Filling the marketing funnel

It’s not just about knowing your customers; it’s knowing where your customers are likely to be. Shoppers are increasingly researching purchases before buying. For retailers, that means understanding where their key target audiences are likely to consume advertising and other media, and meet them there. And with so many channels available to consumers, that task is by no means an easy one.

There is no silver bullet or magic algorithm that will tell a retailer what mix of channels and media they should use to reach the particular consumer cohorts they are aiming at. “The magic is the research,” says Dr Julie Schiro, academic director of the MSc in Digital Marketing at the UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate School of Business. “That’s what gets you closer to where your customers are. Even for big, famous brands, there is no formula for how much investment in digital and offline channels they should make. You need to do a lot of research and testing.”

It also requires a willingness to change course very quickly when it comes to the choice of media to use. “We need to always ensure that we are evolving our mix to follow consumer behaviour,” explains Aislinn O’Connor, marketing director at Three UK & ROI. “The landscape is shifting all the time. You have to learn about who is on the different channels. That requires a certain amount of testing and learning with any new channels. It’s interesting. Pace of change will continue, and we need to get comfortable with it. The days of setting a marketing plan for a couple of years and sticking with it are long gone.”

Despite those challenges, the principles remain broadly unchanged. “What is boils down to is very much the same,” says O’Connor. “You buy reach for the brand, products and services to drive the upper part of the demand funnel.”

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That is the critically important awareness phase of the marketing process – the part that gets brands and products noticed so that people will consider buying them. The question is how to reach the audience you are seeking.

“Customers will choose channels based on their own needs and preferences,” she adds. “Our strategy is based on our customers and their needs. It’s a constantly evolving mix, and we need to know how to drive awareness and consideration on new and emerging channels. What works on TV will not necessarily work on TikTok. We need to fully understand how to our get message across in the right way for each channel while ensuring brand consistency. That’s not easy to do.”

Some aspects remain the same, however. “If you go back five years, people got very excited about digital channels and how they would make it very easy to track click-throughs and effectiveness. That’s not easy to do with TV, for example. But the reality is that digital channels should be approached in the same way as every other channel. It’s a case of building brand awareness and consideration first and foremost and not to get distracted by the opportunity that digital gives for measurement. We need to continue to learn how to do it. I’m not sure if we’ve quite cracked it yet.”

It’s not simply a question of putting clever ads up social media or running them in newspapers, however. Where consumers go to do their research is also important. “Consumers are going out and looking at what everyone else is thinking,” Schiro points out. “The are looking at social media reviews, comparison sites, Amazon reviews and other review sites. These are a lot more convincing than what a brand says about itself. If you don’t have a strategy to ensure that you appear in a really good way in these discussions, you’re going to have a problem.”

That requires retailers to be proficient in quite new areas such as the influencer world. “L’Oréal works with 80,000 influencers,” she adds. “That means relinquishing some degree of control. Influencers become popular because they produce great content. Brands want that to continue and don’t want to change them. You need to pick your influencers carefully.”

Schiro says there are a number of considerations brands should look at when influencing the influencers. “Who else are they working with? If you are looking at what is important to the influencer, it shouldn’t just be the money. It should be their fit with the brand. The successful ones are careful about the brands they partner with. You need to work on nurturing the relationship. It needs to be a partnership. If the influencer is getting excited about your products, you are in a good place.”

Our retail stores are the physical embodiment of our brand. They are designed to attract people in who are strolling down a street or walking around a shopping centre

—  Aislinn O’Connor, Three UK & ROI

Companies also need a search strategy to support how they are found on the internet, she advises. “It’s not just Google, it’s Amazon, YouTube, and other retailers as well. You need to think about the fact that people have these sources open to them and they will use them. People tend to use channels like Amazon that they already use and like. Not the retailers’ websites. They will look at reviews posted by other consumers. You need to ensure your own site is pulling in user-generated content from Facebook and so on. This is the best type of content. The best advice is not to talk about yourself. Brands should encourage post-purchase engagement. That will help to build their profile.”

Research isn’t all online, of course, and the offline experience remains important. “We have invested €27 million in overhauling our nationwide retail estate since 2021,” says O’Connor. “Our retail stores are the physical embodiment of our brand. They are designed to attract people in who are strolling down a street or walking around a shopping centre. People can go in and learn about our products and services and our expert staff ensure they have great experience. We want to make it easy for all types of shopper to get what they want either online or instore.”

Schiro agrees. “In reality, mass media and offline media advertising are still hugely important for the awareness piece. Classic mass media advertising is still a very good way of generating awareness. The big brands are still doing billboards, TV and print advertising to drive awareness.”