PrintEmail

That's an alarming statistic that applies to most businesses.

Consumers base their decision to buy on 3 levels of criteria: 

Firstly, a whopping 50% of consumers will choose someone they already know and with whom they have a relationship, to do business. They don't respond to ads or postcards, they don't reach for the Yellow Pages, they go straight to the same person they ALWAYS go to.

YOU want to be such a business, one your clients automatically think of and go to without even considering looking elsewhere.

Of the other 50%, 25% of these will make their decision to buy based on a referral from someone they trust.

The final 25% will refer to the internet, ads, Yellow Pages and television advertising when they want to do business. 

Why do so many people prefer to have an established relationship with the person or company they do business with?  Well it is human nature, we're creatures of habit and knowing what to expect makes us feel nice and secure.  This holds true more with 'low risk' decisions such as buying the same hair shampoo over and over again, than when buying a new house every few years.

The U.S. National Association of Realtors profile buyers and sellers and they report that when 48% of people are buying or selling their home, rather than respond to an ad or look around their neighbourhood and contact agents listed on signs, they will list with someone they know and have had a PRIOR RELATIONSHIP with.

After that, 26% will make their decision from talking with a trusted source or a referral by a friend. It was reported in the National Association of Realtors, that a whopping 74% of all decisions are derived from a relationship!

It was also reported, and it is fascinating that only 4% of agents operate some kind of relationship management programme that keeps in touch with their prospects.

Armed with such enlightening and empowering knowledge then, where do you want to spend your marketing dollar?

Did you know that internet marketing is mostly free? Did you know that most people nowadays when looking for something look on the internet first? Did you know that only 33% of New Zealand small businesses have an internet presence?

When you give your business a strong internet presence, there is a way to automatically form relationships with customers that find you. There is a way to nurture that relationship and follow up automatically with that customer. If you don’t have an automated marketing system, which collect leads on the internet, nurture them and follow up with them, you’re literally throwing money away.

Internet Marketing is not difficult to learn. If you are a small business, and you are one of the 77% that don’t have an internet presence, you owe it to yourself and your business to look into getting one. Here are the benefits for your business: