A quick introduction to the buying decision making process

The traditional buying decision making process suggests that there are five stages a customer goes through when buying a product or service. These are: need recognition, information search, evaluation of alternatives, purchase, and post-purchase evaluation.

It is worth noting that the model can over simplify the process, as it suggests that customers pass through the same stages with every purchase. However, despite these valid criticisms, the model is very helpful from a marketing perspective to focus your planning, and identify key areas for you to target. It also makes you think about the entire process, and not just the purchase decision.

Need recognition

The buying process starts with need recognition. At this stage, the customer recognises they have a problem or need that they require to be fulfilled. This could be as simple as realising they are getting thirsty, up to they want a bigger house.

Additionally, a need or problem can be identified through marketing stimuli. For example, you are walking past a supermarket’s bread isle, you smell the bread (which has been purposely pumped through the air vents), and you realise you really want some fresh bread this evening. From your perspective, you are looking to illicit a response from the customer that they need a domain name, some web hosting for a website, or both.

Once they are aware of the problem, it is perfectly possible for you to take a customer directly from need recognition to purchase, without them going through the other stages. Whether you achieve this will depend on your branding and the information you are displaying on your website. Your marketing collateral (this includes your website, banners, PPC adverts, press releases, print adverts, email, forum signatures etc.) must all clearly communicate why your target audience need your services and/ or why they should choose you.

What do your customers want?

The first challenge is to make people aware that they need your products. The messages you choose, along with where they are placed will have a huge impact on a customer’s behaviour. When it comes to segmenting the web hosting market, one of the key areas we look at, at Heart Internet, is technical competency. The idea of breaking the market in to “Business or Consumer” is far too simplified and doesn’t help to pitch your products effectively. E.g. one business may need a dedicated server, whilst another may need a template based website builder. Ask yourself, who are my audience, and what is the most important thing they want from their web host? For example, is it…

• Everyday low prices (EDLP)

• Short term price promotions

• Traditional hosting or website builder software

• Self-managed or managed hosting

• Strong customer support

• Advanced management tools

• Free add-ons (e.g. one click install WordPress, free domain name)

• Based in the UK

• The web host’s reputation

Reducing risk

Immediate purchases typically happen when there is a low level of perceived risk on the part of the customer. The important thing to remember is, risk is absolutely relative and is based on both the product and the person. For example, finding a new t-shirt that costs £20 may take an entire Saturday afternoon because a person doesn’t want to buy one that isn’t fashionable (high social risk), whereas someone may buy a £1,000 watch on a whim because it isn’t expensive for them (low financial risk), but the concept always remains true. The types of risk you need to be aware of are:

• Physical risk (Will it physically hurt them or anyone else?)

• Functional risk (Will it work how they want it to?)

• Social risk (Is it socially acceptable within their circle?)

• Psychological risk (How does the product fit in with their perception of themselves?)

• Financial risk (Can they afford it?)

• Time risk (Is the time it takes to buy the product worth the effort?)

Providing the right information, at the right time

Your aim should be to use your website to provide visitors with the information they need to overcome their perceived risk. Prominent information based on what your target audience care most about (e.g. price, support, technical features) will immediately work to achieve this. For example, you could use the following:

• Pricing information

• Easy to find contact us, find us, about us pages

• A money back guarantee

• A demo of the product. You can set up a demos of eXtend, Web Builder and the VPS control panel easily through your RCC here

• Awards

• Customer testimonials, case studies and customer comments

• Show you security seals and endorsements

The next stage

In my opinion, choosing your web host should be a considered purchase if your website matters to you. With this in mind, it is likely that many of your customers will not go from problem identification to purchase immediately. The next stage in the model is information search, which I look at in detail in part 2.