Is Social Media on Your Path to Purchase?

Einstein said, “If it weren’t for time, everything would happen all at once!”

Some business owners may think that’s how marketing and sales happen for their business – all at once. It’s either all or nothing. The fact is, the path to purchase begins well before someone enters your store, gets a referral, sees your ad or gets your email. According to the Advertising Research Foundation, “Whenever a person begins a process intended to end in purchase, they have started down the path to purchase and are shoppers.”

Social media can help you market to consumers, shoppers and prospects at multiple points in the path to purchase, but you have to think through what that path is for your business.  The pressures of time, price and lifestyle are driving consumer decisions and should drive your social media participation. Get started by thinking about your path to purchase in these categories and mapping your social media activities to each of them:

Awareness → Attraction → Engagement → Motivation → Activation

Perhaps you need an approach for learning about consumers in your area and what they’re thinking? Start “listening” in social media. Perhaps you need to integrate current customers into the mix. Start a social media community (Facebook page). What if you wanted to capture people when they started to search? Start a blog and improve your search engine rankings.

Social media gives you the power to make relevant connections with your customers at multiple points along the path to purchase. Focus on how you can “engage” and “motivate” them, as these are the key catalysts for purchase, and you’ll be miles ahead of your competitors who are standing by the social media sidelines.