Whatever you might call your marketing funnel, I was brought up with the AIDA model and, much like the four acts in the opera of the same name, there are four stages: Marketeers will tell you all about the triangular shaped AIDA model that you can employ to attract new clients and lead them to buy from you. There are four stages, as you might expect, which are:
AWARENESS – where all your advertising and brand-building goes to get your name out there and make it known, using your corporate branding consistently, repeatedly and without specific targeting.
INTEREST – the audience narrows a bit now as not everyone you show your advert to will be interested, will have seen or understood it. Those that have will possibly have made an enquiry or clicked through to a specific webpage, or advert, but they have not converted to a sale.
DESIRE – once interest has been shown you can start to follow up and engage, converting interest into a real willingness to respond to your messages, or a desire to own your product.
ACTION – the vital stage, the customer actually takes positive action, or responds to yours, and buys from you. The first stage is cognitive and the final stage is classed as behavioural but it is the emotional stages in between where it gets interesting (well, for a printer anyway!) Sales promotion is at the heart of this model, it is the key transitional stage where you get to turn that flickering flame of interest into a raging fire of desire (or at least warm people up a bit). Because sales promotion is all about persuasion, not selling. Ironically, it is often the stage where you actually GIVE something away in order to tempt your potential customer to buy more or at least give you a try. This is where you can employ simple, often inexpensive flame-fanners like samples or product vouchers as incentives to buy. So ask yourselves, if you have a list of interested parties (prospects or maybe your existing client base) can you persuade them to take action if you offer them a taster first? Is there a voucher you can offer towards a bigger purchase? Can you package your product in a ‘trial-size’ way? If you do, don’t forget – along with your sample, or your voucher, make sure you use the printed space to offer something more, inviting them to take action again.
There are lots of ways that you can use printed cards and product carriers to create desire amongst your brand fans – contact Claire on 0116 255 4336 or claire@fullsquare.net for ideas and inspiration for your next campaign.
