If you Google “sales funnel,” you’ll find about a zillion variations of the same four basic steps: awareness, interest, decision, and action. What you won’t see is an important fifth step: retention. As a forward-thinking business, your content needs to touch on every single stage of the sales funnel — not just awareness.
Several companies make the mistake of only creating awareness content. If, for example, you’re only doing social media or blog content for your content creation, then that means that you’re only doing awareness content — and you’re neglecting those other really important stages of the funnel.
That neglect means that after your awareness piece dies down, you’re likely going to see a lot of drop-off. To avoid this, you have to think about each stage of your customers’ journey and what those stages look like for your unique business. Then, create content with each of those stages in mind.
We’ll go through each part of the sales funnel so that you can better understand what each one does and how to use it. In particular, we’re going to pay a lot of attention to retention: though it’s hardly ever discussed as part of the sales funnel, it’s arguably the most important stage.
Awareness: Who Are You?
Awareness is how customers come to know that your brand exists. Depending on your brand and product(s), that can take two different forms:
- Creating awareness around the very existence of your product
- Creating awareness around your brand, in particular, for a product that consumers already know about
Several of our clients, for example, have amazing products and services — but people don’t even know that they exist. For these clients, awareness is about just getting the message out that, “Hey, this amazing product exists, and here’s how it adds value to your life.”
For brands whose products and services are relatively well-known, awareness is more about explaining why your brand’s version of that product is better than that of everyone else.
Usually, content creation at the awareness stage centers around inbound, traffic-driving content: SEO rich blog content, social media posting, social media ads. Sometimes, your awareness content and your interest content will overlap.
You may have heard it said that for real retention, people need to hear your name seven times before they decide to buy. It’s that continued impression, that continued engagement, and that continued presence that builds top of mind awareness for your brand.
Companies are usually pretty good at this stage of the funnel but unfortunately, many also drop off at this point. If your content stops here, then there’s nothing to guide potential customers through the buying process to an end purchase (and certainly not to the point of becoming repeat customers).
Interest: The Rhythm of Remembering
It’s not enough to make your customers aware of your product; they need to be interested in it as well. It’s at the interest stage that you need to focus on explaining to potential customers why your brand is the right fit for them.
Anchored Purpose Box, for example, creates a rhythm of reinforcing the good they do by showing how the proceeds from their subscriptions go toward helping those in vulnerable communities around the world. They’ve already shown people that they exist; now, they’re showing their ideal customers why their subscription is a perfect fit.
People who want to do good in the world, or want their money to go towards those in need, find a connection through this program. They’re going to get a great book, gorgeous jewelry. They’re going to see how their contributions go to help others in need along the way, and they’re going to feel at home. This is how you gain interest and hold space in someone’s memory.
Decision: Choosing to Buy
The decision stage is quite literally where potential customers decide that they want to purchase your product. It doesn’t mean that they’ve done it yet, but this is the point at which they’ve chosen you as their preferred brand amongst your competition.
Maybe they jot down a note. Maybe they save your business card. Maybe they download a discount code or your lead magnet.
Sometimes the purchase itself happens days, weeks, or even months after that moment, but within this decision stage, you want to stay very close to them. This is when your content includes things like marketing emails, retargeting ads, and bringing people into a free Facebook or LinkedIn group.
You’re leading them; helping them; facilitating them.
You never want to come across as if you’re compelling them or rushing them. That’s a quick way to trigger buyer’s remorse and to lose that potential customer for life.
Action: Buy Now!
The action stage is where customers click the “Buy Now” button.
Many people think that content doesn’t really happen here, but your sales landing page, your checkout flow, and the content that’s on that checkout flow are all ways that you can continue to reach your customer in valuable ways.
Also, what happens after your new customers have submitted their payment? Are they getting an email thanking them and confirming their purchase? Are they being told what to expect next? Are they being given access to a certain member platform? Are they being invited into a customers-only Facebook group?
All of that content happens here, in the action phase – and it sets you up for retaining that customer as long as what you’re promising them is what they actually end up experiencing.
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Retention: The Backbone of Business Longevity
t’s probably not the step most people think about, but retention IS the lifeblood of a healthy, long-lasting business.
It’s far, far, far less expensive to keep a customer than to acquire a new one. Customer Acquisition Costs (CAC) are almost always going to be higher than Customer Retention Costs (CRC). In fact, it can cost 3 – 6 times more to acquire a new customer than to retain one that you already have.
Think about the purpose of retaining customers. What does that actually look like?
You want them to be happy.
You want them to feel like they are getting value out of the product or service.
You want them to feel a sense of belonging.
These are the things that make your subscribers happy and create loyal customers. They’re your goals. Really, though, they’re more than just goals: these are the things that are absolutely essential in order for you to retain your customers.
They need to be happy, to see value, to feel belonging.
So what content do you need to create to make those feelings happen?
A big part of retention is creating that sense of belonging with your customers. What this looks like depends largely on the type of product you are selling.
Customers have already purchased your product or service, so retention can be as simple as reminding them of the value they’re receiving — you might send monthly emails reminding them of what is included in their purchase. For SaaS companies in particular, successful tool adoption is a huge factor ensuring your users stay with you, so sending user tips, how-to videos, and new feature explanations is critical.
Recently, Anchored Purpose Box strengthened retention by sharing stories of people in Uganda who directly benefited from customers’ subscriptions. Targeted emails showed how much money went to Uganda to pay for clean water and how much of that money was derived from subscriptions.
Splendies is an underwear subscription company that has a unique approach to retention: it created a Facebook group that allows subscribers to trade unused underwear online. So even if customers receive a design that they don’t like, they can go online and easily trade — rather than cancel their subscription.
In both these examples, customers were engaged past the action stage. This engagement is what keeps those customers subscribed and coming back for more.
The Backbone of Quality Content
As you’re planning your content creation, keep the sales funnel in mind so that you don’t miss out on any opportunities. Thinking about this model throughout your content creation planning will ensure that you are creating pieces that will leverage every opportunity for awareness, interest, decision, action, and retention.
Above all, knowing how to focus on retention to effectively keep your customers coming back can save you a lot of time and a lot of effort down the line.
