A three-step marketing ladder

Probably worth reviewing at your next marketing meeting (or every marketing meeting)... There's a three-step ladder:
Awareness
Education
Action

Awareness is when someone knows you exist. The knock-knock part of the knock-knock joke, the person who has another interest and trust to want to know more.

• Awareness is sexy
• You don't need to be known by everyone (or even most people) merely the right ones
• Awareness probably isn't as much of your problem as you think it is
• Awareness-seeking is addictive (and easy to measure)

Education is the story we tell, the transfer of information and emotion from us to the aware consumer.

• Most marketers are too self-absorbed to educate well
• Education takes time
• Education takes many forms, but without a doubt, experience is the most trusted and high-impact way to educate

Action is the last step, but the only one that the CFO is measuring. If you sacrifice the first two steps to boost this one, you'll regret it.

• Natural actions happen more often than ones that require a leap
• Anticipated action generates fear
• "Later" is a much more likely response than "no"
• Most people aren't going to act, but if you treat them well, they might just tell their friends