Last Updated on September 13, 2024
Have you ever thought how you make your purchase decisions? We’ve been comparing and contrasting our choices this entire time. Let’s figure it out – how the decision taking process works, what stages it has, and what’s stronger – your emotions or common sense.
Traditionally, marketing agencies and advertisers use creative methods to attract more customers. They increase brand awareness and improve loyalty. It’s also important to touch people’s emotions. Thus, marketing specialists tend to create obsessive associations with brand’s products using social media channels and networks.
With neural networks in place, marketers learnt to forecast buyers’ behavior basing on their current preferences. And thanks to search systems, they can offer ready solutions.
Social media managers are able to awaken new wants and needs, create demand, and set trends. They work with different types of content and publish it on various channels. Below you will learn how content affects our buying decisions.
The 5-Stage Process of Making a Buying Decision
According to Kotler, the key driving forces of marketing are goods, price, ways of distribution, and sales promotion. Among a great number of detailed schemes of a buying process, there’s one which is considered universal.
- You understand that that you need to buy something.
- You search for information about this product or services.
- You analyze the information that you found.
- You make a decision.
- You have a certain feedback about the purchase.
Good feedback about the product or services can make a loyal customer. Having high-quality repair services, for example, a customer would become a repeat client in future or recommend the company to their friends.
How Does Content Influence Buyers?
Posts, photos, video allow social media specialists to influence buyers on different stages of the purchase process. Here are some things they’re able to do:
- Increase brand awareness through social networks
- Create new wants and needs
- Help find a better solution
- Provide pros and cons
- Increase loyalty
Communication and content marketing strategies depend mainly on target audience and competition in the market. Let’s find out what other effects social media has on purchase decision.
Emotional Effects of Social Media on Customers
Companies can affect on your choice with the help of a certain number of actions like improving customer support, providing additional free services, using feedback tools. Today, people like to watch detailed video reviews, especially if they were done by market influencers.
Advertisements in social media are aimed to touch people’s emotions and promote impulsive purchases. Thus, brands use bright photos and videos to attract customers’ attention. They also tend to become your friend providing you with entertaining content, organizing meet-ups or give aways.
When a person sees an amazing photo with a given product, he or she associates themselves with this image, style, and environment.
However, oftentimes, when a thing is bought, people don’t get those strong emotions they felt when they initially saw the photo.
Why Do Trends Matter in Content Marketing
Trend analytics is no longer a hype. With special analytics platforms in place, specialists analyze buyers behavior in different channels and networks.
After that, they make predictions for the future and share those with their customers. Marketers tell what’s trendy and at the same time, they offer these trendy things.
That’s why it’s important for business to constantly look for new ideas and present them to their target audience in an attractive manner.
What Is More Important: Your Emotions or Facts?
People always have a choice. Their either follow their heart or buy with common sense in mind. Each social media manager takes into account this duality. Along with emotional effects, brands provide their customers with useful content.
For example, expert opinion will be likely read by both types of audience, those following their heart and those who need facts only.
How to Make the Right Chose?
If you just love buying new things, you should know how to make the right choice.
Here are some tips and tricks on making you mind on a given product or service.
- Ask yourself about what motivates you to make a purchase.
- Learn the final price of a service or product you pay.
- Find alternatives and compare the price and quality.
- Divide the total price for the number of months or years you plan to use your purchase.
- Ask yourself how can you save some money and if this makes any sense.
As you can see, the main thing about these tips is to ask yourself questions before buying. It will take some time to think if you really need a given product or you are just touched by the lovely image.
Keep in mind that spontaneous purchases may be not your own choice but a will of a brand using modern business intelligence tools.
Be conscious in consuming and taking your decisions!
