Developing an effective marketing strategy starts with market research, consumer research, and a framework that organizes the customer’s needs through the different stages of the sales cycle.

Mapping out the customer’s journey from start to finish can help your business earn sales. It puts you in a better position to deliver relevant marketing material to customers at the right place and at the right time. As a result, you’re able to generate sales for your business in a sustainable way.

So, if you’re involved with either sales or marketing, implementing a full-funnel marketing strategy for your target audience can lead to increased profits and higher customer retention rates.

The question is: how do you create an effective full-funnel strategy that’s backed by extensive research and years of marketing science study?

In this article, we’ll cover everything you need to know about full-funnel marketing. We’ll discuss the different stages of scientific, evidence-based full-funnel marketing in detail and explain how they map to Dr. Philip Kotler’s 5 A’s of the customer journey with examples. Finally, we’ll share some of the key elements you should consider when building your full-funnel marketing strategy.

Kotler’s 5 As of Marketing for Customer Journey

Most marketing managers might remember Philip Kotler for his famous marketing mix but today we’re going to cover another one of his concepts – the 5 A’s of marketing for customer journey. For those unfamiliar, Kotler is a well-known marketing theorist also known as the “father of modern marketing”.

Philip Kotler’s 5 As of marketing for the customer journey provides a comprehensive theoretical framework that describes the critical stages defining the customer journey. In simple words, it’s a tool that helps marketing managers map out the customer journey and convert leads into paying customers.

Each “A” represents a distinct phase in the customer journey and explains the sequential progression from when customers are introduced to the brand to when they eventually become brand advocates.

The 5 As of Creating an Effective Customer Journey

According to Kotler, customers follow a 5A path to purchase. The 5A customer path is:

• Aware: Generating customer interest in a company’s product or service. Traditionally, this is the entry point to the customer journey.
• Appeal: Encouraging customers to further research the product or service and explore alternatives in the market.
• Ask: Decide which product or service to purchase.
• Act: Purchase the product or service.
• Advocate: If customers are satisfied with the product or service they purchase, they’ll recommend it to friends and family.

Kotler’s 5 As of Marketing for Customer Journey

Let’s explore the 5 As in more detail:

Awareness

The customer journey commences with the Awareness which is the first stage in the customer’s decision-making process. The primary objective of marketers is to drive the brand into the cognitive realm of potential customers.

To do this, marketers deploy strategic communication channels with the express goal of imprinting the brand and the company’s products or services into the minds of their target audience.

Appeal

The next stage, Appeal, involves the art of crafting and communicating a unique value proposition to attract the customer. A unique value proposition in marketing is a clear statement that explains (a) the benefits of your product, (b) how it solves customers’ problems, and (c) how it is different from other products.

In the appeal stage, marketers address the target audience’s pain points and align the brand’s features with the consumer’s needs.

Ask

The Ask stage necessitates a responsive and interactive dialogue between consumers and brands. In this stage, the task of marketers is to facilitate the exchange of information and address any inquiries prospective customers might have about the product or service. Effective communication in this stage is instrumental in navigating consumer demands and expectations.

Act

The next stage, Act, is the culmination of strategic marketing efforts. Consumers, having traversed the previous three stages of the customer journey, make an active decision to make a purchase.

In this stage, marketers must carefully orchestrate a seamless transition from interest to transaction.

Advocate

The final stage, Advocate, emerges as the climax of the customer journey. This is when consumers become brand ambassadors and recommend the company’s products or services to family and friends. Kotler’s framework postulates that customer satisfaction coupled with strategic advocacy can transform consumers into enthusiastic promoters thus perpetuating a self-sustaining cycle of brand influence.

Kotler’s 5 As are revered in the marketing world for their ability to embody a theoretical paradigm that dissects the customer journey into distinct phases. It provides marketers with a strategic blueprint for coordinating a smooth journey from initial awareness to establishing lasting brand advocacy.

Why Take a Scientific, Evidence-Based Approach?

In the dynamic realm of digital marketing, adopting a scientific, evidence-based approach is essential for developing an effective full-funnel marketing strategy for your target audience. The methodology we discuss in this post is rooted in scientific research and study.

Here are key reasons why all digital marketers should embrace a scientific mindset:

• Data-driven decision-making. Evidence-based marketing relies on real-time data. This enables marketers to make informed decisions that are backed by concrete insights when shaping their marketing funnel.

• Measurable ROI. A scientific approach has the unique benefit of establishing measurable key performance indicators (KPIs) at each stage of the marketing funnel. This leads to a clear understanding of the ROI for specific strategies and marketing channels.

• Holistic understanding of the customer journey. With a scientific, evidence-based approach, marketers can develop a comprehensive understanding of the entire customer journey. Marketers analyze customer touchpoints across the different stages of the marketing funnel and identify patterns, pain points, and opportunities for enhancement and optimization.

• Precise targeting. With a scientific approach to full-funnel marketing, marketers delve into deeper audience insights by identifying demographic, psychographic, and behavioral characteristics. This allows them to optimize targeting strategies thereby ensuring each stage of the marketing funnel resonates with the right audience.

In a nutshell, adopting a scientific, evidence-based approach empowers marketers to navigate full-funnel marketing with precision. In addition to this, it maximizes the effectiveness of marketing strategies and enables marketers to respond to the ever-changing dynamics of the market proactively.

Full-Funnel Marketing: The Basics

Full-funnel marketing aims to keep your brand connected with your audience throughout the customer journey. It covers everything from the point a user approaches your brand, considers purchasing your product, to when they make a decision to purchase it.

In other words, it involves marketing to consumers based on where they are in their customer journey. It covers all of the channels and campaigns users interact with throughout their customer journey giving you a chance to ensure you’re getting the right message to them at the right time.

It’s important to note that when we say funnel we’re referring to the marketing funnel which is the most straightforward path a prospective customer takes in the path to purchase. While marketing funnels are linear, customer journeys often aren’t.

Some users might approach your brand through social media channels while others might find it via Google search results. Although they may start their journey at different touchpoints, a full-funnel marketing strategy helps you keep them connected with your brand at all times.

So, a full-funnel marketing strategy is all about tailoring your marketing messages to the stage of purchase a customer is at.

Here are some of the main benefits of creating a full-funnel marketing strategy for your business:

• Direct attention. If you’re catering to your audience at each stage of the sales funnel, you can direct their attention towards your brand by presenting relevant marketing materials.

• Generate sales. One of the main benefits of implementing a full-funnel marketing strategy is that it helps you generate more sales for your business. It gives you a way to see where prospective customers are in your sales funnel so you can deliver the most relevant content to them.

• Improve customer retention. Retaining customers is an important part of running a successful business. Full-funnel marketing also covers the bottom of the funnel, which includes customers who have already bought your product or service. With these customers, you can share marketing materials that will encourage them to continue buying from your company and become brand ambassadors.

The Importance of a Solid Full-Funnel Marketing Strategy

A full-funnel marketing strategy is one of the most important building blocks for a high-converting sales funnel. Ideally, you want to create a sales funnel that covers all channels, campaigns, and customer touchpoints.

Instead of only targeting customers at the top of the funnel, a full-funnel marketing strategy lets you create an impact at each stage of the funnel. This makes it more likely for prospective customers to buy from your company and for existing customers to continue their patronage.

In fact, a recent Nielsen meta-analysis of CPG campaigns found that full-funnel strategies see up to 45% higher ROI as compared to marketing campaigns across a single purchase stage.

A full-funnel marketing strategy gets results!

As you implement a full-funnel marketing strategy and deliver relevant marketing material to customers based on where they are in the customers’ journey, you can determine which content works and which doesn’t.

Collecting this data and gleaning insights from it can help you improve your marketing materials. This way, you can deliver more relevant information to customers at the right time.

A full-funnel marketing strategy also helps you take a more organized approach to your brand’s other marketing strategies. By analyzing user behavior and mapping the customer journey better, you can make more profitable marketing investments for your business.

In addition to this, with each stage of your sales funnel defined, it’s easier to analyze important customer data and make changes to your marketing efforts accordingly.

3 Different Stages of a Full-Funnel Marketing Strategy

The top of the marketing funnel signifies prospective customers in the awareness stage whereas the bottom of the funnel represents shoppers in the purchasing stage.

Let’s explore the three main stages in more detail and how they map to the 5As customer journey framework – awareness, appeal, ask, act, and advocate:

Top of the funnel

Kotler’s 5As Customer Journey Framework Stage 1: Awareness

The first stage of the customer journey is awareness. In simple words, this is the stage when a prospective customer first learns about a company through a referral, social media post, or paid advertising.

In the awareness stage, customers might not be ready to make a purchase but they are expressing interest in the product or service the company offers.

Let’s look at a real-world example:

A parent might begin to learn about swimming lessons in their area for their child. They might see ads for local swimming centers on social media, read articles that list local swimming programs, or ask friends and family for recommendations.

What is ToFu

Similar to Kotler’s first A, the top-of-the-funnel stage is used to create brand awareness, increase reach, and educate your users on your product. This not only helps develop trust between you and your audience but is a great way to build credibility for your business.

Building brand awareness is one of the key elements of the top-of-the-funnel stage. Think of it this way: if your target audience doesn’t know about your brand, they’re unlikely to become customers.

There are many ways to create brand awareness such as through paid advertising, content marketing, social media, or SEO optimization.

It’s also important to make sure you’re not overmarketing at this stage. Your main aim should be to create brand awareness so more users know about your company and your products or services.

In addition to this, you also want to make sure you’re always there to answer any questions for your prospective customers at this stage of the funnel. This helps build trust and encourages them to learn more about your brand or product.

Middle of the funnel

Kotler’s 5As Customer Journey Framework Stages 2 and 3: Appeal and Ask

The next stages in the customer journey are appeal and ask which is when potential customers understand what the company offers and compares it to alternatives. Customers might look at the company’s website to learn more about the solutions they offer, read testimonials from past customers, and find out how much the product or service costs.

What is MoFu

So, the middle of the funnel is the stage where your brand’s main goal should be to create consideration and make your product or brand stand out from others.

By creating consideration, you’re essentially pushing prospective customers to start thinking about your products or service offerings. Here, it’s important to position what you’re offering as the ideal solution to your user’s problems and main pain points. However, you also don’t need to portray your brand as the only solution but just a potential option for them to evaluate.

You can create consideration in multiple ways including by creating a testimonials page or reviews page, offering demos or free trials of your product, collaborating with industry experts, and participating in industry events.

The other part of the middle of the funnel stage is making sure your prospective customers start comparing the solution you’re offering with other similar ones. This is your opportunity to showcase your brand’s solution as the best option and differentiate it from competitors.

For instance, you can create a comparison blog post that lists all the reasons why your solution is better than other, similar solutions. Similarly, you can also create a top 10 list and position your brand as the best solution.

In addition to this, you can also create product videos as a way to inform your prospective customers about how your product works in detail. This helps them better understand how they can benefit from your offering and increases its perceived value.

Following our example from above, parents might visit a local swimming center to find out if the teachers are accredited by a reputable organization, the center’s safety policies, which program is the best for their child, and reviews from past clients.

Bottom of the funnel

Kotler’s 5As Customer Journey Framework Stages 4 and 5: Act and Advocate

The final stages of the customer journey are act and advocate. To recap, this is when a prospective customer makes a purchase from a company and potentially becomes a brand advocate.

What is BoFu

The bottom-of-the-funnel stage is where you start pushing your prospective customers to go for the purchase. This is the perfect time for you to set up call to actions (CTAs) for prospective customers giving them an easy way to purchase your product.

You can add a distraction-free CTA button on your site to your landing page as a way to convince users to make the purchase.

This is also the stage where you want to encourage existing customers to continue buying your product and recommend it to family and friends. For this, you might share marketing material that reinforces their decision to choose your product or service over others.

Following our “parents looking for a swimming center” example, this is when they would purchase a swimming coaching program for their child, become paying customers, and receive the service. And, if all goes well and they’re satisfied with the service, the parents might recommend it to other parents in their circle.

Key Elements to Consider When Creating Your Full-Funnel Marketing Strategy

It’s also important to consider a few key elements for creating a successful full-funnel marketing strategy. Since the whole process is time-consuming and requires great attention to detail, you want to make sure your mind is focused on the right things when making crucial decisions about your full-funnel marketing strategy.

Let’s go over some key elements you should consider when creating your full-funnel marketing strategy:

• Mapping customers’ journeys. It’s important to map your customers’ journey so you know which marketing materials to deliver to prospective customers and when. This helps you better understand your prospective customers’ behaviors, decisions, questions, and actions when going through each stage of your sales funnel.

• Segmenting your audience. You can group prospective customers by demographics such as their gender, age, and geographical location as well as by their behavior on your site. By segmenting your audience into different groups, you can create a more effective full-funnel marketing strategy to meet the unique needs and requirements of your prospective customers.

• Implement market automation. Market automation is another great way to ensure your full-funnel marketing strategy is successful. For example, you might want to use email automation software to automatically send new post notifications or use software to generate leads. This helps you automate your full-funnel marketing strategy and ensures it’s seamless.

• Use multiple marketing channels. Using one marketing channel is never enough if you want to grab the attention of more prospective customers. While many prospective customers are looking for the same solution, they might not be using the same channel to approach your brand. Ideally, you want to make sure your brand is present where your prospective customers are and you can do this by employing multiple marketing channels.

Conclusion

Customer journeys are fast, multichannel, and non-linear. Full-funnel marketing focuses on improving brand presence in all stages of the sales funnel.

A common mistake companies make is that they only focus on catering to users who are at the top or the bottom of the sales funnel. While this can technically get you sales, it’s not the most optimal way.

Instead, it’s better to focus on all stages – following Kotler’s 5 As framework – so you’re in touch with your prospective customers through each stage of the customer’s journey. Ultimately, this will help you drive sustainable business growth.

Do you have any questions about full-funnel marketing? Let us know in the comments box below.

Don't Forget Your Download