Awareness is the first step towards change
How search engines make our life easier
In contemporary society, everyone is on average bombarded by the equivalent of 174 newspapers of data in a single day. Due to this information overload, it is near impossible to remember everything that we come across. Luckily the existence of search engines makes life a whole lot easier.
Today with Google as the market leader, consumers world-wide are benefiting from the widespread information infrastructure to find solutions for their specific needs. Doing so, Google receives over 63,000 searches per second on any given day, that translates into 3.8 million searches per minute, 228 million searches per hour and 2 trillion searches per year! You get the memo, a lot of information is requested and delivered.
From a business perspective, being able to find repetitive patterns in all those consumer searches can give a clear representation of their wants and needs in contemporary society.
Especially now, where the marketing mix has seen its shift from a focus on the product to a focus on the consumer, it seems more important than ever to adapt your company output to the behaviour of the consumer.
With that in mind, Google was so kind as to provide us with the consumer insights in regard to the searches on their website. To summarise, three emerging consumer behaviours are brought to light that might assist you when rethinking your marketing strategies.
The curious consumer
While analysing the data received from searches it showed that consumers Google their way throughout the decision-making journey to become as informed as possible before they make the purchase, even when making small decisions like purchasing a toothbrush.
When consumers are not sure what they want or if they want anything, they go on the web in search of inspiration and ideas. The web, in this case, is not only limited to Google but involves the widespread information infrastructure with providers like Pinterest, Instagram and Facebook.
When a particular tangible or intangible object has been chosen, rigorous research will follow that will help the consumer make a well-informed purchase decision. This research will take shape by looking for advice online.
“We live in a world with an abundance of choices and a million and one ways to get things done. We’re all hungry for advice.”
Four eyes see more than two, therefore we will always turn to other people that can help us make a decision. This represents itself in the current trend where product reviews, rating, photos and blogs seem more important than ever.
The Demanding Consumer: Expecting tailored experiences
That it is beneficial for a company to create personalised shopping experiences for individuals has become well-known. However, expectations have never been higher.
In terms of searches on Google, consumers are increasingly using search requests that relate just to them.
If companies do not adapt their output to this increased desire in personalisation, they will eventually feel outdated and fall behind. A different study performed by Shepard presentations shared the insights of their survey results from roughly 1,000 consumers. The majority of these consumers claimed that they experienced a lack of personalisation in their overall shopping experience. In addition, 7% even felt some level of frustration related to impersonalized shopping experiences.
Overall their conclusions state that personalisation drives impulse purchases, leads to increased revenue and leads to loyalty.
The Impatient Consumer: Making decisions faster than ever
Consumers are making decisions faster than ever and they expect companies to instantly react to these decisions. Currently, we see a trend concerning making last-minute plans. Perhaps everyone is becoming more impulsive, perhaps procrastination of plans is getting more socially acceptable since we know we can get away with it. Nevertheless, our approach to planning is experiencing change. As a result, the instant output after input is necessary to effectively stay on top of our busy schedules.
If companies fail to keep up with the fast-paced consumer requests they will have to adapt immediately or face the consequences.
“Consumers want to quickly pay bills on finance sites, get rapid results when they’re browsing vacation reviews, and view an article immediately when they click through. And if there’s too much friction, they’ll abandon the site and move on”.
By turning data into insights Google revealed that 53% of the mobile users will abandon a website if it takes longer than three seconds to load. On average, they mention a conversion fall of 12% for every one second of delay!
Whether we like it or not, we seem to be more demanding, impatient, informed and curious than ever before and portrait this in our customer purchase journey. Awareness is the first step towards change, therefore adapt your marketing strategies if necessary, provide your audience with their preferred customer journey and make your brand an advisor. If it is you who needs an advisor? Ask our experts for a consultation.
References
Alleyne, R. (2011). Welcome to the information age. Retrieved from https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/science-news/8316534/Welcome-to-the-information-age-174-newspapers-a-day.html
Consumers in the Age of Assistance. (July, 2018). Retrieved from https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/consumer-insights/ageofassistance/
Google Data, U.S., January — June 2015 vs. January — June 2017. Top 500 “best” search terms
Google/Purchased Digital Diary: How Consumers Solve Their Needs in the Moment, May 2016. Representative sample of U.S. smartphone users = 1000. Smartphone users by immediacy need type = 623–961, Responses = 14,840, Needs = 10,540.
Hyken, S. (2017). Personalized customer experience increases revenue and loyalty. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/shephyken/2017/10/29/personalized-customer-experience-increases-revenue-and-loyalty/#46b4e84bd61c
IGT. (2019). Five trends shaping consumer behavior in 2019. Retrieved from https://lafleurs.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/IGT_5_Consumer_Trends_SpecialReport.pdf
Sullivan, D. (2016). Google now handles at least 2 trillion searches per year. Retrieved from https://searchengineland.com/google-now-handles-2-999-trillion-searches-per-year-250247
Sixty-three fascinating Google search statistics. (2018). Retrieved from https://seotribunal.com/blog/google-stats-and-facts/
