The next part of our marketing sophistication and maturity series is the marketing hourglass. The marketing hourglass is the process/journey/life cycle that prospective customers move through as they explore their options.  We all go through this process at some level with every decision we make.

The Duct Tape Marketing hourglass has 7 stages:

• Know – does the prospect even know you exist?
• Like – do they like your style/approach/location/attitude or other factors?
• Trust – can they trust you to deliver what you promise?
• Try – how can they try you/your product/your knowledge out?
• Buy – what is the purchase experience?
• Repeat – how do they become a repeat customer?
• Refer – are they going to/how do they refer you?

Your job as a marketer is to get prospective customers to ‘know,’ ‘like,’ and ‘trust’ you; so that they'll ‘try,’ ‘buy,’ and then become a ‘repeat,’ and ‘refer’ customer.

We’ll be covering the hourglass in the next 3 tips.  We look forward to you continuing the journey with us.