Page 76 - Social Media Marketing for Dummies

at the preference phase. To learn all about podcasts, which are audio blogs
that are easily distributed online, take a look at Podcasting For Dummies, by Tee
Morris (John Wiley & Sons, Inc.).

» YouTube clips of product demonstrations: With prospective customers
establishing their preference for the brand, video clips demonstrating the
product and explaining its benefits are helpful. Publish your videos to a site
such as YouTube so that customers can easily find them. Posting on YouTube
also gives people the opportunity to comment and rate the product videos.

SMM at the action stage

The action stage is when the prospective customer makes the purchase and becomes
an actual customer. He goes through the process of buying the product, whether he
does this online, via the phone, or in a store. During the action stage, focus on mak-
ing the process as smooth, efficient, and hassle free as possible. You should put a lot
of effort into making the purchasing experience a positive one because it is one of
the first direct interactions that the customer has with your company.

Most marketers argue that at this point in the funnel, you should not play a role.
Either the customer was positively influenced enough to make the purchasing
decision or he wasn’t. If he’s at the point where he’s taking action, he should be
allowed to take that action without any distractions whatsoever because even a
positive distraction is still a distraction. However, if the purchase is a high-
consideration one, you can make the purchasing process social in a way that
doesn’t distract from the purchasing but enhances it instead.

At the point of purchase, the customer wants to know whether he is making a suit-
able purchasing decision and if his social influencers approve of his decision. Pro-
viding him with data points that he can share with those influencers and a means
to broadcast the purchasing decision helps him. He can broadcast his purchasing
decision and influence his friends to make similar purchasing decisions. And by
providing valuable tidbits of information, he’ll have valuable information to share.

The point of purchase also serves as an opportunity to upsell other products and
services. This is a traditional marketing tactic that’s been used in both the digital
world and in physical stores as well. By highlighting other products that custom-
ers just like him purchased, social influence can play a role in encouraging that
customer to make additional impulse purchases at the point of sale. For example,
say you’re buying a pair of Gap jeans from Gap.com (as shown in Figure 3-4) and
as you’re about to check out, you’re told about a nice shirt to buy and that most
people who bought the pair of jeans bought the shirt, too. You’re more likely to
add the shirt to your shopping cart. That’s using social data to influence a pur-
chasing decision.

60 PART 1 Getting Started with Social Media Marketing