Consumers Use Different Forms of Technology
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It used to be that if you needed to buy something, you would just go to the local convenience store down the street. Maybe you’d see a print advertisement in the newspaper and hop in your car to go pick up the coveted item. Now, maybe you check in to a business on Yelp on your cell phone to receive a special offer, or you look up directions to the store you want to visit MapQuest while at work. Or you might even purchase an item on Amazon without even leaving your house.
There’s not one single way to reach a customer nowadays. Consumers have many channels can use many channels to make buying decisions and an extensive bank of resources and support. There’s not one right or better way to buy an item. Every purchase is a unique journey, says Meg Norton in a StreetFight article. Search Engine Journal’s Murray Newlands agrees.
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“The customer journey is a multi-channel journey. People are using their smartphones, tablets, desktops, and social media to interact with brands online,” says Newlands.
According to an Addz article by Rachel Serpa on repaving the customer journey, 90 percent of people move between devices to accomplish a goal. This is usually in the “Last Mile” or “the final leg of networks delivering communications connectivity to customers,” Norton says.
Both digital and traditional platforms are used in the Last Mile. Norton explains there are three segments that make up Last Mile Advertising- seek, discover and consider. Seek happens when consumers are actively looking and ready to buy. Discover occurs when consumers are informed about a business and its products but not necessarily planning on purchasing. Lastly, consider is when consumers are considering a purchase but want more information. All of these can happen across different media platforms including mobile and desktop computers.
Local Search Goes Multi-Channel
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The multi-channel journey has serious implications for small business owners and the local SEO industry. In local SEO, we’re all about helping you get customers to walk through the door of your brick and mortar locations by using tactics to organize your listings and make sure your business is found online. Local Search Association recently released the “Local Media Tracking Study” that found that more and more customers are turning to mobile to look up information about a business. The study interviewed 8,000 U.S. adults, with a majority saying they search the Internet for local business information through their mobile phone or tablet instead of using a laptop or desktop computer, according to a Search Engine Land article by Wesley Young.
“Consumers rely on a variety of different combinations of local media to inform their local purchasing decisions, depending on the business category they are evaluating,” says Young. “Consumers are increasingly searching the Internet for local business information via mobile phone/smartphone and netbook/tablet – at the expense of desktop/laptop.”
96 percent of PC owners conduct local searches, while 79 percent of cell phone owners and 81 percent of tablet owners used those devices for local searches, says Greg Sterling in a Search Engine Land article. He cites an April 2014 Local Search Study put together by ComScore, Neustar Localeze and 15 Miles. Respondents to the survey were those who had conducted a local business search in the past year. 39 percent of people surveyed said they used multiple devices for local search.
Mobile Leads to A Purchase
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Serpa says by 2015, there will be 2 billion global smartphone users according to Bloomberg.
“Local mobile searches are expected to exceed desktop searches. Although it is often referred to as ‘the second screen,’ mobile is, by and large, becoming the first screen,” Serpa says.
Mobile is also the last step in the buying process for many customers. Nearly eight out of 10 mobile phone searches for local business information result in a purchase, says Young. In addition according to comScore research, “consumers using mobile phones and tablets to search for local products and services are more likely to follow through with a purchase than those using PCs and laptops,” Young says.
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Almost 80 percent of mobile local searches turned into purchases. 73 percent of those purchases took place in a physical store, 16 percent happen on the phone itself and 11 percent occurred online, Sterling says. 76 percent of those purchases happened the same day with 63 percent within a few hours. Approximately seven in 10 consumers prefer mobile websites over mobile apps when using a smartphone or a tablet, according to Young.
“With mobile users more likely than desktop users to follow through with a purchase, local businesses must have the tools in place to capture and convert transactions – or they will lose leads to their competitors,” says Young.
Young suggests local businesses focus on building mobile-friendly websites that consumers can access easily. As we talked about in a previous blog post, mobile is the future. Although all these different channels are necessary, and more traditional ways of communicating with customers like television commercials and newspaper ads are still relevant, many believe mobile is what most customers use now in the purchasing process, as seen with some the stats we cited above.
The Future
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So what should business owners do to prepare in the shift from traditional purchasing to multi-channel and mobile? Is there any way owners can keep abreast of all these technological changes in the way a message is delivered to a customer?
Serpa says businesses need to create, “cohesive, relevant user experiences that connect the dots between the growing gamut of channels and devices.” Although there are so many devices out there nowadays, close the gap by issuing the same message across different channels. For example, if people are responding well to a deal your company posted on Yelp, also advertise that deal on Twitter or Facebook to see if people respond in the same way. All these marketing tactics will help you to truly try to understand your customers.
“Today’s digital landscape calls for a deeper understanding of who your customers are and the interests, lifestyles and characteristics driving their behaviors,” Serpa says.
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Newlands’ article features an interview with Erik Ford of Boost Media that talks about the future of multi-channel marketing. Ford says as the world evolves, it’s important to optimize the message your business is sending out across the entire buying journey. He says the smartest and most sophisticated marketers are taking what works in their paid or organic search and using that information to influence other channels. Also make sure to craft your message so it’s relevant to customer interests. It’s all about being customer-centric and making your consumers’ lives easier, whether that’s by making your company easy to find online or giving them multiple ways to contact you.
What channels do you use as a customer or as a business owner? Do you use mobile, tablet, desktop computer, newspaper, television, etc? Do you believe in the multi-channel purchasing journey? Comment below or interact with us on social media to share your thoughts.