When devising a marketing strategy, it is essential for a business to first have a clear picture of who its target audience is and what factors influence their behavior. In the past, consumers may simply have visited the first shop they came across. Today, however, consumers are highly informed; they read reviews, assess prices, and take time before committing to a product or service.
If your business is developing a digital marketing plan, this blog post is for you. Here, we will look at what factors influence consumer behavior. The more your business can understand its target audience, the better it will become at advertising to their wants, needs, and desires.
Psychological Factors
Some of the psychological factors that drive consumer behavior include:
- Motivation
- Learning
- Perception
- Beliefs
- Attitudes
Think about what your target audience is looking for and how your brand’s products or services fit into that. How does your brand solve a problem for a consumer? If you can effectively market your products or services to appeal to your audience’s motivation, they will be more likely to become a customer.
Personal Factors
Every one of us has personal factors that influence our choices and these vary from person to person. These factors include:
- Income
- Age
- Occupation
- Lifestyle
If your target market is teenagers, for example, then there is little point in devising a marketing strategy that focuses on consumers who fit a completely different demographic. Our tastes change and evolve as we grow older, so messages will need to be different depending on who the target audience is.
Social Factors
We, as humans, do not live solitary lives. So, our consumer behavior will naturally be affected by the people around us. Social factors have a huge influence on our buying behavior and these include:
- Family
- Roles and status
- Reference groups
Brand loyalty can often be passed down from family member to family member. Many people subconsciously choose a particular brand because family members have traditionally chosen it. People are also influenced by the groups they associate with, including sporting organizations and social clubs.
All of the above information can help businesses to better understand their target audience. With platforms such as Google Ads targeting, businesses can hone in on their target audience online.
What Factors Influence Consumer Behavior?
Behind every purchase decision, people are fulfilling a need. These needs are varied and can be directed by several different factors, which we have touched upon above. For a business to effectively attract its target audience online, it needs to be able to understand these factors and how they influence consumer behavior.
We recommend that you partner with a reputable digital marketing agency to make the most of your marketing budget. Like this blog post on what factors influence consumer behavior? Be sure to check out our other informative articles on a wide range of interesting topics.