Читать книгу Social Media Marketing For Dummies - Shiv Singh - Страница 54

At the preference stage, the prospective customer leans toward making a purchase. He has considered several products and established his favorites. He likes the product that you’re pushing him toward. By this time, the prospective customer is concerned with confirming that he’s getting good value for his money and that his purchase will be suitable for his needs. At this stage, you may offer free trials and 30-day money-back guarantees. Generally speaking, you hope your prospective customers have developed an emotional attachment to your brand that will push them to purchase your products.

By the time a prospective customer is at the preference stage in the marketing funnel, she has probably evaluated all the competitive alternatives to the product. She has found information about them through product brochures, the product websites, and customer reviews across the web. As she enters the preference stage, she’s likely to talk to her friends some more and get their opinions. This may have less to do with whether one product is better than another from a feature standpoint, but the customer can get a feel for your brand as well. The prospective customer also views user-generated content about your brand at this stage.

You must be very careful at this stage. It’s important that you establish a trusted relationship with the prospective customer. The prospective customer needs to feel that he will get good customer service after he makes the purchase. He wants to believe that his decision will be a good one over the long term, too. You can build that trust and allay those concerns by talking to the prospective customer in an authentic, personal, and genuine fashion.

This is when your product blogs play an important role. It reminds your prospective customers that actual people are behind your product or brand. Make sure to spend time answering questions, resolving product issues, and discussing how the product is evolving.

Consider these SMM tactics at this stage:

 A blog, or several blogs, that discuss the product: Granted, blogs are valuable at the awareness and consideration phase as well, but they matter the most at the point of preference. Customers want to hear from you at this stage more than ever and it’s important to frame the benefits of your product in ways that your customers will appreciate them the most.

 Podcasts with interviews and product explanations: As a supplement to blogs, podcasts are an appealing way to explain the product to prospective customers in an engaging fashion when you’re not in the room with them. Running your own podcasts, appearing as a guest on someone else’s podcast, or advertising on a podcast network are all valuable strategies for marketing at the preference phase. To learn all about podcasts, which are audio blogs that are easily distributed online, take a look at Podcasting For Dummies, by Tee Morris (John Wiley & Sons, Inc.).

 YouTube clips of product demonstrations: With prospective customers establishing their preference for the brand, video clips demonstrating the product and explaining its benefits are helpful. Publish your videos to a site such as YouTube so that customers can easily find them. Posting on YouTube also gives people the opportunity to comment and rate the product videos.