Every potential customer that comes into contact with your brand or products comes at different stages in the customer lifecycle. As the ones selling the product, we often assume that every potential customer presented with our products is at a stage in their lifecycle to buy right now. The truth is that there’s really a spectrum among these customers that can be broken down into three key stages.
- Awareness
- Consideration
- Decision
As customers proceed through these three stages, our marketing efforts need to meet them where they are. This involves crafting finely tuned messaging and marketing materials for each of these three stages. Let’s run through some ideas.
Stage 1: Awareness
At the very top of the funnel, customers are becoming aware of a problem, need, or issue that they may want to address. This awareness stage is highlighted by potential customers learning more about their situation and what they will need to do to find a solution. For instance, if your new puppy chews through your old pair of work boots, you are now aware of the need for new work boots and are officially in the market.
At this point, you may begin researching what types of work boots make the most sense for your situation. What’s the difference between Steel Toe and Alloy Toe? What material does my outsole need to be made of? What even is thermoplastic polyurethane? These are the types of questions you might have during the awareness stage. How do we form a marketing message to this?
Our marketing needs to be centered on informative content for potential customers in the Awareness Stage. Consumers will have a ton of questions at the top of the funnel here, so we need to be able to address them and prop our brand as an authority on the subject. Take a second to think about solutions your products provide and structure articles, blogs, videos, and/or webinars that address the problems that your products solve.
Stage 2: Consideration
At this point, your potential customers are aware of the problem and your marketing has made them aware of your brand and solutions you provide. Now comes time for Consideration. Here, your customers are narrowing in the specific steps that need to be taken and the options available to them to address their needs.
Similar to the Awareness Stage, potential customers are examining ways to overcome their current situation. What sets the Consideration Stage apart, though, is the specificity involved. Top-funnel informative content will not nurture leads further through the funnel. Your marketing messaging needs to address specific, custom solutions your products can assist with. The progression goes from informative to educational; that is, we are no longer marketing what the problem is, but how we can solve it.
To help nurture leads through the Consideration Stage, we want to provide direction and guidance. As leaders within our business, we know the ins and outs of our products and how our customers benefit from them. At this stage, we can target specific groups within our target audience with specific messaging crafted to their specific needs. Downloadable content is also a good idea here to help potential customers within your funnel.
Stage 3: Decision
The Decision Stage is all about influencing and encouraging your potential customers to move forward with your products over the competitors’. At the bottom of the funnel, your potential customers are already aware of their current problem or situation; they have considered different options and learned the best methods to solve their problem; now, they must decide on the best brand, product, or service that will help them solve this problem.
We need to address aspects that help our products stand out from the competition here. If my product solves the same issue as another product, why should potential customers decide to go with my product? This encapsulates the Decision Stage. We’ve talked about what makes successful eCommerce product pages before. These types of optimizations help encourage customers that are in this Decision Stage, as they have taken all the steps through Awareness and Consideration to arrive at your product page where the only thing between a potential customer converting to a customer is a simple CTA button.
Messaging for the Decision Stage needs to focus on answering the question, why us? As evangelists for your products, you know the value props and defining features that set your products apart from the rest of the field. Ensure that your products’ differentiating factors shine through to finally convert your potential customers in this final Decision Stage.
Improve Your eCommerce Sales Funnel
Kelly Brand Management has worked on hundreds of eCommerce marketing campaigns with a number of successful clients. We’ve helped them directly address customers throughout each stage of the customer journey, and we’d love to help your business take these same steps to maximizing and optimizing your sales funnel. Give us a call today or message us to start the conversation.
Previous Article