. So years ago, a long time ago, I worked in call sales. So call centers, I should say, call sales. Well, there's a slip because that's what we were doing. We were selling and I worked at call centers in Australia and in the UK.
And one of them in the UK we would be selling TXU gas in the morning. And then we would be selling British gas often to the same people in the afternoon. I know it was so not ethical, but I was like 20 or 21. It was an in-between job. And I wasn't really thinking big terms of what I was doing at that time, but I had this job and my job was to call small businesses, not even small businesses, but just businesses all up and down, all over Scotland. Basically, I was based in London and you would have this thing and anyone who's worked in call center sales will know that you have the dreaded gatekeeper. The gatekeeper is usually the person who handles the phone lines. That is not the decision maker.
So not the DM. And even today, this is a long time ago, but there's still that terminology, the gatekeeper, and the DM. So the gatekeeper is the person that is going to in call center world, either make or break your call. So the gatekeeper, if you can get through the gatekeeper, you can get to the decision maker. The gatekeeper is the hardest thing to get through because once you're through the decision maker, they are already having this sort of biases that it's an important enough call to take because somebody that they trust has sent you through. So one of the things that I used to always do just a side note, if you're ever selling gas or electricity or anything like that, I would always say, “hi, I just wanna talk about their gas bill.” And so people would kind of worry that they hadn't actually paid it.
And again, as I'm saying this, I'm like, “I was like a really nasty 20-year-old trying to do this and get my commission.” But I was also struggling to eat in London. So please forgive me. And I've not done that sort of work for a long, long time, but that idea of you need to get through the gatekeeper has probably stayed with me. And I think that anyone that's working in sales will very much be aware of this. And yet a lot of small business owners, don't think of what is our content doing to help the gatekeeper now, excuse if you can hear some background noise, that is my labradoodle. Who's making all sorts of background noise this morning. So in data evaluation marketing, if you think about it, that's the gatekeeper and the gatekeeper. Once they open the gates, people are like, “yes, here's my money. Take it, take it, take it.”
And yet we don't spend enough time evaluating marketing. So what is evaluation marketing? What does it actually look like? So on a website for a service-based business or for any business, logo farms can be a big thing. If you go to mydailybusinesscoach.com, you will see that we have a logo farm. And we also have a bit of text at the top that says something like “experience matters 20 years in counting,” it probably needs to be updated, but I have been 22 years working in marketing brand and content. So it does matter experience does matter because you can be pulling things from one experience that was 10 years ago or one company that you worked in three years ago or somewhere you helped manage a brand, 15 years ago.
So it does matter. Experience does matter. And so that, that alone with one sentence and the logo farm can be enough for somebody to evaluate, she knows what she's talking about. Or, Hey, she's worked with these particular types of brands of which I would aspire my brand to be like, or I think that they're a similar fit or they've got a similar viewpoint on life or values or whatever it is. And so that logo farm can help build credibility as can that single line of text about experience matters. So you wanna be thinking about at the point of evaluation, what is going through the mind of my audience? So they are thinking, for example, with a business coach, anyone and their dog can be a business coach these days. And they can, I went back, I did my accreditation, which cost me a bomb. And I can't really say that it actually changed.
It actually just made me more cynical about what is being taught out there to people that have not got that experience. Anyway, that's a side note, but there is no accreditation. Anyone can be a business coach. So if you think about the fears that are going through, somebody's mind when they're about to spend money. And I know this myself firsthand because I've also paid for business coaching and for mastermind groups and all sorts of things. Some have been great. Some have not been great, but at that point of evaluation, when you're thinking, “okay, I'm aware of this person, I've done my research. I think they're probably the right fit.” The evaluation stage is really like, am I really going to be the part with this much money? What if it doesn't work? What if they expect too much of me, all sorts of things, you'll be wanting to have some sort of, I mean, there's never like a hundred percent security or guarantee with anything that you are buying in the service based industry.
You just don't know that your personalities don't clash or something else happens, but there are ways to alleviate some of that fear. And for example, in the instance that I'm talking about it may well be, okay. They've worked in these places. They have consulted with these brands. They've been in the industry for some time. I think that that is actually going to work for me. So the evaluation marketing can be all over your website. It can be things as well, like social proof. So testimonials are similar to the research of reviews, it could be making sure that there's a logo farm if you are a product-based business and maybe you've had a lot of media, it could be the different media that you have been profiled in which again can help people feel like, “oh, okay, they are big enough to have had that.”
Or they have been deemed creative enough or credible enough to be profiled by this media or this, this blog that I love, or whatever it is. And so you're building that sort of credibility factor and that can be all through your website. It can also be simple things like about us pages. The number of times I've read a non-human about us page, which is very much like a third party. There's no photo, there's no mention of names. There's no kind of human element to it. And then other times when I've read about us pages and I think, “oh my God, this is like, so good.” I just wanna be this person's bestie, they sound amazing. And they've got an incredible photo, or maybe they've just mentioned that they like love death metal rock. And you're like, “I would not have expected that, but love it.”
So those elements can actually help us evaluate that this is a real person. They have a real personality and that's actually going to draw me in. So your evaluation marketing, as I said, you can go back and listen to Episode 105, which is a whole episode about that. But you really wanna be thinking of on your product detail page, the point at which somebody, the last point at which they're about to see before they buy from you, what can you do? So often, one of the things I think people sort of miss is in the evaluation of purchase stage, not repurposing content that they're creating, creating for social media. So we've become like these mini filmmakers that make all this content for Netflix and we just sort of give it out for free. And yet we don't really expect anything in return.
However, Netflix is making a whole lot of money that is basically social media today. We are all trying to become these like videographers to make reels and TikTok and everything else, even though we're basically just making these big social media platforms, richer and richer. And we are just the mugs in the background doing all this free content. And yet we are not taking that content and putting it onto our website or onto our product detail page or onto our eCommerce site where somebody's actually going to decide if they want to buy that product or not from us. I see it all the time. People do amazing Instagram stories or reels or TikTok and go you like I totally understand the role that social media plays. However, if you're going to create that content, repurpose it and put it.
If you think it's good enough that somebody, it would actually entice someone to come off social media to go and buy your product, then it's good enough to go on your product detail page at the point at which they're about to make that decision. And now they can see what it actually looks like in person, or they can see different elements of it that you're how to style it or other things. So if you're making content for social media, always particularly video content, always be thinking, how can I repurpose this? I mean, ideally, your content should not come from social media, first. It should come from your content, what's your medium, and what's the best-owned channel that you have. And then how you're going to distribute that onto social media, social media, shouldn't be the starting point. However, that's a completely different episode.
So in evaluation marketing, as I said, there are things you can do on your website. There are things you can do on your product detail pages. There are things you can do, making sure that you're getting reviews and testimonials and that you're sharing them. I know in some particular businesses like psychology, that is a little murkier because you can't actually ask for testimonials. However, in a lot of companies and a lot of industries, you can so be looking at that also be looking at, again, like I mentioned it before the stores and stockers that you sell it. So that can also be a great pathway for people to really evaluate like, “oh, okay.” And even be like, “Okay, there's that store's actually near me. I might go down and look at the quality, look at everything.”
And again, this is part of the evaluation and then they may well come back and purchase from you. And if not, they purchase from your stockers, which is still a sale for you in the long term. So that's evaluation, you've got the awareness, research, evaluation, then you've got purchase super important. And this is where people sort of stop the buyer cycle. They're like, “Okay, we got the sale” or they didn't get the sale of the chase and chase with remarketing to get the sale. And then again, we got the sale. So purchase absolutely key. Again, like I'm mentioning the product detail page that your product detail pages are as great as possible. So a product detail page or PDP is just the term for the page at which somebody is adding something to cut. So on an eCommerce site.
But also if you think about it in person, in a physical store, it's the point at which somebody is bringing something up to the cash register and saying, I want to actually have this. So that can look like beautiful visual merchandising. It can look like little cards next to things to give a bit more information about them. I've seen this a couple of times in bookstores where they have like cut out a review of a book from say the newspaper or online, and then they've just sort of sticky taped it or put some blue tap and put it up next to where that book is, is positioned. And I actually think that's a really clever, easy, relatively cheap way to do things, to be like, “you know what, I'm going to rate this book,” this book has five stars from whoever some journalist and I'm gonna put it up and maybe that'll entice people to look at the book, even if they weren't going to look at that particular book or maybe it's a new author or anything else.
Likewise, when I worked at a big accessories brand, I was head of marketing. One of the things that we tested was actually taking these campaign images that we spent so much money on and creating little cards next to the more sort of expensive pieces or pieces where someone may not have known that it was an actual stone that was being used in the jewelry and putting a bit more information about what is it, how to wear it? What does it mean? And these little elements of like, It's not just pretty, it actually has this other stuff behind it, which is giving credibility, which is allowing someone to go, “You've got me over the line, I'm gonna purchase it now.” On a product detail page on an actual eCommerce site. Again, you can be putting in all these sorts of things, information, really simple stuff.
So again, being in jewelry and also buying jewelry a lot myself, just simple things like how long is the earring showing an earring on an actual neck and ear? It sounds so simple, but the number of times they see an earring that has been photographed is just flat and yes, it's nice, but I can't figure out how big it is. I actually don't buy earrings if I can't see them on somebody, even on a hand, I know that sounds silly, but like a hand holding the earring. So I can at least gauge how big it is. I mean, everyone has access to a video camera. Everyone has access to it. We've got phones, you can buy a cheap tripod for like $10 to $15 these days, put your phone on a tripod, take a couple of photos, and put a nice filter on it.
And suddenly it looks professional. There are also so many YouTube videos on DIY light boxes. Also, there are other companies. So OrangeMonkie is one that I often recommend to people. They are a bit expensive, but OrangeMonkie does lightboxes. They do big and small kinds of collapsible, portable light boxes that you can set up anywhere. And they even have like 360 discs. So the disc will actually move as you're taking photos. And a lot of them are used made to be used just with an iPhone or a smartphone. So there are ways to take better photos of things. Photos are what sells on our product. It sounds so simple, but they are. And yet we know we'll sometimes be like, “I don't have time.” And then you look at your product detail page kind of conversion rates.
And you're like, “well, it's not actually converting.” Test, try some more photos, try some video content, and try using user-generated content. We use that a lot at the same place where I worked at. And we did a lot of testing using user-generated content versus model proper, model kind of shots. And what we found that is when we use user-generated content, which we had sought permission for, there was a much greater return on investment and higher conversion rates on those pages than on the pages where we just use model images alone. So your product detail page really important to test that out because this is where purchases can be made or forgotten about. And so in that stage, you wanna have a look at things like a testimonial, social proof, obviously rich media content imagery. And you also want to be looking at, are there frequently asked questions?
Do people constantly ask the same question, put it on the product detail page. Don't expect that everyone's gonna jump to the frequently asked questions. Although you may also wanna hyperlink to the frequently asked questions, you might wanna put up what obviously it's made from, I mean, there are so many ways that you can tab out content easily in a small space on an eCommerce site these days. So the product detail page is absolutely key. And, just as much for service-based businesses as for product-based businesses. So if you can and you are in a service industry that allows it, testimonials are amazing. Anything else that you might get quite often asked about? So put as much information as you can on your product detail page, and essentially you wanna get to a point where you have a template for your product detail page of best in class.
Ideally, all of our products would have this when I worked at Amazon a long time ago, this was 12 years ago. We had a percentage completion rate for PDP. So we had millions of products, gazillions of products. And this is 12 years ago. Obviously, things have increased hugely since then. But one of the things that we had was we had to try to hit a percentage of products that the detail page was complete. So by complete it had, I think, let me see if I can remember it. It was like five features. So selling features, sorry, five benefits, not just features. It had like six images. I can't remember the exact things because it's a long time ago, but we had a template that we knew that if you had all of those things complete, there was a much greater likelihood that that page would convert to a sale.
So you may well look at your products and go, you know what? We upload a hundred new products a quarter, so let's try and think of a template and then create a CSV file or an Excel sheet or whatever way that you're uploading your content and be putting in those things as much as you can so that you can start testing. When we have a higher completion rate of our product detail pages, we overall are generating more sales. So I know that sounds like a lot. And these are the kinds of things that I go through in coaching and group coaching. So if you're listening to this and you're like, “God, I really need help with this.” Please get in touch with us because this is what we do all day, every day, helping people with this sort of stuff. So the purchase stage, you are also looking at kind of ads, your emails, abandoned carts really work really well.
Remarketing and direct messages are getting stronger and stronger with all sorts of things from text messages which still work really well. So don't dismiss them. I know they're annoying, but they do the job, especially if you're not using them all the time. If you're using them when you really wanna be pushing a campaign or a sale or something else, events can also work really well. Like I know I talk a lot about eCommerce, but in-person events as well. So if you have a physical store, you may well go, you know what I would love to get more sales of, let's say, it's freezing in winter at and winter in Melbourne at the moment. So let's say you are going, yeah, I'd really love to sell more of our kind of cold weather stuff.
You may well go. Let's do as long as you have a license from your council for this purpose, but you might do some sort of like evening. Maybe you've got somebody coming in talking about winter styling. Maybe you've got something else that's happening. Maybe you've just got a lovely evening with mold wine out the front of your store. And some like some nice musicians. And it's like, “oh, this is a lovely, sort of lovely time to catch up with my girlfriend and go shop and buy some winter clothes.” And these sorts of things can really help with purchases. And again, they don't have to be really expensive. I think sometimes people think that events have to be this huge wedding situation and they don't, sometimes it can just be a really small thing that is driving people in, or it could be maybe you've got a stylist in, maybe you've got a homeware store and you've got an interior designer who comes in or a stylist that can come in and just talk about ways to uplift your space or make it cozy during winter.
And they can use props or items from your store as they're talking and getting people to that's kind of the draw card. And then people usually shop as well. This is also kind of known as the Harry Potter effect, which is slightly different. But the Harry Potter effect is really where big discount department stores would buy Harry Potter the book at a loss in order for people that would be the drawcard for people to come into those stores, buy Harry Potter and then buy a whole bunch of other things as well. So basically they would make that loss back many times over. So you wanna think about, if you're having issues with the purchase stage, what could you entice people to do or to feel like they're part of, to be part of an experience to then get them over the line to purchase.
And then the sort of the last sort of stage five and six. Sometimes they, I put them as one stage, but sometimes they're, they're two separate stages is post-purchase and advocacy. And I've said it so many times post-purchase is where your money is. It is your pot of gold. If you can work it out in a nice way. So what I mean by that, is the post-purchase stage is people who have already worked with you, who've already bought from you, and then getting them to come back. So it is six to seven times harder to get a new customer or client than it is to get somebody who's already worked with you or bought from you before to come back. And we see that all the time. I know there are particular online stores that I have bought for four years.
And so I must be one of them, I'm like, “God, I must be one of their top customers,” but you keep coming back because you're like, “I love their customer service. I love what they stand for.” They have good quality pieces like, there are so many elements that it's like, it's a no brainer. It is a no-brainer for me to buy from them. And that is because they have nurtured me as a loyal customer. They didn't just get the first sale. And then I never heard from them again, they got the first sale and then they nurtured me every step of the way to get the second sale and the third sale and so on. What I see so often with some of the clients that I work with and, and just in general DMS and everything that we get sent is people that work so hard to get the sale and then they just never do anything.
So they'll say, “oh yeah, I've got 9,000 people on my email list.” And I'm like, “how often do you talk to them?” Never. That is 9,000 people that are happy to give you their details that have potentially bought from you and had a great experience. And you are not talking to them. You are out here chasing another hundred people to follow you on Instagram who may never buy from you. And you've got 9,000 people sitting on an email list that are happy to hear from you. So post-purchase, you have to have a post-purchase strategy when it comes to your marketing and brand. If you don't, you are seriously losing out and you are leaving money on the table. And I know I did a recent episode all about that, but post-purchase is really important because it sort of leads to the next stage.
Was it advocacy? If you can create people that are advocates for your brand, they are doing the marketing for you. And the more advocates you have out there, the less money and everything else that you need to spend on other forms of marketing to build that awareness because those people are doing it for you. I literally was just talking to the people we get contacted a bit by different platforms and software companies and bigger names to discuss kind of us being an affiliate or to discuss them doing podcast ads, which I have not opened up yet, but I'm definitely looking at it. And I was just talking to one in the US as just talking to a woman in Texas. And she was telling me about, different things to do with this, this software. And she was talking about how many people are now selling the software for them.
And I was like, wow, like you literally besides getting onto a 20-minute phone call with people every so often, like you are just like turning the tap on and money is pouring into you because you have all these people around the world being your affiliates and being your advocates for your brand. And what they're offering is actually pretty good. So I can see why people are doing that. But we all know it. And outside of you, these big tech companies, we know it within just our friendship group. Somebody will say, “Hey, I'm really looking for somewhere to have my 40th. Does anyone recommend anywhere?” And they're like, “yes, my husband's cousin had his 40th at this place. You should check it out.” That is a referer. That is an advocate for that business because they did a good job.
And yet we do not try and tap into those advocates enough. So what does that look like? That can look like our email sequences. So if somebody buys something from you, are they going into an email sequence? Are they going into something that's going to help them? It shouldn't just be spam. So say you sell something for newborns. You may have an opt-in, are you the parent or guardian? Would you like to get some helpful information on the first year of your child? And now you have this person or these people that you are nurturing through the first year with valuable information, the first year of having a baby with valuable information. And you may also be preparing for the things that you sell or things that they can opt into, or maybe it's collaboration or partnerships that you're also selling.
So the emails can be a huge part of post-purchase and we just don't do it enough. And you still, you do see some of them. You see things like, “Hey, we miss you” or 10% off or refer a friend. And sometimes people are like, that's so spammy. Those things work. And people do them because they work. Yes, there'll be a percentage that opt-out, but they'll also be a percentage that opt-in. And so there can be those sales, there can be other things. So if you're a service-based provider and you're like, well, this isn't relevant to me because let’s say you do campaign photo shoots. You might be like, well, people don't do that all the time. They don't wanna hear from me, but they may well, they might be like, “Hey, I just wanna see where you've been traveling lately.”
They used to be, or there is still, I shouldn't say there used to be a photographer. I worked years ago. It is probably like 20 years ago. And then again at another place, I worked with 10 years ago, it was Trevor King. Who's a great photographer. I need to check out. I'm assuming he's still doing beautiful photography, but he traveled a lot. And a lot of photographers do travel. I mean, pre COVID a lot of photographers travel and they take beautiful imagery. So that is what people want to see and be inspired by. And so it may well be that you did the campaign shoot, but you're also getting in touch every couple of months or every quarter and just sort of being like, “Hey, this is where I've been up to lately. This is the work I've been doing,” because believe me, I've worked in marketing teams.
You are always wanting to be looking for inspiration and we should get the same photographer to come back and do this totally different campaign shoot. And so don't be afraid to market in that post-purchase stage so that you can move people to become advocates. So I know this has been a long episode, a very overdue episode, but that is the buyer cycle, awareness research, evaluation, purchase, post-purchase, and advocacy. And if you have my book, Passion Purpose Profit, you can go through that in more detail. You can also go through it in detail and really understand how to market your brand and come out with a strategic 12-month plan through our Marketing for Your Small Business Course, you can find that anytime at marketingforyoursmallbusiness.com, if you want to, we will be launching the Marketing for Your Small Business Course and coaching program.
That's a nine-week live program where we work through the course together. And at the end of it, you have to present your marketing plan to me and the rest of the people in the group. You don't have to, it's optional, but it's really good for you to do it because it gives you a lot of accountability and makes sure that you actually get through the course that will be starting later this year. So if you're interested in hearing about that just send us an email at Hello@Mydailybusinesscoach.com. So that is it for today. If you found this useful, I would love, love, love if you could leave us a review, you can do that on Spotify now, not just on Apple. So it just really helps us get found by other small business owners. I love hearing from people. I get so many DMS and I love it.
I try to get back to every single one, forgive me sometimes if I don't get back straight away, but I love hearing from people. And as much as it's awkward, I sometimes will also say to people, thank you so much for this. I would love it if you could leave a review, the review just means that other small business owners get to hear this information. And that's our whole purpose is to help other small business owners and all small business owners understand to be able to scale and grow their business sustainably in a way that's aligned with their values and their beliefs. So anytime you can leave a review, it just helps us get found. Thank you so much for listening. If you wanna go through this in text format, you'll find everything over at mydailybusiness.coach.com/Podcast/ 228. Thanks for listening. See you next time. Bye.
Thanks for listening to the My Daily Business Coach podcast. If you wanna get in touch, you can do that at mydailybusiness.coach.com or hit me up on Instagram @mydailybusinesscoach.
