Digital audiences are increasingly engaging in complex thought processes before deciding which brand to buy or use. With Digital PR, we can understand that.

Alistair Rennie and Jonny Protheroe from Google’s Consumer Insights Team explain just how complex audience behavior on Google Search has become. In the article “How people decide what to buy lies in the ‘messy middle’ of the purchase journey,” they explain how audience decision-making patterns are becoming increasingly irregular (the messy middle). 

In analyzing how audiences make purchasing decisions on Google, Alistair and Jonny found that the relationship between triggers and the decision to buy is not linear.

“We know that audience touchpoints with online channels are becoming increasingly complex and vary from person to person,” they explained. 

A touchpoint is an interaction between a business and a customer that occurs during the customer’s journey to find a brand or product they want to use. Touchpoints significantly influence the customer experience and their perception of the brand.

“What’s less clear is how buyers process all the information and options they encounter throughout their search.”

Read Also: Understanding Audience Behavior in Digital PR

Digital PR Strategy

As discussed in several Digital PR articles previously published by Media Buffet, digital PR is a strategy that combines traditional public relations and digital marketing.

In practice, this strategy goes beyond simply treating the audience as the end goal of a brand’s campaign; the audience also becomes the subject of research in the process of determining the strategy itself.

Through research using digital marketing tools, a digital PR practitioner can understand the complexities at the heart of the audience’s decision-making process—between the trigger and the decision. 

It is known that audiences seek information about products and then weigh all their options. This means that whatever audiences do online—such as using the Google search engine or social media—generally involves a process of exploration, expansive activities, and evaluation—activities that can ultimately be identified.

The simplest example is that the choice of keywords or phrases entered into a search engine can be identified as a pattern of audience behavior when searching for information online.

From these keywords, a digital PR practitioner can learn what the audience wants to know before making a decision.

From there, they can determine the right strategy to ensure that the PR activities carried out align with what the audience is looking for.

This is exactly what Media Buffet did when assisting Shell Indonesia in attracting more investors interested in operating Shell gas stations. Previously, Shell used the keyword “gas station partnership” in all the information they shared. After our analysis, we found that the audience actually used the keyword “gas station business” more frequently.

As a result, in 2020, when Media Buffet ran the Shell campaign, the number of investors opening Shell gas stations increased.