The marketing funnel - sometimes called the sales funnel, the purchase funnel, or the buyer’s journey, - is a fundamental concept in marketing for understanding the step by step process that consumers go through to make a purchasing decision.

Each week we will focus on one segment of the funnel and go into more detail. Last week we discussed the target audience at the top of the funnel.

This week’s segment: Awareness

For many people, this is the top ring of the funnel, ignoring the universe at large or the target market in general as something that exists above and beyond the funnel. Fair enough. I like to include it in order to recognize that there is a stage before awareness.

Awareness is the stage that comes next, when someone for the first time learns about your brand. Taking the term literally, they first become aware of the fact that your company exists.

They don’t yet know much about what you do. They don’t know if they are interested in what you do. They don’t know whether or not you can solve their problem or fill a need. They have simply heard of you.

You get prospects from the market at large into the awareness bucket through a wide variety of different efforts. It might be traditional mass marketing, such as print ads, outdoor, TV or radio. It might be a banner campaign on major consumer or industry websites. It might be social media or content marketing, anything that gets your brand in front of your target audience and introduces them to who you are.

The goal, once the prospect is aware, is to get them to the next stage – Interest. In order to do that, you must give them a reason to investigate further. Showcase your value statements or calls to action and get people to take that next step.

Stay tuned next week for another edition of the Marketing Funnel series.