My goal here is to help you understand the role of social networks in the consumer's journey to conversion, as well as other strategies that complement the work of social networks. Believe it: understanding why things happen enables you to make more informed decisions.

Today, we will discuss the inbound funnel, which leads to conversion. This is when the customer takes the action you defined in your goal. The outbound funnel, which focuses on the post-purchase moment and works on relationships and loyalty, is a topic for another article.

Shopping has changed drastically over the years. Before, you would buy something based on a colleague's recommendation or go to your favorite store. Now, all you have to do is type the product name into Google and you will see thousands of options from different brands, prices, and models.

This has created a non-linear shopping funnel that involves many emotions and actions. Let's explore this further.

Knowledge (awareness)

Here, people become aware of the existence of their solution. Our goal with the dissemination of the message is to generate a trigger, so that the person recognizes that they have a problem that their brand can solve.

How to work: Paid media, campaigns with influencers, sponsorships, events, and on- an off-site actions.

KPIs: The most common are reach, visitors, and interactions with action.

An example:

Carol lives in São Paulo, where it has been raining a lot, which discourages her from leaving the house. Browsing Instagram, she was impacted by a paid ad featuring a modern piece of raincoat.

Carol didn't click right away, but she kept thinking to herself, "With that coat, I'd feel more motivated to go out in this rain". The next day, she was impacted again by the brand, which made her even more thoughtful.

Knowledge is about providing people with solutions to problems they may not have even known they had.

Consideration

Also, I like to call this phase Evaluation. The goal here is for the user to consider your brand to solve their problem.

Here the user has already understood that the product can solve their problem, but they want to make sure thats´s a good deal and due to this, they start to research about the brand and the product, in the main points of contact: SOCIAL NETWORKS, website, customer service, google.

KPIs: The most common in this case are, visitors to the website, fans on social networks, contact with customer service, and filling out the registration form.

An example:

Carol had already concluded that the product was a good idea, so she evaluated whether it was worth the investment.