Stage One: Awareness
During the Awareness stage, potential customers are becoming aware of the brand and its offerings.
Retention Marketing Manual
As a brand, the customer’s path-to-purchase defines your day-to-day. You’re constantly honing in on how to bring new customers to your business and how to keep them coming back. But, rather than separate your customer’s journey into two separate parts — acquisition and retention — a retention-first mindset infuses a brand’s ultimate retention goals throughout. Let’s go over what this looks like in practice.
Let’s dive in
You should focus on creating a strong first impression and building recognition through multiple channels such as reviews, social media, influencer marketing, word-of-mouth marketing, and paid advertising. And, don’t forget to give your existing customers the chance to build awareness for you. Offer a referral program so new customers get to know your brand through their friends and family.
Brands can rely on social media influencers — macro and micro — to reach potential customers as well. By partnering with an influencer, a brand can reach a wider audience and build trust with potential customers who already trust the influencer.
Personalization is also crucial during the Awareness stage. Use data such as browsing history and past purchases to personalize messaging and promotions that resonate with potential customers. By providing bespoke messaging and incentives, brands increase the chances of a first-time purchase and improve retention rates.
- Personalized messaging: Create customized messages that are relevant to the audience, whether it’s based on demographics, interests, or behavior. Personalized messaging can help capture the attention of potential customers and build trust in the brand.
- Retargeting ads: Use retargeting ads to remind potential customers of your brand and its offerings. Retargeting can help keep the brand top-of-mind and increase the chances of converting customers.
- Social media engagement: Encourage social media engagement through user-generated content campaigns or influencer partnerships. User-generated content and influencers can help build brand awareness and trust.
You can download the overview of the Customer Journey Stages pictured above to refer to as you move through this chapter. Remember, as you curate your Awareness stage for first-time customers, consider how you can already catalyze their retention.
