Entertainment Content Driven Sales Funnel

You know this really colorful funnel above like the back of your hand. It’s right there, ingrained in your head every time you do up a business plan or work out a marketing strategy. It’s the core of every sales pitch, every marketing collateral, every advertisement, every public relations plan, and there’s just one focus- to drive your customers to the Action stage.

We do apply the same funnel at Lauric, except we make it more relevant to what we do.

And if you’re thinking, “What? Why are you messing it up? This WORKS! This friggin’ WORKS! What the shit are you guys doing?! Why do you even bother?!”

That’s because what we do is Entertainment Content and in Entertainment Content, we’re dealing with more than a product or a singular product line. We’re dealing with Stories. All kinds of stories.

 

We’re dealing with Characters. Characters that are timeless. Characters that speak to us and convey their message to us. Characters with names that are synonymous with what they do *think James Bond* *think Superman* *think Iron Man*. Characters whom we admire and wish we could emulate. Characters that evoke our emotions, characters with whom we want involved in our own lives, whom we want to see every day, whom we can share with our friends and forge new friendships with.

Bless social media. With it, we get to tell our story in a way like no other. We can write an article about it. We can shorten it to a couple of paragraphs. We can include a video with all those words. We can load a graphic on its own or with a video or everything together. We can toss in a simple game. We can pop in one of those fun tests that everyone loves to play. We can go long text or shorten everything we want to say in 160 characters and a compelling picture. But what matters most is a good story, and inside a good story, captivating characters that do stuff, eat stuff, wear stuff, use stuff. Time and time again in these stories, they produce solutions to resolve problems and halt world crises- with… stuff.

Which is why our sales funnel starts with the Audience stage, followed by Lead, then Prospect follow by the Customer stage and finally, the Evangelist stage.

At the Audience stage, we decide on the right audience- and we drop them a teaser- with the right distribution. In Entertainment, we release the first trailer. In Entertainment Content, we make a headline. We make a poster. We release a graphic still. We drop hints. We use our channels- traditional and digital- to distribute seemingly varied messages with a consistent theme that triggers feelings and emotions and we nudge that theme out just that little bit more every time. 

Then we’re at the Lead stage. In Entertainment, we drop Trailer #2. In Entertainment Content, we engage the audience. We reveal more messages. We release more hints. Still the same consistent theme, but now we sink the line. With questions, with what-ifs, with new stills, with more hints about the characters revealed in the Audience stage. We reveal parts of the puzzle. We provide answers if only to raise more questions. We hint on the stuff they use. Characters share with the audience more bits of what they do- the thrilling parts- just so to let them wonder what that was all about and how the Characters got there.

Until the Prospect stage where we reach the junction that product and the audience’s need meet. Entertainment calls it “Out In Theaters” or “See It in 3D”. This is the stage in Entertainment Content where we convert the audience into a prospect. By presenting them with the opportunity to buy. By having the Characters (and ourselves) to speak to you. This is the space to be personal. This is the stage where they (the characters) tell you what it is they use and why they use it and why it’s so good. When the audience already has the emotional connection with the characters as well as the products they represent, and right now, when the opportunity to purchase presents itself, they progress to become Customers. Entertainment Content can call it sales. Or upsell. Or product distribution. Or simply, a store that offers a range of products to complement the experience. So that the emotional connection with the Character can be completed.  

Then we’re at the Customer stage. The stage where the audience-turned-prospect is now converted into a customer. The stage where the customer joins our Characters into their universe. The stage where the product in their hands fulfills the questions they’ve previously asked and includes them in the roles that the Characters play and which has them entering the…

Evangelist stage. Some call it the Loyalist stage where the Customer transforms their status from User to Advocate, sharing, commenting, discussing, opinionating about the product and service.

At every stage, our Characters don’t stop the communication. They have lives, right, and the more intriguing their lives are, the more predicaments they get involved in, the more the audience is enraptured and the more they want to know how else such techniques and tools *your products or services* can be the/their solution.  

And what we’re saying- from Audience to Evangelist- is just a brief overview of how the funnel would looks like. But if there’s US$500 billion going through this funnel every year, for sure it works.

You just have to find out how.
If you find it doesn't make any sense, since content is mainly to drive awareness at the top of the funnel, we are glad you ask, as we will be explaining that next.

And yes, we do work with both internal and external Digital Marketing team, PR team and Media team to provide a comprehensive solution for clients and also recognizes their importance in realizing the value of Entertainment Content, especially in global deployment.  In this environment, Lauric does not merely utilize small content, but continually strives to plan, create and control high value content.