n0d3.org

Note: This post is part of my speaking notes for the Women’s Small Business Program in Burlington Vermont.

Getting the most from your web efforts: Understanding the RAECS behavior model

A consumer behavior model helps content producers make the right things for the right people by matching the content produced with behaviors exhibited by people coming into contact with the content. If you want to be able to measure the effectiveness of the stuff you’re making or if you want to learn from how people behave in relation to the stuff you’re making, then having a consumer behavior model is going to help.

The reach, acquisition, engagement, conversion, satisfaction model assumes linear phases. This means that first your content must “reach” someone. Then that person can be “acquired” and then after that become “engaged.” If your offer meets certain critera with the person then they will buy something or contact you or do something else that puts them in the “conversion” phase. And if, after all of that, they still like everything, they can indicate “satisfaction.” A person must take a measurable action to pass from one phase to the next.

Different businesses will have different definitions for when a person has passed from one phase to the next. The way you define each phase can give your business strategic advantages over your competition. But keep in mind, registering more “conversions” doesn’t make you more competitive than having more “friends” on Facebook makes you more popular. Strategic advantages gained from how you define each phase are the result of aligning your goals to those of your customers, not through gerrymandering the definitions to suit existing site behavior.

We’ll discuss some specific examples as we go through each phase.

The first step in the RAECS behavior model: Reach

Learn what Reach is (and isn’t), how you can measure it and some actions you can take on the data.