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Synopsis
Helping book shoppers through the 3 stages of the buying cycle can dramatically improve your chances of making more book sales. If you understand what these 3 stages are about, and where the book shoppers are within that cycle, you will be able to fine-tune your marketing efforts and make them more effective and improve your book sales. Here is a quick explanation of the 3 stages of the buying cycle.
What You Will Learn
1. You will learn about the 3 stages of the book-buying cycle.
2. You will learn why you must understand this cycle, and how it can help you sell more books.
3. You will learn ways to help the book buyer to move smoothly through the cycle.
Introduction
Helping book shoppers, and your current followers, through the 3 stages of the buying cycle can dramatically improve your chances of making more book sales. If you understand what these 3 stages are about, and where the book shoppers are within that cycle, you will be able to fine-tune your marketing efforts, make them more effective, and improve your book sales.
What Is The Buying Cycle?
The buying cycle is simply the thought process, or stages, that shoppers travel through before making a final decision about what they will purchase, who they will purchase it from, and how much they will pay for it. Every shopper goes through these stages. These purchase decisions can take a few minutes, to many months, depending on what is being purchased.
For example, a 99-cent ebook might take a book buyer one minute to make the decision to purchase. But a $25 book might take a few days. But as the author, you can provide information to your readers that will help them through the buying cycle, which will help persuade them that you are the best one to help them with their needs and wants.
A Buying Cycle Analogy
Look at the three stages like the dating process. Think of the book-buyer as someone that you are interested in dating. First, you want them to notice you, and realize that you are looking for a relationship. Secondly, while they are shopping around for a relationship, and checking out other potential people to date, you are doing your best to show that person that you are a trustworthy and likable person to date.
The buyer keeps shopping around, but you keep giving them more proof that you are the best one to choose. You even go so far as to get your friends to give them a review of you and tell them what you are really all about. You try to impress them even more by cooking them fancy dinners, taking them to fancy restaurants, and so on.
And finally, they eventually choose you over all the others that they dated because they realize that you are so much more of a good catch. That you tried harder to impress them and gain their friendship more than anyone else did. They now make the final commitment to you because they believe that you know and understand what they are looking for in a relationship better than anyone else does.
Here Is An Overview Of The 3-Stages Of The Buying Cycle:
Stage # 1. Brand And Problem Awareness
In this initial stage, the consumer might or might not even know about you or your book. They also might, or might not, be aware of a need or problem that they have.
But in this stage, they are starting to realize that they have a need that they might want to fulfill or get help with a problem. They might have even come across your website by chance, and now realize that they have an interest in what you are saying because you and your words have stirred something inside them.
Stage # 2. Research And Consideration
In this middle stage, the consumer has already realized that they have a need, or a problem, and are now looking for answers. They are starting to become much more interested in what you have to say.
They are asking themselves more questions and hopefully asking you questions. They have now identified that you might have the solutions they are looking for. Your blog posts, white papers, ebooks, and so on, are all helping them with their research, and they are beginning to rely on you for more guidance.
Stage # 3. Decision And Purchase
In this final stage, the consumer now understands what criteria meet their needs, and which don’t. They have now been fine-tuning their thinking about their needs and problems. They have been comparing you to other authors.
They are reading different blogs and looking at many different books on Amazon. They are starting to trust certain authors more than others. And then finally, they are ready to make a decision and buy the book that they believe can help them more than any other.
Conclusion
This entire buying cycle is about getting the book-buyer to trust you, and to make an emotional connection with you. Each stage of the cycle gives you an opportunity to make a great impression on the buyer. If you understand how this process works within the mind of the buyer, and you use each stage to your advantage, you will be in a much better position to sell more books.
Questions For Us To Think About And Discuss
1. How has your understanding of the consumer buying cycle affected your book marketing efforts?
2. Have you created new or different content, or added free ebooks and white papers to your blog, because your understanding of the consumer buying cycle has changed?
