🧠 Customer Funnel Secrets: Maximize Your $$$ With the RIGHT Branding

Hey there!

Welcome to the 42nd edition of Brandish, 

Your guide to crafting an iconic brand.

Listen, 

Every stage of your customer journey (your funnel) is going to be completely different. 

Different strategies, different goals, different KPIs, etc. 

That also means…

So should your creatives.

Today, we’re going to be diving into how to tailor your branding strategies for the different stages of your funnel, 

So you can maximize your potential to turn lookers into loyal customers. 

You ready?

I sure am. 

So kick back, 

Grab your Brez, 

And let’s dive in. 

Funnels 101

As a branding expert, I’m sure you know this already. 

(At least, I hope so)

But before we jump in, let’s quickly break down the customer journey funnel. 

It’s essentially the path your customers take from:

First discovering your brand…

To becoming a lifelong fan of your products. 

The stages include:

• Awareness 

• Consideration 

• Conversion 

• Retention

• Advocacy 

EACH stage requires a unique branding approach to keep your customers engaged and moving down the funnel, 

And you guessed it, 

Towards a sale. 

But today, we’re just going to focus on the big 3 - Awareness, Consideration, and Conversion.

The other 2 are just as important, but - the big 3 is where most of the action happens. 

The Awareness Stage

The goal of this stage is simple:

Get noticed by as many potential customers as possible.

But how can you do that?

- Use eye-catching, sometimes off-brand content on platforms like Facebook and Instagram. Think bold visuals and compelling headlines.

- Leverage viral content and AI-generated imagery to increase reach. According to recent trends (And what we’re currently doing), AI-generated content has been performing exceptionally well at this stage

Think of those quirky, “out-there” videos, statics, or straight-up memes that grab your attention as you scroll through social media.

Chances are, they don’t scream “on brand” or “professional”,

But they are PERFECT for getting your brand noticed and getting that potential customer to engage and move into your funnel. 

The goal here is NOT to make a sale. 

You just want interested eyeballs.

Consideration Stage

Now your potential customer has moved into what we call the “Consideration stage”

What’s next?

 Educate and build trust.

When designing your ads, landing pages, etc. for this stage, keep this in mind:

- Shift to content that reflects your brand’s identity and values. This is where you start introducing your brand’s personality, aesthetic, and overall mission.

- Use email campaigns and retargeting ads that highlight product benefits and customer testimonials. People have a HUGE soft spot for testimonials.

- Overall, generate content that is SUPER branded and aligned with everything about your identity.

This can be through branded organic content, targeted email flows to increase awareness, etc. 

Make sure your designs are working to really drive home the big 3: 

1. Who you are

2. What you stand for

3. Why they should trust you

Simple setup, but absolutely fundamental if you want to have any chance of success with moving these potential customers into the next (and most critical) stage.

Conversion Stage

This isn’t the final stage, 

BUT it is one of the most important. 

The goal - Turn interest into action.

What you need to make sure you do here is simple: 

- Use professional, branded content to drive home trust and urgency. This is where you pull out the big guns—high-quality videos, polished product photos, and persuasive copy.

- Include limited-time offers and clear calls to action. Create a sense of urgency to prompt immediate purchases.

- Highlight highly personalized content, reviews, and user-generated content (UGC). Showing REAL people using and loving your product is a powerful motivator, solidifying trust and encouraging them to buy

Think of the crazy professional, high-quality content you generate: 

• Studio shots

• Professional videography

• High-quality product renders

This is where you want to SELL

Hit on all the benefits. Brand your content in a way that pushes for trust and urgency. 

This is the 4th quarter with 30 seconds on the clock. You’ve driven them to this point, and now ALL you need to do is make sure that your content pushes them over that finish line. 

Keeping Your Funnels Separate

Today’s newsletter has been a little bit shorter with more actionable advice for you. 

But, before we go, 

And want to leave you with one final and VERY important lesson.

When you move into retail 

(if you haven’t already)

Do NOT overpromote your retailer. 

This may not be the case for everyone - but for us this was a very important lesson to learn. 

In the beginning, people told us,

“Hey, you need to have separate ad sets that just send people to Walmart (or whatever retailer you’re working with).”

But - this TOTALLY backfired. 

It was not beneficial at all, and it hurt our business as a whole. 

But when we removed out retail messaging from our funnel altogether, we saw a huge lift across the board. 

And like I was saying - this might not be the case for everyone. 

Including your retail messaging in your funnel is huge for social proof, but I just want to make sure you understand the indirect risks that are involved with it. 

Test it out, but if you start to see a dip in both DTC and retail…

Get that messaging out of there. 

Tool Of The Week 

Really quick, I wanted to spotlight a tool that’s completely changed the way we approach our post-purchase operations at Obvi,

Redo. 

They reimagine the return process by substituting the ‘traditional’ costs with a free coverage model, which has the exact impact that you’re thinking of - boosting our conversions and skyrocketing customer loyalty. 

By implementing smoother exchanges OR offering store credits, Redo helped reduce our refund rate by 40%, 

Saving us a HUGE chunk of our revenue in the process. 

But you’re a brand expert - why should this matter to you?

While today’s newsletter has been about Maximizing the success of your customer journeys, It doesn’t matter in the slightest if your post-purchase processes are sloppy and all over the place. 

Redo converts your returns into opportunities to enhance customer engagement and secure further sales for your brand - increasing your opportunities to keep molding your brand into what you want it to be. 

 Wrapping Up

Tailoring your branding strategy for each stage of the customer journey is absolutely crucial. 

But understanding the differences in HOW you should tailor your messaging 

(Which you should understand after today)

You can create a seamless, engaging brand experience that turns window shoppers into customers faster than a mall running a BOGO sale. 

Pay attention to the fundamentals, understand your customers, and hit em right where it matters. 

Until next time, 

Ankit