Creating a marketing plan that matches the consumer buying process strategy is crucial to the overall conversion rate of the campaign. And the key is understanding that marketing plans don’t have to be difficult – the framework itself can be very easy.
In reviewing where we are on a client’s site, I detailed the basic framework we’re using for this site here in this video. Making a plan like this makes it somewhat easy to determine from day to day what part of the strategy you’re working on and how it fits into the overall plan.
If you’d like to download that strategy map (since it was so hard to read), click this box.
While this framework might be the same for many different sites, it’s how you use it that aligns specifically with that company’s customer base. For instance, this site is an information-rich blog site designed to meet customers in their “research” phase.
We found out that the clients of this company spend up to six months researching before they take action. Through client interviews and attention to language we also figured out what sentiments the clients were feeling and tried to mirror that in the blog posts.
It’s the sense that “this lady knows what I’m feeling” that gets the customer to download an ebook, kit or other activity and thus enter the funnel. And then the e-mails that follow share that same sentiment and attempt to answer more of the questions the clients have and develop over time.
We’ve used SEO solely at this point to reach the customers during their internet research, but you can see there are many other places to reach customers. Identifying why customers visit other sites and at what stage they are visiting will help you determine your message in that space. For instance, someone looking for a podcast to listen to on their iPod probably doesn’t want to hear you talk about your pricing, hours of operation and owner bio.
What issues do you have with your overall marketing framework? What differences have you employed in your consumer buying process strategy map?