You Should Take Your Audience For A Dinner First
Imagine you’re on a date with a guy you never met before, maybe you’ve seen him once or twice somewhere or on Bumble.
And then you sit at the restaurant and the first thing that comes out of his mouth is “let's go back to my place”. No introduction, noforeplay, no seducing, just going straight to sealing the deal.
You haven’t met yet, flirted, or gotten seduced yet so your reaction would probably be “BOY BYEE.”
That is EXACTLY what is wrong with today’s digital age and aggressive targeted ads that skips the whole funnel and goes straight to conversion. Heavy CTA’s - offers and begging. This is so wrong on so many levels.
The marketing funnel is the same as the dating funnel; but when we are skipping all the steps and going straight to conversion a.k.a. trying to make a sale we’re losing touch with reality as a brand. Because we’re skipping the most critical steps that prepare them to the action itself. Everyone would agree that the “dating funnel” above is a really bad one; so why insist on applying this to your brand?
If this were true and the ads that go straight to action worked, every new brand that is born and does digital advertising would become really big really quick. Because on paper, why wouldn’t it be? They are digitally targeting their really specific “perfect” audience, with an offer or a really catchy CTA that would lead them to making a sale and eventually making them, right? Right. This is why neither this approach nor the micro-targeting ads works.
The reality is that no audience is going to buy your product before any type of awareness, interest or desire; if they’re not desperate for it at that moment.
And desperate audiences will not grow your brand just like micro-targeting won’t. Also just like it would not grow the real person’s reputation in the dating scenario. -and that's what brands truly are- merely a reputation.
So when you sit at the table first try to entertain them, tell them about yourself, flirt with them and eventually seduce them to a “conversion”. Remember if they don’t know you, or feel something about you - they can’t buy from you.