Client Magnets Official Blog

If you’re not familiar with different types of buyer behaviour in the marketing cycle, let me give you a quick run down. As you read through the descriptions, see if you can identify which types of buyer you are primarily attracting to your product, service or idea.

There is a fairly well recognized theory by Everett Rogers in the business and marketing worlds about how new ideas eventually get implemented to our everyday lives. This theory holds true in many areas, such as cultural fads and consumer buying habits. Here’s the premise:

For any new idea, there is a group of innovators. Innovators are defined as the first 5-10% of the people who first adopt any given idea. They are the ones who usually come up with the idea in the first place and refine the idea so that it is something that works. Innovators are venturesome; they are the most willing group to try something new and take the initial risk to try something out. They are also influencers… they keep in contact with many others in their area of expertise.

The next group, the early adopters are about 10-15% of us. These people are the trend-setters. They are the ones who are aggressively looking for new ideas to implement. They have their eye on the innovators and are influenced by them. They are respectable people who will try out new ideas in a careful way.

The early majority (about 30% of us) wait a little longer to make our decision. Actually, if they’re not actively searching out new ideas (like the early adopters) they might wait to see the first bit of advertising on a product or service, or get the recommendation of a friend before they jump in. But still, they want to be in on the ground floor. Early majority people still consider themselves ‘cutting-edge’, they just want to make sure the idea has worked out in some other places before they try it.

The late majority (another 30% of us) wait still longer to get on the band wagon. They still get on… some are excited, some are skeptical. But by this stage of the game, there is growing pressure to ‘not miss out’.

The last group, the laggards, (about 20% of us) are true traditionalists. They are generally not interested in new ideas/products and are the last group to buy into new ideas.

Think about where your clients and customers fit in the buying cycle, and ask yourself whether the marketing materials you are using meet all of their needs and answer all the questions they might have before ‘taking the plunge’.