Friday, February 10  

Why Your Customer Buys

Why Your Customer Buys

In marketing, we have to find the point of difference for a product from its competitors. But it can't be just any point of difference. It has the be the point of difference between your product and the competition that influences your market in its buying decisions.

New Horse Bits


Now that's great and it will be an influence on the buyer, but is it enough to make them buy this sort of horse bit over another?

Horse Bits Is Often About Price.....Or Versatility......Or No Lugging......Or...

So what you have to do is find the thing about your product that influences the customer to buy. And here's where you have to do a bit of marketing detective work:

Basically what you do is segment your market. The market for the Pee Wee Horse Bit is, obviously, people who care for horses. But there are many different segments:

1. Horse trainers - the point of difference benefit of the bit for them is that the bit prevents lugging and pulling.
2. Pleasure riders - the point of difference benefit of the bit for them might be that the bit is softer on the horse's mouth and therefore gentler.
3. Equestrian riders - the point of difference here might be the superior control the bit gives.
4. Pony Clubs/Trail Riding Camps - a point of difference here might be that the Pee Wee Bit is versatile and can replace the need for using 3 different bits - thus, there is a cost saving.

The Pee Wee Bits Home Page

At the moment when you visit the Pee Wee Bits Home Page you get the heading:

Are You Using The Right Horse Bit?

We use that in an effort to grab the readers attention and lead them into the various parts we want them to visit.

We use testimonials in an effort to appeal to the different market segment that might visit - i.e. we have a farrier, a horse breaker, a trainer, an equestrian rider, etc.

The Trouble With That.....

But there is a problem with that of course. It's difficult to be all things to all people the instant they visit the page. And because people will very quickly make decisions about your offer on a web page it's vital to grab their interest.

We need to appeal the right way to the particular profile of the person visiting so that we can give them the choice influencing information they need to make the right decision - which is to buy.

Different Marketing Strategies Give Us Some Options

And here's where our segmentation of our market comes in handy.

We need to market differently to the different segments. If we're marketing to horse trainers we might use direct mail, advertising within online communities of horse trainers, Pay Per Click advertising and a search engine optimisation campaign.

For example, if our Pay Per Click advertising key phrase we target is "horse trainers" we want the visitor to be taken to a page devoted to horse trainers.

Direct To The Page They Want.....

With all of those strategies we can send the horse trainer directly to the page we want them to visit. And it's on that page that we provide the information they want - i.e. the information that will influence them.

No good telling a horse trainer about the pretty colour of the horse bit, because that doesn't influence his/her decision.

Our research of horse trainers tells us that the overwhelming point of difference benefit of the Pee Wee Horse Bit is that it will stop lugging/pulling. So that's what the copy of that page will focus on.

Continual Research

And marketing is about continual research. Reviewing the analytics to see what's working, what's not. How people react, or don't, to what you're offering.

Because Pee Wee Horse Bits aren't really selling horse bits.

• For the horse trainer they're selling faster times.
• For the Equestrian rider they're selling a more control horse.
• For the horse lover they're selling the notion of doing the right thing by the horse.

Find out what gets your target market/segment to buy and use that as your main marketing message.

Regards

Brendon

P.S: For more info on web site marketing click here for an article series I recently wrote.