Fine-Tuning Your Marketing Funnel Part 4: Timing Is Key
A customer journey model, like a marketing funnel, is helpful when tracking customer progress toward a desired action (conversion). As with any decision path, the coordination of sound strategy and timing of tactics is key to success.
The goal of any sales journey is to be in the right place at the right time.
Have you ever tried to hit a firefly with a pebble? In today’s morass of messaging, marketing must work harder and smarter, looking beyond the finite universe of tactics to satisfy strategies that coincide and bring the customer positive brand experiences in a timely manner. If we understand the circular (and at times organic) nature of the customer journey and look beyond our tactics to products and properties that enhance and capture brand advocacy, we increase our chances by launching not just the same pebble our competitors have access to, but multiple pebbles from different directions, at the right moment. With this type of approach in-mind, your chances for building a strong, sustainable brand increase exponentially.
Key to this realization is how we use data. It’s critical to remember that data uses mathematical models that are based on the past and the assumptions that patterns will repeat. While that might be assuring, those models may break down when asked to predict future behavior. In fact, our job may be to break patterns and introduce something completely different. As we consider disruption, we need to ask, what will our brand give people that they lack and ultimately allow them to be or do?
The brand itself is not the focus — if it were, we’d be using the same mindset that existed 50 years ago, when brands used persuasive techniques to sell a product. These days, a brand allows people to be more confident and feel more secure, and it gives them the ability to be a better version of themselves or live a better life. It’s imperative that a brand focuses on what our customers want to be rather than what the brand wants the customer to do. The difference is night and day. A brand should always act in the best interest of the customer. Once that’s understood and embraced, building the proper decision path becomes much easier.
Learn more about fine-tuning your marketing funnel:
Fine-Tuning Your Marketing Funnel Part 1: Customers Hold the Control
Fine-Tuning Your Marketing Funnel Part 2: Understanding Customer Journeys
Fine-Tuning Your Marketing Funnel Part 3: Be Flexible
