How digital marketing affects consumer behavior is a difficult question to answer in one article but we will try to cover the highlights. Consumer behavior has undergone a significant change, and digital marketing has become a critical factor affecting how consumers purchase. This article aims to explain the impact of digital marketing on consumer purchasing behavior. Many survey findings indicate that most people are familiar with digital marketing, which has influenced their decision to make online purchases. Thereby increasing the number of customers for online businesses. By utilizing digital marketing, businesses can increase the sales of goods and services, while also saving time for consumers.
Introduction to Consumer Behaviour
In digital marketing when we research consumer behavior for a specific brand or field, we ask some key questions such as:
- – Why is the consumer looking for this service/product?
- – Where are consumers looking for products to buy, where are they looking for information and where are they looking for entertainment and educational content?
- – How do consumers decide to buy a product/service?
- – How do they buy, do they pay online, how often, and what is the lifespan of the goods in question?
- – How do consumers evaluate their purchase and where? When do they evaluate it?
In digital or traditional marketing, it is extremely important to know the behavior of consumers before, during, and after the purchase of a service or product. Our marketing plan is guided by this behavior. The purpose of marketing is to find a need and serve it in the best possible way in order to stand out from the competition. Doing the opposite is a best practice to fail.
So let’s see how we answer these questions today with all the data in our hands and how these questions lead you to a better strategic analysis of your company.
Understanding Digital Marketing
A key prerequisite for the success of a company’s marketing strategies is to offer a product or service that the consumer considers relevant, different and has a comparative advantage over competitors. All of this falls under the umbrella of marketing. Simply put, marketing is the branch that deals with what the market wants and what the business produces. Therefore, marketing exists whenever there is an interest in conducting a transaction between a customer and a business. That is, marketing must precede the idea or creation of an organization by researching the industry and making correct strategic decisions thus finding what we often call “the market gap”.
Let’s be realistic though, this rarely happens. Either because of budget or because of ignorance. So we end up having a product and adjusting how it is marketed to meet existing needs. A misconception about marketing is that it creates needs. While in reality, the first thing we do is research. Research is the key to success. It may seem like a creative industry, but marketing is more research and analysis than art. And especially in digital marketing, our lives become easier than ever and success comes with mathematical precision, as long as the product or service has to offer real value to the target audience.
The Future of Digital Marketing
The changes happening in digital marketing at the moment are running at a dizzying pace. On the one hand, professionals are running to catch up with the changes, and businesses, especially smaller and medium-sized ones, are afraid of them. Therefore many times the results slow down and money is lost due to human and logical factor, which is none other than the fear of change. Still, stagnation is the easiest and fastest way for a business to fail today. What is certain about the future of digital marketing is that it is moving towards mobile marketing, voice search optimization, artificial intelligence, and conversion rate optimization, i.e. the analysis of consumer behavior on a company’s website or online store and changes to improve CTR.
Consumer Behavior and Decision-Making
Having said the above and having cleared up some important mistakes around the concept of digital marketing, it’s time to move on to the meat of the matter.
Understanding consumer behavior is key to creating a successful marketing strategy. Knowing what motivates customers to buy and the stages they go through when making a decision can help businesses tailor their marketing efforts to effectively reach their target audience. With the rise of digital marketing, businesses must consider the impact of online channels on consumer behavior.
Factors that influence consumer behavior
There are many different factors that can influence consumer behavior. Consumers are human and anything going on inside—psychological factors or outside—sociopolitical factors can significantly influence their decisions. Too often as professionals, we decide to focus on business values and have them as a compass for strategic decisions precisely to influence people’s needs and psychological factors. For example, when we refer to psychological factors we are talking about motivations, perceptions, attitudes, and learning. Very often we also use what we call emotional marketing. A typical case study is none other than that of Nike. Nike’s slogan “Just Do It” isn’t a nice catchphrase they thought of and said why not? The company taps into our inherent need to be the hero in our own story and does it brilliantly.
Stages of the decision-making process
The decision-making process includes five stages:
- Problem identification
- Information search
- Evaluation of alternatives
- Purchase decision
- Post-purchase evaluation.
During the problem identification stage, the customer identifies a need or a problem they want to solve. The information-seeking stage involves gathering information about possible solutions to the problem. During the alternative evaluation stage, the customer compares and evaluates different options. In the purchase decision stage, the customer decides on the best option and makes the purchase. The post-purchase evaluation stage involves evaluating the level of satisfaction with the product or service purchased.
This last stage is perhaps the most important in a digital world where one consumer’s evaluation can affect dozens of others either positively or negatively. Therefore, our work stops when we know that the consumer not only did not regret the money he invested in us, but becomes our voice in the reviews on Google, on social media, or even to those around him. Word-of-mouth is more powerful than ever because of the enormous amount of noise around us.
The impact of digital marketing on decision-making
It’s reveal time! Now you will know the big secret. How will you get consumers to buy from you over and over again? The answer is so simple and so difficult at the same time. Giving them exactly what they’re looking for in a way the competition doesn’t and ideally, in a way they can’t copy. That’s it. Were you disappointed? We hope not.
Digital marketing has a significant impact on decision-making. It provides businesses with the opportunity to reach a wider audience and communicate with customers in real-time. It also allows businesses to collect data and track customer behavior, which can help them tailor their marketing efforts to specific audiences. We should reveal something more to you. No business can grow without digital marketing. Thousands of free tools allow you to do it yourself if you have the time. But to grow you need to find experts who understand your vision and goals and will guide you towards their achievement. When we talk about digital marketing we are actually talking about dozens of skills, tools, and tactics such as social media, SEO, SEM, email marketing, content marketing, video marketing, and more.
Social media platforms in particular have become a significant influence on consumer behavior. Consumers use social media to gather information, read reviews, and seek recommendations. Social media also allows businesses to interact with customers and build relationships with them.
More or less we ended up with the following
Digital marketing has made it easier for businesses to provide personalized content and offers to customers. With the help of customer data and insights, businesses can create targeted campaigns that speak directly to the needs and preferences of their audience.
The first step is knowing your audience by thinking about their needs, where they search for answers, how they decide to buy, and more.
Then you proceed with the competitor and market analysis in order to create the appropriate strategy for your audience and organize your positioning in the market. In other words, the way you want your audience to perceive your value.
In conclusion, understanding consumer behavior and decision-making is essential for creating a successful marketing strategy. With the rise of digital marketing, businesses need to consider the impact of online channels on consumer behavior. By understanding the factors that influence consumer behavior and the stages of the decision-making process, businesses can tailor their marketing efforts to effectively reach their target audience.