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Marketing in Online Sales Funnels
Chapter · September 2019
DOI: 10.12657/9788379862801-5
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Andrzej Szymkowiak
Poznań University of Economics and Business
Marketing in Online Sales Funnels
Introduction
The Internet has inuenced how consumers make shopping decisions, how they
communicate, how they look for recommendations (Elms etal., 2016; Faulds
etal., 2018; Fu etal., 2020; Zhang etal., 2018). This applies to both B2B and B2C
relations. The Internet is asource of knowledge and information for consumers,
but also acommunication tool. Communication that is implemented in aone-to-
one and many-to-many model. Such differentiation of communication has afuzzy
character because both the direct and the message, e.g. as an e-mail or message
in the communicator can take on agroup character. Similarly, it can be pointed
out that social media can be characterized by open communication, focused on
unspecied recipients or be carried out within closed groups. The second element
affecting the need to revise the perception of the Internet and sales tools based
on Internet communication is their access to data. Access to the Internet from
the customer’s perspective, refers in particular to the ease of comparing the offer,
getting to know it in aconvenient place and time. From abusiness perspective, in
the absence of territorial barriers, it is particularly possible to collect and use data
about the consumer, their preferences, interests, past history and relations with
the company. Data that can be codied by employees as part of CRM systems is
supplemented with data on consumer activity regarding content the sender of
which is an enterprise or which the enterprise can manage.
This contributes to blurring the boundary between marketing and online sales
(Arnett & Wittmann, 2014; Homburg etal., 2017; Keszey & Biemans, 2016). The
problem is not the possibility of dening individual actions or assigning to sales
Pietrzykowski M. (Ed.): Fostering Entrepreneurial and Sales Competencies in Higher Education.
Bogucki Wyd. Nauk., Poznań 2019. ISBN 978-83-7986-280-1
DOI: 10.12657/9788379862801-5
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5673-7093
Andrzej Szymkowiak
68
or marketing, but from the permanent coexistence of these two elements. At the
root of this coexistence are concepts such as optimization and synergy. If we as-
sume that sales activities are generally activities directly focused on the increase
of revenues, and marketing activities are indirectly directed at sales through the
increase of recognition or, for example, the perceived quality of offered products,
it can be assumed that these are the stages of one process. In traditional terms,
the rst phase is not obligatory. The effort based on the active search for custom-
ers by sales department employees and direct contact can be the only and exclu-
sive element needed to conclude atransaction. Access to data and the evolution
of consumer decision-making, which is more based on independent search for
information, extends this process. This applies to the number of actions taken
by the consumer. The additional number of actions, however, does not correlate
linearly with the time needed for the consumer to make decisions. This is due
to almost instant access to information. The consumer reads, assesses, evaluates
and makes the nal decision. In addition, he can decide on the need for further
search for information.
This access to information is the basis of the revolution that came with the
digital world. This applies to both consumers and entrepreneurs. For consum-
ers, this means the possibility of using all sources at the stage of product and
/ or seller selection, and for entrepreneurs conducting sales activities based on
marketing activities tailored to individual customers. The purpose of the chap-
ter is to characterize the changes resulting from the digitization of marketing
and sales activities as well as tools supporting and optimizing the discussed
activity.
1. Traditional approach to the AIDA model
The awareness of entrepreneurs’ knowledge of the complexity of consumer deci-
sion-making processes inuences the way they communicate with consumers and
the tools they use. Selection depends on the immediate goal and is related to the
stage at which the consumer is. There are many models characterizing the consumer
purchasing process. The AIDA model is one of most frequently used in marketing
communications (Boisen etal., 2018). It characterizes the way advertising impacts
the consumer. It is based on psychological conditions of action (purchase), which is
preceded by: attention, interest in the product and willingness to purchase it. This
model in anarrow sense refers to asingle advertising message and is also aguide-
line (Shari etal., 2019). It illustrates that the purchase is preceded by an attitude
towards the advertisement and the advertised product. In this case, the perception of
the content of the ad affects all areas in aset sequence. This sequence is imposed by
the order of images, content, information as part of audio-visual material presented,
e.g. on television, or as advertising spots on the radio (Yeh etal., 2017). For static
materials, these principles are incorporated into the content. This also applies to the
level of arrangement of elements or the use of appropriate graphic elements. The nal
Marketing in Online Sales Funnels
69
composition takes into account the knowledge of the consumer and the mechanisms
that determine how he reads, for example, an advertising poster.
This approach to understanding the operating conditions can be used not as
part of asingle advertising message but as part of aseries of messages. This idea
is limited in scope to be used in the promotion by means of mass media or even in
the case of deliberately selected target groups. This is due to alack of knowledge
about what was previously presented to the recipient, i.e. what stage the con-
sumer is at. In this situation, the message will not have an effect, understood as
moving to the next stage because the message will be duplicated, or may relate to
agoal that has already been achieved earlier. If the consumer on the basis of the
content previously presented to him shows interest in the purchase of products,
but instead of information about the possibility of purchasing information that
is no longer relevant to him, it can even cause frustration, which will have the
opposite effect.
This type of problem can be overcome by synchronizing messages in accord-
ance with the adopted schedule plan, focusing at one time on asingle aspect. One
of the rst Polish brands, which on anationwide scale and successfully used the
discussed idea was anew brand of mobile services Heyah with aseries of promo-
tional campaigns (Gazeta.pl, 2005). In the rst stage, symbols of the red hand on
ablack background were presented in the urban space, which attracted attention,
which in connection with the ambiguity of the message and the mass nature of
the event turned into interest. Only at the next stage was the concept of the new
product being introduced, and nally information related to the conditions in
force in the new telephony. Agradual shift from attention to decision enabled
446% sales plan and 54% visibility in the target group.
The use of such ascheme was possible thanks to the certainty that consumers
have no prior knowledge about the brand. Thus, each subsequent message was
based on homogeneous previously publicized information. This means that all
consumers reached by the message were at the same level throughout the cam-
paign cycle. What constitutes alimitation on traditional forms of promotion is
not it in internet marketing. The technical ability to collect data and analyze it in
an aggregated manner but also for an individual user creates business conditions
that were previously unavailable. Each user can be considered individually and
analyzed for the effectiveness of various methods of interaction.
2. Adjusting AIDA to online sales funnels
2.1. Attention recipients
In keeping with the nomenclature of the AIDA model rst element condition-
ing any relationship, there is a potential consumer attention to your product.
Attention is not the same as interest (Xu, Schrier, 2019). In internet marketing,
Andrzej Szymkowiak
70
an example of advertising that triggers involuntary interest is, for example, ban-
ners that obscure the entire content of the website that the consumer is visit-
ing. Therefore, in the case of attention, in addition to involuntary attention, one
should highlight voluntary attention, conditioned e.g. by the general interest in
the product category promoted. Content that has been displayed autonomously
and which has not been triggered by aparticular user activity is only ameasure
of the extent of the impact. Attention can refer to potential customers as well as
existing ones by promoting anew one or which the consumer has not yet pur-
chased. Separating these two cases is associated with the possibilities that the
company has in each of them. These possibilities are conditioned by the previous-
ly developed relationship and knowledge about the client. In the case of the rst
contact with abrand or product, the impact is based on creating the conditions
so that the customer can express their interest on their own. The measurable ef-
fect of this interest is measurable interaction, conrming that the recipient of the
message is familiar with the advertisement. Such ameasure can be clicking on
apromotional ad that transfers to the target website, brand company or dedicat-
ed subpage as alanding page. In the event that the rst contact is not caused by
graphic advertising, and for example is the result of an interest in the thematic ar-
ticle, the source of the page visit is an indication of what was the basis of the be-
haviour. Another form of impact is also broadly understood advertising in social
media (Hassan etal., 2015). Promotional activities using portals such as Face-
book or Instagram allow narrowing the audience to the desired target group. It is
therefore possible to adapt the message to the target group. What’s more, thanks
to the characteristics of the group of recipients, it is possible to exclude from it
people who are not dened by the company as potential customers. At this stage,
the risk that the promoted message will not arouse the expected interest is the
greatest. This means that the effectiveness is the lowest. Consequently, to attract
asufciently large number of people, it is necessary to reach the largest number
of people with promotional material. The use of sales department employees for
direct contacts with potential customers at the rst stage is unprotable. This is
due to limitations resulting from the time needed to search and make the rst
contact, personal or via email or phone. This expenditure of time and resources
is optimized in part with support tools. An example of such tools is automatic
dialing systems and only when the conversation begins to assign an employee to
it. In the case of e-mails, the message initiating contact, e.g. arequest to send
an offer, is stylized as apersonal message, although it is sent automatically to
the addresses of potential recipients (legally or illegally). Cited examples of sales
activities, when the rst contact of the customer with the company occurs, in
the era of digitalization is an anachronism, if it concerns the target group not
excluded from technological progress. This is due to the difference in form, time
and place of arousing interest. In traditional terms, it is based on the principles or
conditions imposed on the client, at atime and place that may promote the desire
to read the offer or just the opposite. In the case of building interest based on in-
ternet marketing, this contact can also take place on similar principles or be pre-
sented in acertain context and at atime adapted to it. The basic example of such
Marketing in Online Sales Funnels
71
activities based on Internet tools are the results presented to users in response to
asearch query embedded in the search engine. The user receives content in the
form of search results that are aresponse to what he is looking for. Therefore, it
is assumed by default that he is interested in the matter in this case. However, the
way the query is formulated determines what it will see in the results. This means
that mere presence in search results is not an indicator of interest. It is through
the place in these results, the description of the page, its name that the struggle
for the attention of the recipient. The same criteria are akey element for promot-
ed advertising on the Internet: as apaid media presence in the search engine or
social media. Ads tailored to the circumstances of its display are called contextual
ads. It is the context that makes the ad more effective. This is due not only to the
involuntary comment referred to above, but any, because the user is interested in
agiven issue and, most importantly, he is interested in the given time when the
advertisement is displayed.
2.2. Interest in the oer and seller
The rst contact of the client may not bring the expected effect from the com-
pany’s perspective. In the event that contact would be based on direct contact,
retrying the phone or message could be perceived as bothering. In the event of
anegative consumer response to the submitted question, subsequent attempts
would be burdened with adecision already made, which would entail an even
more difcult task for the seller. In the case of advertising presented on the Inter-
net, such negation is not relative to the offer but only to the marketing message.
However, it should be noted that the attention of the recipient of online content
is exposed to numerous threats that cause greater difculty with cognitive ef-
ciency. Numerous contents presented almost simultaneously, distract and cause
difculty in assessing reliable and valuable information. Information processing
is limited (Lang, 2000) and attention is selective. However, if the content for the
recipient is not new, less effort is needed to process the previously known content.
This property is of great importance not only for attention but also for interest.
According to mere-exposure effect, there is ahigher preference for content
that was previously seen (Zizak, Reber, 2004). This means that similar adver-
tising may be rated better by the respondent with the number of exposures, and
thus he will be more likely to be interested in the promoted offer. This interest, as
it was previously mentioned may mean, clicking on an advertisement or search-
ing for additional information or recommendations about apromoted product.
The effect of each of the cited examples of reactions is greater customer aware-
ness by product or brand. As in the case of attention, interest in the context of the
sales process is not ahomogeneous measure.
Interest may be based on prior consideration of purchasing aproduct, interest
in acategory, and be associated with the decision-making process, or arise out of
curiosity. The complexity of the decision-making process results, among others,
from the time pressure when making decisions, the importance of the product
Andrzej Szymkowiak
72
sought for the buyer, its perceived value, previous knowledge about production
or previous experience of the buyer. Each of these dimensions can automatically
translate into the fact that the consumer will make acareful decision, i.e. based
on the information obtained. More importantly, he will seek and be interested
in this information. Sources of information may be materials published on the
seller’s website and elsewhere. In the case of a website, the basic area is the
description or characteristics of the product. However, in some situations, the
product card typical of online stores is insufcient. An example of alternatively
presented content about products on the website is the preparation of athematic
article (Lin & Huang, 2006), describing various types of products indicating the
pros and cons of each of them, or indicating the criteria to which the user should
pay attention and justication. Another source of information, whose creator is
the seller, are external portals through which the seller distributes content. Such
content can be movies showing key product attributes on YouTube.com or mate-
rials prepared rankings or case studies distributed on social media or on thematic
portals. The third group consists of content prepared by individual users. They
can be such extensive materials, ideologically similar to the content published by
the enterprise, characterized by agreater level of objectivity and independence.
In addition, the content of this type can be published as expert articles or in the
form of video reviews. This group may include less formal content such as Inter-
net entries, comments, or reviews. Word-of-mouth is particularly important for
customers. This is due to the limited condence in marketing content the sender
is an enterprise. Enterprises, apart from the situation resulting from the delib-
erate use of inuencers in marketing communications, have alimited possibility
of inuencing the content of published content and thus creating mechanisms to
strengthen the ow of users from external websites to the target site of the seller.
For this reason, sales funnels do not isolate content that is beyond the company’s
management capabilities.
The above-mentioned examples of various ways of inuencing the consumer
interest are part of the available options. Another way to shape interest is to build
customer awareness through email marketing. In contrast to the one mentioned
in the rst part of this type, using this tool as away of initiating contact, in the
case of interest building, contact results from voluntary subscription to the news-
letter or the desire to receive aseries of messages that have atraining character
or deepening agiven topic. Creating an account on the website or adding acon-
sumer to the database creates new opportunities for the entrepreneur. Thanks
to this, the enterprise has the ability to manage marketing communication with
greater precision and react to user activity with respect to the content being sent.
2.3. Desire and willingness to purchase aproduct
Shaping interest can be the result of asingle event that resonates strongly enough.
However, in the case of goods that are not abasic product or of low importance
to the recipient, interest is the effect of long-term impact on the consumer. The
Marketing in Online Sales Funnels
73
need to include atime stamp forces the company to use technology to ne-tune
the messages. Collecting data on activity in relation to available content is the
basis for inferring apotential customer’s interest in an offer or precisely asingle
product. This stage is sensitive, because misinterpretation of consumer behaviour
and on this basis preparation of apoorly matched message may not bring the
expected effect and at the same time be an unused opportunity that may not be
repeated.
Progressing automation also in the area of marketing requires dening turn-
ing points that the company will understand the desire to buy. However, each
measure or event adopted is acertain assumption resulting from an attempt to
understand the motivation of the consumer to this or that behaviour. In the case
of online stores, such asituation may be adding the product to the cart in the
absence of nalizing the transaction. From one perspective, this is an expression
of shopping intentions that may have been interrupted due to technical reasons,
apresentation of asummary of added products together with the total price. The
abandonment of the basket could also be due to alack of sufcient funds or alack
of preferred delivery methods. These are elements limiting the willingness to
buy, however, not imposing it and the nal attitude will depend on the attitude of
the seller. This contact can be based on adirect response from the sales depart-
ment or be based on marketing messages or automatic e-mails trying to solve the
problem. Alternatively, the buyer, despite the fact that he added the product to
the basket, could make the purchase elsewhere, therefore attempts to complete
the transaction are pointless and the funds spent on marketing communication
wasted. Therefore, the question of protability and purposefulness of individual
activities becomes justied. However, this should be compared with the alterna-
tive costs, i.e. in this case the cost of employees’ work, the effectiveness of indi-
vidual activities and potential nancial benets. Other possible measures may be
the presence on agiven product or, for example, the price list or the time spent
on it, which may indicate that the purchase is being considered. In the case of
e-mail communication, such ahint can be information about the activity within
the message or the number of re-openings of previous e-mails.
2.4. Purchase decision as customer action
The effectiveness of marketing and sales activities in the nal settlement is the
number of customers acquired, the value of orders and repeatability of purchases.
If the previous stage led to the situation that the consumer is not only willing but
also wants to make atransaction, then favourable conditions should be created.
The last stage can be implemented autonomously by the customer through an
electronically available procedure or through contact with an employee of the
enterprise. The ability to make transactions at any time convenient for the con-
sumer and the lack of communication problems or related to codication and
execution of the order encourages favouring electronic solutions. Appropriately
prepared systems may also propose complementary products while placing the
Andrzej Szymkowiak
74
order, increasing the transaction value for the entrepreneur. Satisfaction result-
ing from the implementation of the contract as expected, is not the same as
building along-term relationship. The implementation of the last stage through
direct contact with the employee extends the procedure, however, it creates the
possibility of inuencing the customer, but also creates the opportunity to ob-
tain additional information about the decision-making process and factors having
aparticular impact on the choice of product and seller. This can be used in the
future to tailor messages and offers individually using existing history and indi-
vidual preferences.
3. Conclusion
Digital marketing creates conditions in which mass communication can be per-
sonalized based on individual consumer behaviour. Compared to the activities of
sellers initiating direct contact, online advertising can take on aneutral and natu-
ral character. It can be aresponse to customer needs, shape them through aware-
ness. Data on customer behaviour on the entrepreneur’s website or in relation to
information sent by the company are an important source for marketing activi-
ties. Such actions may spontaneously affect the consumer at all decision stages
or complement sales activities, providing knowledge about consumer preferences.
The practical implications of the mechanisms described above can be translated
into the design of consumer experience, taking into account the gradual desire
to buy. The four phases indicated are only ageneral structure, which may consist
of numerous elements. Adjustment and assessment of effectiveness can be made
by the percentage of people who have passed to the next level of sale funnel. The
presented article also prompts further research on the assessment of the legiti-
macy of the use of various tools at different levels and for different purposes. In
addition, it is worth referring the research to various categories of products or
services and taking into account the characteristics of the target group.
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