Data is oil for the marketing funnel. This is something guest speaker Ron Abraham mentioned during his interview. It resonated with me because although I understand the importance of data, having this visual image of data being oil is a helpful reminder of just how much power is in collectible data. I think that sometimes marketing projects can seem daunting and usinfunnelg data and tools like the marketing funnel and developing KPIs can break a marketing goal down into more feasible steps. Amazon is a brand that easily demonstrates how the marketing funnel can be successful in reaching the highest customer conversion possible.

Amazon creates awareness for its brand through advertisement. A lot of awareness is built through the Amazon marketplace feature which allows customers to make commissions on sales through word of mouth. Secondly, amazon facilitates evaluation by collecting data for example how long someone is looking at a certain item and, for example, might email the customer when an item they were looking at is deduced in price. Lastly, the brand may offer exclusive deals on features like Prime or other LTO’s which encourage people to press the purchase button. Amazon would not be able to have such successful customer conversion without data.

The first and second steps of the marketing funnel (awareness and evaluation) are especially impossible without knowing how to track brand awareness. Seeing that at these stages no sales are being completed yet. The best way to track success in their categories is by evaluating KPIs. An example of an awareness KPI for Amazon would be referral traffic. This is how many times is a link shared and opened by a possible customer. If a company can find the sweet spot when it comes to KPIs and the marketing funnel, they are certain to see the payoff in sales and general awareness of their brand.