Different prospects. Different stages.
To fully leverage the Acquisition Pipeline, you must first determine which stage individual prospects are at within the decision making process. In order to accomplish this, you need more information about your audience. The way to get it is through response-oriented campaigns.

The key is to open a dialogue with prospects and allow their responses to shape your efforts. This will help you more accurately gauge the current mindset of these individuals, and better target your communications and messaging in order to begin migrating prospects toward conversion.

Now, let’s consider the four stages that comprise the Acquisition Pipeline:

1. Targeted Awareness
2. Consideration
3. Cultivation
4. Conversion

By examining each stage closely, we can better understand how to move prospects into the Acquisition Pipeline. Along the way, we’ll discuss the communication approaches that leading multichannel direct marketers are using to strengthen their acquisition efforts. We’ll also depict how all four stages work together to establish the framework for successful acquisition.

In this article, we’ll explore the first two stages of the Acquisition Pipeline, beginning with Targeted Awareness.