Understanding the online buying lifecycle to build high converting websites
When affiliate/internet marketing it is important to understand the customer journey, ensuring that you deliver potential customers to the correct content depending on the stage in their buying lifecycle.
“This is one of the most common mistakes for newer internet markets”
So back to basics, what is the online buying lifecycle? Let’s take for example a weight loss product:
- New Generic Search – I have a problem to solve, lets search online for a solution
- Researched Search – I like the sound of that method, looking to learn more
- Specific Search – That type of solution sounds like its right for me
- Brand Search – That product looks like the best, what do others say
Some people may work through this cycle very quickly possibly even skipping steps, however the majority of people will want to take their time to ensure the solution they have found is right for them.
Top Tip: It is normal that people will never take one source of information as fact, we like to compare and understand all the alternatives and make feel that we are making an ‘informed’ purchase, it is very important that you allow people to enter your website at each stage of this buying process.
Building your website with the above in mind!
OK, so now we know how people want to buy, how do we make sure people either stay on your website throughout this process? We need to ensure we funnel the visitors down though the buying cycle as follows:
The biggest search volumes are for generic keywords there are thousands of combinations for each niche and with article pages and content pages you can easily pickup traffic from longer tail keywords, for example it is very easy to rank an article for a phrase like “lose that weekend indulgence weight”.
Now I doubt very many people search for that made up phrase but the more articles/content you have, the more chance you will pick up traffic. The more popular key phrases like “weight loss” are much more competitive, however you can start to rank for more competitive terms as you build more power and reputation.
Once you have landed traffic to your website from these longer tail keywords it is then your mission to direct them to your “power pages” these are the niche specific pages which introduce the surfer to some solutions to their problems, using the example from before:
“Lose that weekend indulgence weight”
You may have a few links throughout your article linking to a page which is all about weight loss pills, “If you are looking to lose that weekend indulgence weight, you should look no further than a fat blocker”.
Pushing the surfer to your “power page” which talks about “fat blockers”, this page is designed to convert, whereas your article page is designed to get traffic.
Once you have the surfer on your “fat blocker” page, you then need to convince them of the following:
- A “fat blocker” is the right product for them as it solves their problems
- You know “fat blockers” inside out and have the authority to recommend the best one.
In your “power page” the main aim is to give the surfer a clear recommendation of where you want them to go next.
Either on the same page or on a specific “product comparison page” you need to clearly demonstrates why your recommended product is the best for them, giving the surfer the ability to choose from multiple options.
The main aim of the product comparison is to pass them through to the product review page. This page is the end point in the funnel and where you want to get as much of your traffic to as possible.
This is also the final step in the buying lifecycle, if you can get your visitors from your long tail keyword pages to the product review page though the lifecycle then you have done your job fully.
The product review page should complement the merchants site, pass across the key selling points and pre-sell the customer, you want the customer to leave your product review page desperate to purchase, this will ensure visitors go on and buy from your site.
A poor pre-sell will result in the surfer searching for the brand and possibly coming across other affiliate reviews and buying from them.
Top-Tip: Make sure you only link out to the merchant site from the product review once they are ready to purchase, however ensure on the product review pages there are plenty of outbound links.
“Throughout the rest of your site push the visitors down your funnel!
Give them a CLEAR path to take! ”
Written by on February 8th, 2010 with no comments.
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