Marketing has changed dramatically over the years. In fact, digital marketing is a term that didn’t exist until recently.
Once Google entered the fray and revolutionized search, the whole sales process has been turned on its head.
Product and feature discovery is now in the hands of the buyer (not the seller).
I mean, think about it. If you wanted to buy a pair of shoes 30 years ago you’d walk into a shoe store and you’d have to ask the salesperson for help.
If the salesperson was any good, she’d ask you the right questions. e.g. do you pronate or supernate? Do you have flat feet or any other unique requirements?
And if she did a good job she got the sale.
Things are different today.
If you want to buy a pair of shoes, where do you go?
Yup, that’s right. You head over to Google or your favorite online shoe store.
The seller has no chance of influencing your purchase decision because as far as she’s concerned you don’t exist as a person with an actual identity (until you’re at the checkout page filling out your delivery details).
Sure, the business might know your ‘digital identity because they’ve pixelled you and are stalking you as you travel the worldwide web thanks to things like Facebook retargeting, which has increasingly come into question of late (and rightly so).
But in essence, the buyer is in control of the sales process. The seller can no longer hope to influence the process. Rather she can only facilitate a purchase but providing the right information depending on where the buyer is on his or her journey.
Leave a Reply