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The other day I was in need of finding a massage therapist for a friend of mine. Specifically, my friend was suffering some serious pain from training for a triathlon. What I did next is what every single consumer does when they are in need of a product or service at that very moment.
The 6 Steps
1. I went to google and typed “Massage Therapists In 06076”
When I did this, I went through the organic searches and found that the second search result was the person I initially had in mind to begin with, even prior to my search. I called, the lady answered and told me her hours of operations which in fact, did not work with mine. She also didn’t necessarily specialize in the type of massage I knew my friend needed.
2. She then referred me to another massage therapist who was known for sports therapy. However, she didn’t have the phone number….or name.
3. Back to square one. I then remembered seeing a plain old piece of paper hung up at the gym in town that talked about a massage therapist. Great! But still no number and still no information.
4. Went on to Facebook and went to the gyms fan page. Low and behold, I came across the information about the therapist.
5. Called and made an appointment the very next day. In addition, he was amazing! and we will use him again.
6. The Point: It doesn’t matter whether you have a billboard, newspaper ad, television or a Facebook Fan Page. When I say it doesn’t matter, I am simply stating what we know: Marketing is impression based!! In the end, I went to search for the gentleman who had a piece of paper on the wall, at the gym and thankfully, was also posted on the Facebook page for me to find. So the piece of paper that made the initial impression, is what brought me to the one place I almost knew I could find the additional information I needed.
It Was ALL About Impressions and The Trail It Took
What I am getting at is this: Everything we do throughout the whole purchasing process, including the search, is based on impressions and our psychological mind frame. Clearly, the word of mouth impression would have been my first choice, but it goes to show you that sometimes the second choice becomes the first place winner. In my mind, I knew I would have found the second choice to be a much better fit for what I was looking for based on the reference and the poster that was displayed. Psychologically, I knew that it would most likely be within the price range and a good match for my friend.
When you are marketing, its key that whoever or whatever is giving the impression, ultimately leads back to you as much as possible. When we go to a search result for a service, the majority of the time it is because we need a particular service in a timely fashion. Knowing that about our service seeking customers, its key to have our information ready, our references to us in support and prepared to help that customer and convert into the sale.
The impression of the paper on the wall was made months ago, and ultimately turned into a sale months late. It took a piece of paper, a reference and a Facebook fan page to do it, but if we examine our traffic and prospects closely, we will find it often takes more than one impression to make the sale.
