Kristie T’s Home Business Blog Fun, mom-geared work-at-home tips and advice on making money on the net.

I signed up for my first Yahoo Sponsored Search listing today. And in watching the tutorials, they talked about the 3 stages of the buying cycle. And while this may seem like common sense, I thought it beared repeating. Here’s how you would approach people differently at each stage of the game.

The 3 Stages of the Buying Cycle are:

1) Research: People are Googling for free articles. They are typing general keywords to learn more about the product or service.

2) Compare: Prospects now know what they want and are comparing you against your competitors. They are in the “smart shopping” phase and comparison shopping based on value, availability, price, features etc. These buyers are searching using more specific keyword phrases.

3) Purchase stage: These red hot leads are ready to pull out the wallet and buy. They know what they want and they are committed to buy now. Ads focused to these buyers will have higher conversion rates. You will use very specific keyword phrases to attract these buyers.

So take a minute to make a mental picture of your buyers at each stage of the game. The better you can get in their head, they better you can appeal to “where they are at” in the buying process, the relavant your marketing pitch and keywords will be.