etailology

Gang,

Attached to this post is a diagram I use quite a lot to describe the online media landscape and the etail customer lifecycle. It continues to evolve, but I thought I’d share it. Click for the full size version. Some key points and takeaways:

• Customers are at different stages: This simple truism is oft forgotten. Customers come from different stages in the buying cycle; what may be appropriate for your most loyal customer, might not be appropriate for someone trying your product for the first time. And despite the clear arrow at top moving from left to right, it’s important that customers move back and forth quite a lot — the sales funnel is less like a funnel than it is like a popcorn popper.
• Pursuing competitor evangelists is often a waste of time and resources. You’ll find that your competitors’ true evangelists may in fact be your worse prospects. Note the opposing arrows on the diagram and the relationship between “your” conception of customer-lifecycle-stage and your competitor’s perception of the very same individual. Remember the “popcorn popper” concept: instead of bombarding happy customers of your competitor with costly interruption marketing, wait instead for those customers to “pop” out of the evangelist column (read: wait for your competition to screw up.)
• Online media consumption is different: When we recognize that customers may be at different stages in the lifecycle, we (naturally) target messages differently: for offline awareness we might use a billboard, and for offline customer service we might send a personal letter. While this spectrum of communications methods seems clear, what’s less than obvious is that it’s unlikely that any individual customer will be seeing the billboard and reading the letter at the same time. That is, in the offline world, media tactics are usually separate and distinct because of geography, format, and media consumption patterns.The same is not true online. A customer performing a search might see a pay-per-click ad, then a banner, then read a customer service review, then visit a website… all in a single user session. The separation of messages we enjoy offline rarely exists on the Internet. In addition, customers evolve more quickly: a web visitor might transition from being a “stranger” to an “evangelist” (by writing a review) all within a single site visit.
• Online conversion and offline conversion strategies are different: In online communications that drive online response, the primary goal is action. In these cases, customer response can be immediate (i.e. if they receive an online message, they can immediately respond/act by visiting the website). Design these communications with the goal of quick action towards conversion without necessarily trying to embed a lasting memory or impression. For online communications that drive offline actions, our primary goal is instead “recognition and memory” of the offer and benefit. Users responding to an online promotion requiring offline action need to remember that promotion during their next drive past your store.

Ultimately, this means we need to think a bit differently about online marketing. While technologies like behavioral targeting might make it easier to identify buying signals and place customers at the appropriate stage in the sales funnel, the reality is that most marketers won’t be employing such sophisticated (and expensive) techniques. For the have-nots (e.g. you and I!) it’s important that we consider these factors during offer and creative design, and that we — above all — insist on consistency and clarity in brand messaging.