The funnel, See–Think–Do–Care and RACE

A funnel models the path to a purchase on which fewer people remain: top (TOFU), middle (MOFU), bottom (BOFU). See–Think–Do–Care and RACE cut it differently.

A path you can see

In the last lesson you drew the customer’s path: stages, touchpoints, places where they leave. Now we give that path the names marketers use. Three vocabularies (the funnel, See–Think–Do–Care, RACE) describe the same human path, and you need all three at least to understand colleagues who speak them. Choose whichever is handier for you. And there is one more aim in this lesson: to find the stages at which your project is empty.

The funnel

Where from. The idea that fewer people remain along the path to a purchase is old. The steps a buyer takes were described by the advertising man Elias St. Elmo Lewis (AIDA) as long ago as the end of the nineteenth century. And the funnel picture tied them together, according to Wikipedia, in William Townsend’s book Bond Salesmanship (1924). Today the funnel has many names: the purchase funnel, the sales funnel, the marketing funnel, the conversion funnel.

TOFU, MOFU, BOFU. These abbreviations came from content and automation marketing, and mean simply the “top”, “middle” and “bottom” of the funnel:

• TOFU, the top. The person learns of the problem and looks for general information. What is needed here is teaching material with no selling: articles, answers to questions, guides. In the language of the earlier lessons these are readers at the first and second levels of awareness.
• MOFU, the middle. The person knows a solution exists and is choosing. What is needed are comparisons, a look at the options, examples: “boundary survey, topographic survey, mortgage survey: which to choose”. This is the third level.
• BOFU, the bottom. The person has almost decided and looks for confirmation and terms: prices, times, documents, a request form. The fourth and fifth levels.

An example with the default persona (the invented Kate Alder).

• TOFU: “How to check for yourself where the boundary of your lot runs”;
• MOFU: “A boundary survey, a topographic survey and a mortgage survey: which to choose in your case”;
• BOFU: “Prices, times, documents and booking a consultation”.

Where it lets you down.

• People don’t climb steps. They skip: finding a price page in search, a person lands straight in BOFU. They come back and compare. A funnel is a scheme, not a route.
• A funnel ends at the purchase. But the person stays: they come back, they recommend. So the other two schemes add a stage after.
• It shows where people are lost, not why. You can see that many people left between the second and third steps, but the funnel won’t say why. The cause has to be sought through the person’s eyes.
• One funnel for everybody. For different segments (the last lesson) the paths differ.

See–Think–Do–Care

Where from. The American web-analytics specialist Avinash Kaushik, then an analytics evangelist at Google, proposed it in 2013 on his blog Occam’s Razor (he added the Care stage later). The idea is that a funnel splits people by where they are on the path, as the company sees it, when they should be split by intent.

• See. The widest audience: everyone who might be interested in you, even without knowing it.
• Think. Those who have an interest: they search, read, compare.
• Do. Those who intend to buy or to book.
• Care. Those who are already customers: you need a relationship with them, recommendations, repeat business.

The main difference from the funnel: for each stage Kaushik has a goal and a metric of its own. For See, for example, you need to reach people without selling to them; for Do, to sell; for Care, to keep them and to win a recommendation. A stage is set by the person’s intent, not by the kind of content, so one and the same page may be Think for some people and Do for others.

An example.

• See: every landowner in Riverbend;
• Think: those who search for “how to find my lot’s boundary”;
• Do: those who search for “boundary survey cost”;
• Care: former customers: a reminder about their documents, a request for a review (with their consent).

Where it lets you down. If you look at the stages just as “reach, interest, purchase”, what remains is a funnel with different words. The point of the model is the distinction of intents, and the Care stage that a funnel usually forgets.

RACE

Where from. Dave Chaffey, founder of Smart Insights, proposed RACE in 2010 as a scheme for planning digital marketing: Reach, Act, Convert, Engage.

• Reach. Attract attention and visitors: search, social media, ads.
• Act. Get the visitor to do something on the site: read, watch, subscribe, ask a question.
• Convert. Turn them into a customer.
• Engage. Keep up the relationship after the purchase, so that they return and recommend.

For each stage Chaffey proposes goals and metrics of his own; his Smart Insights service has the full version, and the Wikipedia article on AIDA mentions RACE in its section on models.

Where it lets you down. It is one more funnel, but with “operational” names. It is handy for a year’s work plan, when you need to decide what to do at each stage, and less handy for understanding the person.

One funnel, three vocabularies

Open the diagram. This is the funnel of an invented site (the numbers are made up): 1,000 people came, and then they are lost at each step. At the top are four buttons: you can label the same funnel in the words of TOFU, MOFU and BOFU, of See–Think–Do–Care and of RACE. Move the sliders and see where the most people are lost.

No labelsTOFU, MOFU, BOFUSee–Think–Do–CareRACE

1. Came to the site 1000 of 1000

   TOFU: top of the funnel, attention

   Go on to the next step: 60%
2. Read some material 600 of 1000

   TOFU: top of the funnel, attention

   Go on to the next step: 35%
3. Opened prices and terms 210 of 1000

   MOFU: middle, choosing

   Go on to the next step: 12%
4. Made a request 25 of 1000

   BOFU: bottom, deciding

   Go on to the next step: 40%
5. Became customers 10 of 1000

   BOFU: bottom, deciding

Most people are lost between “came to the site” and “read some material”: 400 left. The lowest rate of moving on is at the step “opened prices and terms” (12%). Ask yourself: what did the person see before leaving, and what was missing for them?

The numbers are made up for the example. You’ll get your own from a visit counter, when you connect one in the part on metrics.

When choosing a vocabulary, keep three questions in mind:

1. At which stages do I have something to show the person? If the project has only a “Contact” page and a “Services” page (that is, Do), you lose everyone who is still thinking.
2. What do I know about the Care stage? Many small projects don’t think about it at all, and it is the cheapest.
3. Can I measure it? The details of how to count the steps are in the part on metrics. For now it’s enough to know which numbers you will need: how many came, how many read, how many reached the form, how many made a request.

Check yourself: how does See–Think–Do–Care differ from an ordinary funnel?

It divides people by intent, not by place on the path, and gives each stage its own goal and metric. Besides, it has a Care stage: caring for those who are already customers.

Where the approach itself lets you down

• False precision. A neat diagram doesn’t mean you know the numbers. Until you have connected a counter, it is a hypothesis.
• Content for every stage as an end in itself. A small site doesn’t need forty articles. It needs one honest piece for each empty stage.
• Bait. Material for the top of the funnel must be useful in itself. An article “how to check a boundary” that deliberately explains nothing, so that the person comes to you, is bait, not TOFU.
• Surveillance. To measure people’s paths you put in counters and tags. That needs consent and an honest notice (the part on quality and the law). Measure as much as is needed for a decision, not everything.

Practice

Lay out by stage what the project has, and find what is missing.

1. In the table, for each section of the brief write the funnel stage (TOFU, MOFU, BOFU) and the STDC stage (See, Think, Do, Care), and one phrase: what the person decides here.
2. In the list “What is missing” name three materials that don’t exist, for the empty stages. Each has a funnel stage, an STDC stage and a title.
3. Write the page where the person takes the main action, and name it in the same words as the brief.

In the end all the stages must appear in the notes. The check watches for that, and whether the materials suit your people is for you to decide: picture the person from “for whom” at each stage and ask what they need to see.