As millions of competitors are in the marketplace, implementing only the right marketing strategies can help a brand flourish. Brands and their marketing experts need to put their best efforts and strategies forward to stay ahead in the competitive marketplace. It is only possible by following the right marketing funnel model.
The marketing funnel process states a customer’s journey with the brand. It starts from the initial stage, when the customer finds your business, to the final purchasing stage. In simple terms, it is the route map of the customer’s journey. Every brand must be aware of the marketing funnel process.
AIDA model consists of Awareness/Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action. Each of these stages represents the customer journey in marketing. The AIDA model has become a prevalent framework for converting visitors into customers over the last few years.
A well-defined and strategised marketing funnel process helps brands send relevant information across the right channel. Here, partnering with the best professional digital marketing agency in Melbourne can be significant. They can guide you in creating the right marketing strategies.
Further, read the article to get a clear insight into the AIDA model, and the marketing funnel process.
History of Marketing Funnel Process – AIDA model
The AIDA marketing concept was developed by the famous American businessman – Elias St. Elmo Lewis in 1898. He wrote and spoke about the potential of advertising. He has written about three advertising principles which he found useful. A century later, his principles were proven true.
Today, the AIDA model has widely become popular throughout the marketing and advertising industry. It describes a series of stages that potential consumers follow while purchasing.
Overview of the marketing funnel stages
- Awareness: This prospect will make the target audience aware of their problems and possible solutions.
- Interest: This stage showcases the interest in a group of products.
- Desire: It provokes the desire of the customer to evaluate a certain brand.
- Action: This stage makes the customers decide whether to make a purchase.
When you apply the AIDA model to the marketing plan, you will find the best strategies to reach the audience. It will result in generating high-quality conversion for your brand. Let’s check out each stage with examples.
Stage 1 – Awareness
The first stage of the marketing funnel process. It is important for any brand to focus on creating service or product awareness. Awareness is how you introduce yourself to the world. Remember that first impressions are stepping stones to building trust and authority with your target customer. You will get a plethora of channels to create awareness, such as;
- Social media
- Email marketing
- Paid advertising
The Content Marketing Institute survey reports show that over 88% of marketers believe content marketing works best for brand awareness. When your content delivery is stronger, then your site search results will rank up. In the awareness stage, businesses focus on placing their brand in front of millions. They can create strong awareness using the right SEO strategies and social media marketing.
Stage 2 – Interest
Generating interest is the second stage of the marketing funnel process. In this stage, potential targets will be aware of the brand to instil customers’ curiosity and interest in learning more about your products and services. For example, when a potential customer reads one of your blog or social media posts, it will remain in their mind. Also, watching a product video is more influential and engaging.
In this stage, the brands continue to provide target customers with valuable content to develop interest. Besides blogs and videos, the brands can create webinars, case studies, infographics, ebooks, etc.
Keep in mind that interest has a lot to do with your pitch. It is where the leads can grow and turn into conversions. From there, the brands can showcase the efficient qualities of their products and services.
Stage 3 – Desire
The third stage of the marketing funnel process is stimulating desire. In this stage, the brand must consider what makes their product desirable. It shows how brands interact with target customers to build an emotional connection.
Interacting and engaging through chats and replying to queries will inspire and arouse desires. For example, immediate response to social media feeds. Also, you can share ideas and advice through blog posts.
However, first, you must leverage the customer’s attention. Try to push them and convince them to understand your product’s benefit. Keep an eye on the time to spot fancy buyers with short attention spans.
Stage 4 – Action
The final stage of the marketing funnel process is making the targets take solid action. After generating the desire for your product, it’s time to give your prospects. There’s no point in generating content and building bonds if there is no clear step ahead. In this stage, the goal is to decide the “next step” and compel customers to respond. The brands can achieve this using high-incentive calls to action.
So, the stage is all about taking the buyer from “I want it” to “I’m purchasing it.” Here are the tips to captivate the customers to make a purchase:
- Check out the checkout page for potential errors.
- Offer multiple payment modes to purchase, for example, credit, debit, Apple Pay, etc.
- Optimise the call-to-actions — make it captivating
- Conducting A/B testing to compare two different versions of a web page.
Note – Make sure the CTA is clear, prominent and not too complicated. It needs to be a banner or button that spells out actions the customers must take. Moreover, it should give them an idea of their next step after clicking on it. When you eliminate the friction in the stage, you can drive your likelihood of success.
5 Powerful techniques of marketing funnel process (AIDA Model)
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Awareness Through Solid Imagery
Web developers marketers have, over recent years, focused on improving print methods. The most impactful and powerful strategy is using strong imagery for marketing products to draw the target customer’s attention.
For example, Apple’s marketing team strongly appreciates solid imagery’s importance in creating awareness. Notice their extremely big product images, which clearly illustrate their devices. Clear and large images leave a lasting impact on the viewer’s mind, even on smaller devices.
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Attention to Strong Typography
Another method of grabbing the audience’s attention is to use bright colours and large headings. Using whitespace also maximises the effect on your website. To achieve this, you can partner with professional digital marketing services. Expert web designers have the best knowledge to make effective use of typography.
To grab attention, you can also use a curious-sounding phrase. The focus must be on the home page where the customer first lands. For example, for a baking website, you can add phrases like “Try our delicious handmade cheesecakes” with strong imagery.
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Generate Interest with Practical Benefits
Make sure the products you are promoting hold the potential to help the customers, as demonstrated. The benefits must be communicated well to make them understand how it will be helpful.
For example, despite all the negative reviews of Apple’s new iPad, its marketing department has successfully marketed its product. The team has well-stated the benefit of this portable device for Non-tech-savvy users. They have shown how it will be useful for their daily tasks. Some brands also prefer to use imagery effects to demonstrate the practical benefits of their products.
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Generating Desires through Content Sliders
You can use JavaScript-driven image sliders and content switchers on website pages. You can also use it on social media pages to create an easily accessible and beautiful way to market products. It will make the product appear in an engaging manner.
Remember that accessibility and aesthetics are not the only reasons to feature a product. It must include ways of displaying content to build desire towards your products. Again, you can take the example of the Apple website and how it markets its products. They use large images as part of their image switcher, which shows how the iPads/iPhones benefit.
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Creating Desires through Content Organisation
Are you familiar with SitePoint and their high-quality articles? The SitePoints are an example of organising content with the ultimate goal of generating desire for the brand. Try to involve easy-to-read features or a checklist of features. The pages must include customer reviews and testimonials. The WordPress hosting page also presents a great list of features to desire customers towards your product.
Through organised content, you can solve your audience’s problem. Try to make your content a major part of their needs. Keep in mind that content marketing is not just a marketing tactic to present your product. It is also about creating content that speaks for your brand.
Next-Generation trends of marketing funnel process
Here are the future trends of the AIDA model/ Marketing Funnel Process;
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Hyper Personalised Content
The future trends will welcome the implementation of Machine Learning and AI. With these technologies, brands can generate creative content directly targeting end-users’ interests. It will also target the needs of each customer. This will also ensure that the right information reaches the target audience at the right time.
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Conversational Marketing
Using AI Chatbots, brands can assist customers throughout the evaluation process. These platforms result in great customer experience with real-time assistance. It will help in nurturing leads and improving the overall purchasing experience.
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Partnership with Influencers
Brands have already started collaborating with micro and nano-influencers to create authentic connections with customers. It also accelerates the branding and marketing opportunities. Social media influencers usually have higher engagement rates with a vast following. This can result in better brand awareness.
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Omnichannel Marketing
Here is the next trend to create an effective and integrated approach for marketing products across different digital channels. This marketing method ensures that consumers get a consistent and highly consistent experience. It will ultimately build trust and brand loyalty.
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Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR)
This emerging technology can develop immersive product experiences. This will allow customers to interact and visualise with products in a high-definition view. It will eventually boost customer confidence, leading to high conversion rates.
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Predictive Analytics
With evolving trends in the marketing funnel process, predictive analytics is the most important one. It assists marketers in identifying patterns in customer behaviour. Further, it allows them to witness effective conversion strategies.
Final Thoughts
The Marketing Funnel Process, including the AIDA model, is a strategic framework to guide your target audience in their entire purchase journey. When this proven formula of four stages is applied, it results in consistent engagement to convert audiences into customers. This is why the model is evolving with the latest integrations and trends. Almost every industrial sector is accepting this process for their marketing campaigns.
The next generation of marketing funnel process includes a personalised, data-driven, and richer approach. With top-notch technological strategies, future marketers can create powerful and customer-centric results; hence, if you want to stay updated with AIDA strategies and trends, partner with digital marketing services in Melbourne.
