Many people think that selling or marketing is just about having a product and then promoting it everywhere, hoping that someone will buy it. However, in reality, try to put yourself in the position of a consumer.
For example, a new brand appears on the market, and you see its ad. “What brand is this?” You probably won’t buy it right away. It’s rare for such things to happen unless it perfectly matches what you are looking for.
Marketing funnels help us understand the step-by-step journey of the consumer when they encounter your brand until they purchase the product and make repeated purchases. It’s not just one step. There are five stages: awareness, consideration, conversion, loyalty, and advocacy. We will explain each one.
Marketing Tips Every Entrepreneur Must Know
Awareness
First, if you are a new business, the first stage is awareness. You need to focus on awareness. Make your consumers aware of your brand and your products. Don’t immediately offer them to buy, for example by giving a discount—that is a big mistake.
The first step that many brands usually take is to introduce themselves first. Just like when getting acquainted, you don’t immediately say, “Do you want to date me?” No. That is conversion. For awareness, you have to introduce yourself first, like saying, “I come from this background, this is my job.” Make consumers get to know you better.
Awareness is the largest funnel in marketing. Whatever you do in the awareness stage is usually spread through the broadest channels. For example, Instagram ads can directly reach 100,000 people. But you know people won’t buy immediately. It’s just to let them know that this brand exists.
Again, let’s put ourselves in the position of a consumer. When scrolling through Instagram and suddenly seeing, “Oh, there’s a new skincare brand.” Turns out they are a new player, focusing more on all-in-one products and simplicity. Alright, you just take a look. It’s already in your mind. And usually, you immediately skip and continue scrolling again.
Awareness must be done repeatedly so that they get to know us. Get acquainted first.
Consideration
The second stage is consideration. At this stage, consumers start thinking, “Should I buy it? Is this suitable for me?” If the analogy is like distributing flyers or using loudspeakers on the side of the road, “Hi, we are a new skincare brand!” In the consideration stage, they start to get interested—they look at your Instagram page, visit your website, and start reading more.
They look at the features, see the price. Here you should focus on the benefits you can offer them. Does it match the issues they are facing? In the funnel, the consideration stage is smaller than awareness. Because realistically—from 100 people you inform about your brand—maybe 60 are interested, and 40 read more in detail. And these two stages should not be strategized the same way.
As simple as awareness on your Instagram page, constantly provide value, create useful content. In the consideration stage, they visit your website or e-commerce, start looking at the products available, and check if the price fits.
Conversion
The third stage is conversion, which is when people buy. Conversion can be done in various ways. As simple as when they see from e-commerce, they just add the product to the cart. To encourage them to buy even more, offer promotions.
Or now, the popular trend is directing people to WhatsApp. For example, you see an ad, and they have seen it twice, you retarget people who have seen it twice—you provide a different ad, which is a product ad. They are already interested, they click the button. Instead of going to the website, they go directly to customer service. I have personally tried using WhatsApp Business.
Previously, people were directed to the website, and they had to think for themselves, look at the information to see if it was suitable for them. But through customer service or WhatsApp Business, we can find out what actually makes them hesitate to buy. And according to surveys, your business can increase sales by up to 68%. Conversion rates increase by 40%. Actually, for all businesses, whether services or goods, I highly recommend you try using customer service. It can significantly increase your conversion rate. So, if you are using ads from Facebook for example—these meta ads allow you to choose a CTA that goes directly to WhatsApp Business.
People who see the ads or retargeting results—if they click, they go straight to chat with your customer service. Just choose the campaign objective for engagement. Don’t forget to connect WhatsApp Business to your Facebook page. Or if there is no engagement option, you can choose to get more WhatsApp messages. There you can edit the greeting for customers. So, if they ask, it can send automatic messages and you can write the messages yourself. If you want to create question options, you can too. So, if they are confused about what to ask, you have prepared some.
Make sure your customer service is on standby on the phone and waiting for replies from customers. The rest you just continue. It’s very simple. If you want to learn more, the link is in the description.
However, it is very unfortunate that many people stop at the conversion stage. After buying, they feel it is enough. It’s not enough. It’s a shame to lose customers who have already purchased. You want them to buy again, buy again, and buy again.
Loyalty
The fourth stage is loyalty. Here, there is a term called CRM (Customer Relationship Management). If they have already bought and feel the product is beneficial, you have to reach out to them again. Maybe with different ads—you can send emails because you already have their database. Build a relationship with customers so that they always remember your brand.
Don’t forget them after they buy. Most businesses are very happy if their customers are loyal. Buying every month, buying several times a year, even buying every week if they subscribe to online orders.
But it is recommended to focus on one more stage.
Advocacy
The fifth stage is advocacy. Advocacy is really the ultimate goal. You will get free marketing and your business will grow very fast. Advocacy means if a customer buys a product from you, they themselves will recommend it to their friends. And this indeed requires more effort in CRM compared to pure marketing.
How can you provide excellent service to customers? The product is beneficial, so they themselves—without being asked—recommend it to friends. But sometimes there are a few things we can do, such as using referral schemes, member get member, buy two get a discount.
If you really understand end to end, not just thinking that having a product everywhere then being able to sell—trust me, you are more skilled than 80% or 90% of other entrepreneurs. This theory is very simple, isn’t it? Hope it helps. (*)
