The primary role of a digital marketer is to define, design, build and implement digital campaigns across a variety of online and social media platforms to drive customer acquisition, customer engagement and customer retention.
So what are some key pieces of knowledge you need to understand in your digital marketing apprenticeship in order to be able to fulfil your primary role?
The Customer Lifecycle
The customer lifecycle represents the different stages / journey that buyers will go through as they interact and build a relationship with your brand – from initial awareness through to purchase and advocacy.
This is a knowledge module on the apprenticeship standard and may come up in your exams!
The customer lifecycle consists of 5 main stages. In order, they are as follows:
Reach
Customer has a need, want, issue or problem. Here is where the relationship with a customer begins, when they first become aware of the existence of your brand, product, or service. Marketers try to get the attention of the people they want to reach.
Acquisition
Here, you have an interested prospect. The customer actively considers whether or not to buy the product or service on offer. This is the stage where you must stand out and show that you’re better than everyone else.
Conversion
This is the stage where your customer converts. The customer makes the purchase / makes a choice or commitment. Your job is to make it as easy as possible for them (while hopefully selling for as much as possible or getting them the best deal possible).
Retention
During the retention stage you want to do everything you can to maintain a relationship with the customer and to sell them more. It’s always easier and cheaper to keep an existing client than it is to try to acquire a new one.
Loyalty
This is the end goal you should have with all your clients. At this stage you’ve attracted a customer’s attention, made a great impression, closed the sale and provided excellent service. Now your client is an ambassador who spreads the word about the product and sends you referrals. And the cycle begins again!
The Marketing Funnel
The marketing funnel is a visualization for understanding the process of turning leads into customers, as understood from a marketing (and sales) perspective. As per the level 3 digital marketing apprenticeship standards, this is useful knowledge for planning a campaign.
The marketing funnel consists of 6 main stages. In order, they are as follows:
Awareness
This is where potential customers are drawn in through marketing campaigns, their own research and discovery. For example, they may come across your service from online content (blogs, infographics), emails, viral campaigns, social media and more. These methods build trust and recognition in consumers as they gain more exposure to your business, and they become leads.
Interest
Where the consumer learns more about your business and products or services. This interest can be nurtured through emails, targeted content, social posts, etc.
Consideration
The stage at which leads are seen as prospective customers. This is where you need to nurture the relationship with leads even further via email campaigns, targeted content, etc.
Intent
To get here, prospective leads demonstrate interest in buying from your business. One common example is when they have added a product to the shopping cart on the website. This is your opportunity to encourage the customer to follow through. Specific to the shopping cart example, some companies may send an automated “Don’t forget your shopping cart” email containing a discount code in order to encourage them to follow through the purchase.
Evaluation
Here, the customer is making a final decision about buying from your business. They may require encouragement that you are the best choice.
Purchase
The final step! Where the customer has purchased from the business. Hopefully, they may refer you so the funnel process begins again.
And there you have 2 key knowledge modules for your apprenticeship down!
