It seems like you get a new study each month that shows that people who search are people that buy. They may buy online or they may buy offline, but they buy. And the newest research shows that they spend more than people who don’t search—10% more in the case of home electronics buyers. So what does that mean to you?
You might read that and say to yourself, “I knew it—searching causes people to spend more. They read more information and buy more stuff or more expensive stuff.” That might be true, but it could also be that people willing to spend more tend to do more research. The truth is undoubtedly somewhere in the middle.
But it doesn’t matter.
What does matter is what you do about it. Regardless of whether searchers buy more or big buyers search more or both, you need to ensure that you have the information available and findable that cause people to make decisions to buy your product. For your business, what is the kind of information that gets customers’ attention? That overcomes their objections? That persuades them to buy?
Think about what the truly distinct differentiators are for what you sell. And remember that the real marketing definition of a differentiator is something unique about your product that customers care about. What do your customers care about? How do you get their attention about it and get them to believe what you are saying? That’s what gets them to make a purchase decision, whether it is on the Web or offline.
Too often, marketers shy away from providing the most attention-getting and persuasive information. Do you have information on your site about the problems that your product solves? Not just specifications and fancy features, but real problems? Do you tell stories of how these problems were solved for real customers with your product?
What this study really tells you is that people who buy more do so because they have better information. Whether they were predisposed to buy more and thus needed to research more, or whether they researched and learned more, this causing them to buy more, your job as a marketer is the same. Provide the rich, persuasive content that explains the value of your offering to the customer and make sure they can find that content.
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