Do you wonder how you can get more customers? If so, it might be time to take a closer look at your marketing hourglass.

A marketing hourglass is a visual representation of a customer’s journey from the moment they first become aware of your offering to when they become loyal repeating customers. It’s a crucial element of a successful marketing strategy, as it helps you understand where potential customers may be dropping out of the process and what you can do to keep them moving forward.

Before the marketing hourglass, a more popular framework called the marketing funnel was used which stopped at the customer’s decision. When I first heard this term at my first e-commerce job, it laid out a solid foundation about how to think about marketing. However, marketers learned that retaining customers and having customers spread enthusiasm for a brand was too important to ignore. In this post, we’ll explore the different stages of a marketing hourglass and offer tips for how you can optimize each stage to drive more conversions.

The Five Stages of a Marketing Hourglass

Marketing hourglasses broadly have five stages: awareness, consideration, decision, adoption, and loyalty. Here’s a brief overview of each stage:

Awareness

This is the top funnel, where potential customers first become aware of your brand or offering. At this stage, your goal is to get noticed by as many people as possible. This might involve tactics like social media presence, content marketing, or public relations efforts. Focus on creating high-quality, thematic content that resonates with your target audience. Well-known examples include Nike’s “Just do it” mentality for driven athletes or Apple’s emphasis on elegance and simplicity for designers.

Consideration

Once people are aware of your brand, the next step is to get them to consider using your products or services. There are many creative tactics you can use here. This might involve providing more information about your offerings, showcasing customer testimonials, offering special deals or promotions, or ad retargeting. A real-world example is an Apple store where you can try out different products before buying.

Decision

Once a potential customer is considering your brand, the next step is to help them make a decision. This might involve highlighting the benefits of choosing your brand over the competition or eliminating the fear of switching costs. Some strategies to alleviate these concerns are to provide money-back guarantees (free product returns) or show that you have the tools to make adoption seamless.

Adoption

Once the customer decides to go with your brand, the adoption phase includes onboarding the customer to make sure everything goes smoothly. This may include quick-start tutorials, welcome product pamphlets, manuals, or any customer support that may come up. Creating a great adoption experience is key to retention and loyalty.

Loyalty

The final and perhaps most important stage of the marketing hourglass is loyalty, where customers become repeat buyers and advocates for your brand. At this stage, your goal is to keep customers engaged and satisfied so they continue to purchase from you and recommend your products or services to others. This might involve offering excellent customer service, regular updates or new products, or loyalty rewards programs. You can also use email marketing and social media to stay top of mind with customers and keep them coming back for more.

These stages are guidelines and some companies expertly blend each phase. For example Notion, a productivity app, offers a free tier, leading the customer to decide and adapt their offerings simultaneously. This strategy pairs well with loyalty and awareness since content creators share their love of the product on social media which then enhances the awareness of their product.

Conclusion

A marketing hourglass is a crucial element of any successful marketing strategy, as it helps you understand where potential customers are dropping out of the process and what you can do to keep them moving forward. By optimizing each stage of the marketing hourglass, you can increase your chances of converting leads into customers and drive more sales for your business.

At Ethos AI, we provide tools to help maximize your conversion rates at each step of the marketing hourglass. If you’re interested, feel free to join our free beta!