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In last week's post, we explored the Interest stage of the buying cycle, when a prospect is looking for resources to educate and inform about products or services, not offers or sources. This second stage tends to favor the "organic search" side of search engine results pages, unless a PPC ad advertises a resource more germane than the organic side offers.

The best case scenario for an advertiser at the Interest stage is to "brand" the search. Prospects searching for "eco tents" (rather than yurts, solar tents, or "eco-friendly camping") will eventually end up at Maho Bay - that's where they were first developed and promoted.

Decision

Once enough background information has been gathered and digested, it is time for a prospect to prepare to make a Decision. For an advertiser, this means getting a website or landing page bookmarked. If the prospect is not interested enough to want to save the link, the game is probably over.

Getting a bookmark at the Decision stage is not about getting a "close" (offering a special deal on reservations, for example). Rather, it means providing a rich, informative, virtual experience of the offering that also matches the target market's psychographics (what they care about and identify with).

In our running scenaro, the graduate student has learned about eco-tents (and their elder cousin, yurts) as affordable, earth-friendly alternatives. She now needs to decide where to go over Winter break, searching on "yurt campground" and "eco tent rentals" and similar terms. Sponsored links are ok at this stage - she wants people she can one day make a reservation with.

Through these searches, she learns that there are eco tent rentals in St. John and Puerto Rico, and yurt campgrounds in Oregon and California. The yurts seem more rustic and popular, but the eco-tents more comfortable and exotic. Which to choose, and where?

Psychographics aside, the website that gets bookmarked will probably be the one with the downloadable site map and trail system with attractive images and descriptions, and a system for making online reservations that indicates availability.

However, for our 20-something student market, bookmarks will be awarded to the page with social network links - to Flikr photos that show the tents and surrounding parks, to a Facebook group that links to camper blogs about the social life in the tent communities, and to a YouTube page with video clips of tent nightlife.