{"id":2890,"date":"2023-11-15T22:53:55","date_gmt":"2023-11-15T22:53:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/illuminated-text.com\/cb\/?p=2890"},"modified":"2023-12-28T17:41:09","modified_gmt":"2023-12-28T17:41:09","slug":"the-marketing-funne-comms-goals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/illuminated-text.com\/cb\/the-marketing-funne-comms-goals\/","title":{"rendered":"The Marketing Funnel &#038; Comms Goals"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table is-style-regular\"><table><thead><tr><th>NOTE: <\/th><\/tr><\/thead><tbody><tr><td>This page appears in 2 chapters:<br><br><strong>Communications 1<\/strong> &amp; <strong>Practitioner Perspectives<\/strong><br><br><strong>Why?<\/strong> Because it is relevant to both<br><br><strong>So what?<\/strong>  You only need to read it once :)<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">This page is a little different<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This page has a different flavour from most of the others in this book because it is drawn more directly from the applied wisdom of practitioners. Or, at least, most of it is &#8211; the &#8220;marketing funnel&#8221; itself is a theory like any other, but the ways it gets applied is closer to an unofficial recipe book of observations about things that seem to work#up.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"brxe-div footnote_anchor\"><div class=\"brxe-div footnote_shifter\">\n<pre class=\"wp-block-verse\">#down. A theory is just a set of ideas that try to explain how something works. To illustrate the difference: gravity is a theory (\"objects with mass pull towards each other\"), but knowing how to run without gravity breaking your nose is not a theory, just a practical insight. Those are worthwhile too<\/pre>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The basic idea here is so fundamental to marketing comms that it gets reinvented and elaborated on whenever marketing needs to be done. This has led to a rich vocabulary being developed to describe it &#8211; one (annoyingly but inevitably) with multiple words often invented for the same ideas. To help with this, there is a short glossary at the end of this page, listing some of the <strong>key terms<\/strong> (bolded) that we discuss, and their meanings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Important caveat<\/h5>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The best communications in the world will fail if you haven&#8217;t got the rest of your marketing right (i.e., audience insight that lets you build viable products, positions, services, etc). It is exceedingly difficult to talk people into buying things that they can&#8217;t imagine having a use for#up.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"brxe-div footnote_anchor\"><div class=\"brxe-div footnote_shifter\">\n<pre class=\"wp-block-verse\">#down. Keeping in mind that \"uses\" can involve things like 'play' and 'status signalling', etc<\/pre>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The two main goals: Brand building vs. sales<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Not all communications have the same purpose. Compare these two car ads:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ad #1:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Peugeot 206 - Elephant Sits On Car - Advert Commercial\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/wpqSvrjZsrU?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ad #2:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"JTs Chrysler Jeep Dodge - Deal-Tastic Me (2013, USA)\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/jvvDEzfalCk?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There are most obvious difference is that one has a big budget and high &#8220;production values&#8221; (it is skilfully made by a team who put a lot of time and energy into it). But another difference is that they are trying to achieve different things. The first one is doing brand-building, while the second one is trying to recruit sales.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Brand-building:<\/strong> The first ad was trying to get you to link the Peugeot 206 car in your long-term memory with a brand association of being sleek and attractive. The people who wrote and produced this ad weren&#8217;t especially concerned with whether their viewers would want to buy a car right now. Rather, they were trying to create lasting images in consumers&#8217; minds, that would help this brand come to mind and seem credible whenever it later might happen that they did move into the market to buy one (especially if they will want one that is sleek and attractive).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Sales-building:<\/strong> The second ad had a different goal: Its main focus was trying to get you to visit a particular dealership to buy cars right now. It shows you specific models with specific prices that it hopes you might want to purchase right now. It tries to <strong>create a sense of urgency<\/strong> in your mind by offering time-limited deals (&#8220;buy now before this deal ends!&#8221;). It may do a little bit to build the dealer&#8217;s brand image#up (apparently they are <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=9XaM11yMiQs\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=9XaM11yMiQs\">keen on movie references<\/a>), but mostly it is trying to generate revenue by getting people to visit and pay them for cars.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"brxe-div footnote_anchor\"><div class=\"brxe-div footnote_shifter\">\n<pre class=\"wp-block-verse\">#down. The ccccraaaaazy car dealer schtick has been around for a long time. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/sections\/money\/2018\/04\/18\/603726847\/episode-836-the-rational-madness-of-the-used-car-salesman\">Here's a podcast<\/a> with the backstory (just for fun)<\/pre>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Key Terminology: The marketing funnel<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Marketers often refer to brand-building as &#8220;<strong>top of funnel<\/strong>&#8221; marketing, and sales-building as &#8220;<strong>bottom-of-funel<\/strong>&#8220;. The marketing funnel is a very similar idea, and in many cases is a synonym for brand\/sales-building. It has a slightly broader application, though, as it isn&#8217;t only about messaging. Let&#8217;s describe it briefly:<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"600\" height=\"644\" src=\"https:\/\/illuminated-text.com\/cb\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2023\/05\/whirlpool-funnel-labelled.jpg\" alt=\"A whirlpool in clear water, as seen from the side. It is cone shaped. The top (wide) end is labelled TOFU, the middle is labelled MOFU, and the bottom where it is very narrow with just a few bubbles is labelled BOFU\" class=\"wp-image-1109\" style=\"width:300px;height:322px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/illuminated-text.com\/cb\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2023\/05\/whirlpool-funnel-labelled.jpg 600w, https:\/\/illuminated-text.com\/cb\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2023\/05\/whirlpool-funnel-labelled-280x300.jpg 280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Most people draw this diagram as one of those plastic funnels from kitchens, used to pour water into small bottles. We find it more helpful to think of it as a whirlpool. They pull things down through them, but some of those things escape at every step. This is the key idea of marketing funnels &#8211; you start with a huge pool of potential customers, but only some of them get pulled all the way to the very bottom of the funnel where they &#8216;convert&#8217; into sales.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Practitioners divide the funnel into anywhere from 3 to 6 layers, but we will use a simpler 3-layer version.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Top of funnel (TOFU)<\/strong> &#8211; This is the brand-building part, where you try to build an awareness of the product across the largest possible pool of potential customers (keeping in mind that not everyone is a potential customer for every product &#8211; if you are selling professional-grade accounting software then creating awareness in market researchers probably doesn&#8217;t help you much).<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"800\" height=\"292\" src=\"https:\/\/illuminated-text.com\/cb\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2023\/11\/Lloyds-bank-creative-s.jpg\" alt=\"Poster advertising a bank with large image of a man and a woman facing each other at a cafe table looking thoughtful. The caption written across the pair of them is &quot;I don't love you anymore&quot; and at the bottom it says &quot;For your next step, Lloyd's Bank&quot;\" class=\"wp-image-2941\" srcset=\"https:\/\/illuminated-text.com\/cb\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2023\/11\/Lloyds-bank-creative-s.jpg 800w, https:\/\/illuminated-text.com\/cb\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2023\/11\/Lloyds-bank-creative-s-300x110.jpg 300w, https:\/\/illuminated-text.com\/cb\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2023\/11\/Lloyds-bank-creative-s-768x280.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A poster hanging in a Manchester train station. Lloyd&#8217;s Bank are doing top-of-funnel brand building, positioning themselves as there to help with major life transitions (notice the text at the bottom: &#8220;For your next step&#8221;)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Middle of funnel (MOFU) <\/strong>&#8211; This is where you teach some of your more likely potential customers about the product&#8217;s benefits, and how it works.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Bottom of funnel (BOFU)<\/strong> &#8211; Of the many customers who know about a product, a fraction (usually a small one) might reach a point where they could be interested in buying it. Bottom-of-funnel marketing activities try to turn this potential into sales. It might involve prompting consumers that the product is available, and\/or trying to make the purchasing process as easy as possible (e.g., &#8220;look, there&#8217;s one in a vending machine right here&#8221;). <\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"850\" height=\"455\" src=\"https:\/\/illuminated-text.com\/cb\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2023\/11\/call-to-action-s.jpg\" alt=\"A small A-frame sign that has been placed outside the door to a museum cafe. On the sign a hand has been drawn which points at the door, and is labelled &quot;cake&quot;. Another hand points away from the door and says &quot;no cake&quot;\" class=\"wp-image-2943\" srcset=\"https:\/\/illuminated-text.com\/cb\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2023\/11\/call-to-action-s.jpg 850w, https:\/\/illuminated-text.com\/cb\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2023\/11\/call-to-action-s-300x161.jpg 300w, https:\/\/illuminated-text.com\/cb\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2023\/11\/call-to-action-s-768x411.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 850px) 100vw, 850px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The Manchester Museum&#8217;s cafe. Outside a witty bottom-of-funnel ad tries to direct people to initiate a purchase<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Communications goals through the marketing funnel<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Your communication goals as a marketer will change depending on which stage of the funnel you are trying to influence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">At the top of the funnel you are looking to mass-broadcast to as many potential customers as possible, whether or not they are currently looking to buy your product, or have heard of you before. These customers probably aren&#8217;t ready for a lot of detailed information at this stage, so you are mostly trying to create awareness, and a suitable impression. Your message wants to be something that they are able to understand without doing any further thinking or research: it has to be immediately apparent to the target audience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">At the middle of the funnel you are looking to build on and maintain an awareness that already exists. You are looking for people who are likely to know something about your brand already, and you are reminding them with possibly a rotating set of adverts that each tries to prompt one of your uses or attributes. The reason for rotating is that consumers still aren&#8217;t very motivated here, so you have to keep your messages simple and easy to digest. So a car company might run one set of ads with reminders that they have good fuel economy, and then later run another set with reminders that they have a quiet ride, etc. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">At the bottom of the funnel you are looking for a <strong>call to action<\/strong>, which means you often need communication that is more targeted at your most likely consumers, and is more directly engaged with trying to get them to engage with the sales process. Messaging here that targets people who aren&#8217;t ready to buy is largely wasted. You need to think carefully here about exactly what buying action you want to trigger (i.e., do they have to book an appointment with a salesperson, or just click a link to buy something directly), and you need to optimize your process so that interested consumers can get into and through this process as efficiently as possible (you don&#8217;t want them calling for appointments when your sales office is shut on a weekend, or having to click through a long series of pages to checkout on your website, because some will get bored and drop out).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What does this explain about our car ads above?<\/h5>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Part of the reason the Peugot ad above was so slick and expensive was that it was top-of-funnel, trying to create a positive impression in a very wide audience, as a way to influence a potential large volume of future sales. That means that it had a bigger budget available, and had to be very careful about catching the attention of people who might not be very motivated to learn about cars right now, and to make sure people internalized the right impression from it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Part of the reason the dealership advert had a low budget was that it was a bottom-of-funnel effort to reach a much smaller number of people in just one local area, who were already actively looking to buy a car. Its only real goal was to get these people to translate this interest into visiting their sales lot. It didn&#8217;t need incredibly slick images to do this, it just wanted to capture their attention so it could tempt them to turn their interest into action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Don&#8217;t firms run both types of messages?<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Not everyone does, but they generally should. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There&#8217;s an excellent and widely-respected book called &#8220;the long and short of it&#8221; <span class=\"zp-InText-zp-ID--4193465-L7AMGU85--wp2890 zp-InText-Citation loading\" rel=\"{ 'pages': 'np', 'items': '{4193465:L7AMGU85}', 'format': '(%a%, %d%, %p%)', 'brackets': '', 'etal': '', 'separator': '', 'and': '' }\"><\/span> that analysed data on thousands of brands. Their key finding is that brand building is where marketing gets most of its return, and yet, many firms undervalue it because it doesn&#8217;t return the immediate revenue that sales-based adverts do. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If a firm analyses its returns from one three-month window to the next, it will focus almost entirely on sales-building messaging, because in that short timespan, those messages will be the ones that get customers in their front door. But if that same firm ran a more balanced mix for a year or more, they would start to see more sales than if they had kept running only sales-building ones. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Why? Because brand-building isn&#8217;t just an accumulation of having seen many many sales pitches. Brand building is about creating more lasting impressions in consumers&#8217; minds, and this makes you appear more credible by building a network of useful brand associations in their memory. This can make future sales-building much more effective, with consumers more likely to pay attention and respond by visiting your store, putting your products into their shopping carts, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In fact, Binet and Field&#8217;s data suggests that for FMCGs#up, the optimal strategy is spending 60% of your budget on brand-building, and only 40% on sales-building. Brands really do seem to do a lot of work in helping move sales.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"brxe-div footnote_anchor\"><div class=\"brxe-div footnote_shifter\">\n<pre class=\"wp-block-verse\">#down. Recall FMCGs are Fast Moving Consumer Goods - the things that fill most supermarket shelves<\/pre>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In fact, brand building is so cumulative that the same dollar spent on advertising by a big brand can be 18 times more effective than the same dollar spent by a small brand &#8211; purely because the brand is already big; People are more willing to accept and remember it because they are already familiar with it. This is a grossly unfair advantage, but capitalism has always favoured those who start with the most advantages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This 18x figure comes from Mark Ritson (a former professor and brand consultant turned entrepreneur) who describes these things extremely well in this <a href=\"https:\/\/www.everyonehatesmarketers.com\/podcast\/how-to-grow-a-company\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.everyonehatesmarketers.com\/podcast\/how-to-grow-a-company\">podcast episode<\/a>. Note: you can listen or read the transcript at that link, but be warned: this episode has an unusually large amount of naughty language, grandstanding, and (rather opinionated) digressions, even by the usual standards of the Everyone Hates Marketers podcast. If you can live with that, though, Mark Ritson is very well-informed and shares a lot of very practical insights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-pb-accordion-item c-accordion__item js-accordion-item no-js applied\" data-initially-open=\"false\" data-click-to-close=\"true\" data-auto-close=\"true\" data-scroll=\"false\" data-scroll-offset=\"0\"><h5 id=\"at-28900\" class=\"c-accordion__title js-accordion-controller\" role=\"button\">An exception to the rule: car manufacturers in America do little sales-building<\/h5><div id=\"ac-28900\" class=\"c-accordion__content\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There is a reason for this, though: in the US there is a legally mandated separation between car manufacturers and the local &#8216;dealers&#8217; that sell cars to consumers#up. This means that manufacturers (like Peugeot and Ford) have no reason to run anything but brand-building ads, while the local dealerships focus mostly on sales-building. This makes their adverts good places to spot brand vs. sales-building strategies in action.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"brxe-div footnote_anchor\"><div class=\"brxe-div footnote_shifter\">\n<pre class=\"wp-block-verse\">#down. If you find these things amusing, Cracked.com has a 3-minute comedy video <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=gmQE4qdb9fg\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=gmQE4qdb9fg\">satirizing this arrangement<\/a><\/pre>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There are people who don&#8217;t like this law, but changing it would involve convincing lawmakers to pass legislation. Any attempt to convince them to do this would compete against a <strong>very<\/strong> well-funded campaign from networks of wealthy car dealers. They will protest (fairly or not) that your proposed change would destroy jobs (and also the politician&#8217;s chances of receiving large campaign donations). Without commenting on the general effectiveness of such tactics, we note that this law still exists.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-pb-accordion-item c-accordion__item js-accordion-item no-js\" data-initially-open=\"false\" data-click-to-close=\"true\" data-auto-close=\"true\" data-scroll=\"false\" data-scroll-offset=\"0\"><h5 id=\"at-28901\" class=\"c-accordion__title js-accordion-controller\" role=\"button\">Example: A marketer giving advice about top &amp; bottom of funnel Facebook ads<\/h5><div id=\"ac-28901\" class=\"c-accordion__content\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Here is a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=J_EFokozjd4\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=J_EFokozjd4\">14-minute video<\/a> of a marketer giving advice to car dealerships on how to make Facebook ads. It&#8217;s not an exciting watch (unless writing these ads is your job, or you are a genuine enthusiast), but even just a quick scan shows that he is thinking a lot about whether the ads he looks at work in a bottom-of-funnel way (i.e., &#8220;click here to discuss buying this specific 2015 Chevy Impala with 90,000 miles&#8221;) vs. in top-of-funnel ways (i.e., &#8220;we are friendly, come browse our website&#8221;). <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He regards ads as being &#8220;higher value&#8221; the closer they are to the bottom of the funnel, because that makes them more likely to &#8220;<strong>convert<\/strong>&#8221; into immediate sales. He is right, at least in the short run. In the longer run a balanced approach can work better (assuming you can execute it successfully, and reach people repeatedly), because the top-of-funnel adverts will help the bottom-of-funnel ones convert at higher rates.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How do you plan ad campaigns?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ideally by reading a few books first and having quite a lot of training. But if we have to summarize a few hints, they might go something like this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Consider your goals<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Are you trying to launch a new product or line extension? Do you have a big existing brand and your tracking shows consumer sentiment is dipping? Are you running a seasonal promotion to try to prompt buying around some public holiday or event? <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The trick here is to think about what consumers already know (or feel) about your product or brand, how they make their buying decisions, and where you might want to intervene to change on of those things, or connect them together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Here&#8217;s a poster for a fancy restaurant that appeared at Manchester airport: <\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"800\" height=\"418\" src=\"https:\/\/illuminated-text.com\/cb\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2023\/11\/who-is-your-sign-for-s.jpg\" alt=\"A very wide advert posted on an airport wall. More than half of it is taken up with six black and white photos of the head and shoulders of business people in suits, with their names and jobs (&quot;Carlo Dilstenfano - Chairman&quot;, then the managing director, manager, South Marketing Manager, North Marketing manager, etc) Underneath it says &quot;Winner of Twenty Two Prestigious Awards&quot;, then a URL for the restaurant, and a logo which is the name &quot;San Carlo&quot; written in slightly cursive font. At the far right side is a small slogan saying &quot;San Carlo has the ingredients others can only dream of&quot;, credited to The Observer (a newspaper). Underneath this in smaller writing its locations are listed, two of which are in department stores\" class=\"wp-image-2945\" srcset=\"https:\/\/illuminated-text.com\/cb\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2023\/11\/who-is-your-sign-for-s.jpg 800w, https:\/\/illuminated-text.com\/cb\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2023\/11\/who-is-your-sign-for-s-300x157.jpg 300w, https:\/\/illuminated-text.com\/cb\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2023\/11\/who-is-your-sign-for-s-768x401.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A poster for a restaurant as seen at Manchester airport. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">What is the goal here? They are showing it to people who are wealthy enough to fly, and who are arriving in the city (can you imagine how silly it would be if someone had posted it on the departure side, and so was only seen by people who were about to fly hundreds of miles away?). It&#8217;s a little hard to see in the photo, but it does list their locations on the far end. So presumably this is a top-of-funnel effort to introduce the restaurant to people who are new to the city.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Because it&#8217;s top-of-funnel there&#8217;s very little attempt to get people to make an immediate booking (there&#8217;s some social media stuff at the bottom, but it&#8217;s small). Mostly it tells you that they&#8217;ve won a lot of awards, and it&#8217;s run by a bunch of people who wear suits. So they are presumably hoping that people who see this in a day or two will look for somewhere nice to eat, and will either remember the name and look them up or will recognize them as being a high-quality and familiar choice if they later see the restaurants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Still, the choice to dominate it with photos of their executives is a little puzzling. Is a professional-looking managing director what people are really looking for in an evening&#8217;s dining? A cynic might guess that the real intended audience is those executives themselves (&#8220;look honey, that&#8217;s me!&#8221;).  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Consider where consumers are in the funnel<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If they are near the top then you mostly want to establish your identity &#8211; what brand associations do you want to establish? If they are near the bottom, then what will cue them to want to make a purchase immediately?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Consider this poster advertising a mortgage product:<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"800\" height=\"540\" src=\"https:\/\/illuminated-text.com\/cb\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2023\/11\/scary-legally-required-notices-s.jpg\" alt=\"A sign for TSB bank. It has a cartoon picture of a family standing next to a &quot;SOLD&quot; sign., and a large caption saying &quot;Fix and Flex mortgages. A new way to borrow well.&quot; Underneath is the bank's logo and a warning sign in a box saying &quot;Your home may be repossessed if you do not keep up with payments on your mortgage&quot;\" class=\"wp-image-2944\" srcset=\"https:\/\/illuminated-text.com\/cb\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2023\/11\/scary-legally-required-notices-s.jpg 800w, https:\/\/illuminated-text.com\/cb\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2023\/11\/scary-legally-required-notices-s-300x203.jpg 300w, https:\/\/illuminated-text.com\/cb\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2023\/11\/scary-legally-required-notices-s-768x518.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A poster for TSB bank at a Manchester area railway station <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">What part of the funnel is this aimed at?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Let&#8217;s start with the obvious: Most consumers are going to have no idea what a &#8220;fix and flex&#8221; mortgage is (as the poster itself says, it&#8217;s &#8220;a new way to borrow&#8221;). So what is achieved by putting those words in front of people on their own?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If it were top-of-funnel advertising, the goal would be to increase general awareness of the bank and associate it with positive things. This poster does put their name out, and try to show that they do things in innovative ways, though whether it helps or hurts to throw out a term like &#8220;fix and flex&#8221; depends on whether consumers interpret this as sounding smart, or just being confusing. You&#8217;d have to do market research to find out which (though our guess is &#8220;confusing&#8221;).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If it were a middle-of-funnel ad then it would be trying to explain how the product or benefit works, but it doesn&#8217;t. So we can probably rule that out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If it is bottom-of-funnel, then the goal is to try to get people who are looking for mortgages to call them up. This seems dubious as the <strong>call to action<\/strong> is rather small (do you see the tiny text that says &#8220;Search: TSB Fix and Flex&#8221;?). Also it seems this would work as a bottom-of-funnel message unless one of the main frustrations of people who are shopping for mortgages is that they can&#8217;t decide between a fixed vs. a flex rate mortgage, and they need some kind of way to combine them. Now maybe those people do exist in large numbers &#8211; this is where you need to do your market research &#8211; but we&#8217;re sceptical. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Consider your resources<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If you are spending at least a million dollars on your campaign then you can hire a big media company to help orchestrate it, generate the &#8220;creative&#8221; (i.e., the content of the ads), and book it onto TV stations, billboards, internet ads, etc, If your budget isn&#8217;t that big then you still might be able to hire a smaller agency to do some of those things for you. If you are doing it &#8220;in house&#8221; (i.e., yourself) then you need to think about whether you have dedicated media people to do this work, or are if you going to jump in with a DIY (&#8220;Do It Yourself&#8221;) spirit?<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"700\" height=\"972\" src=\"https:\/\/illuminated-text.com\/cb\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2023\/11\/poster-embrace-irony.jpg\" alt=\"Poster with a large black and white photo of the singer Bono. The headline is &quot;ABSOLUTE SH**E&quot;, and there are little speech bubbles on the photo saying &quot;Over 4 hours of nonstop garbage - Timeout&quot; and &quot;Awful. Just awful - James May&quot; and &quot;Oh the humanity - Brian Sewell&quot;, and &quot;The worst night of your life - Evening post&quot; and &quot;This will spoil your whole month - The Sun&quot;. and one from singer Phil Collins saying &quot;What are you talking about, I loved it&quot;. Underneath there is a place and date, and more captions: &quot;Never to be repeated, thank goodness \/ An awesome party of mind-bogglingly catch tunes that will make you question your musical taste \/ Prizes for everyone who doesn't tear their ears off \/ Dance, cringe, and drink to forget this abominations&quot; In the corners there are smaller pictures of singers: the lead from Nickleback, Cher, Kid Rock, Hansen, Abba, Milli Vanilli\" class=\"wp-image-2946\" srcset=\"https:\/\/illuminated-text.com\/cb\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2023\/11\/poster-embrace-irony.jpg 700w, https:\/\/illuminated-text.com\/cb\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2023\/11\/poster-embrace-irony-216x300.jpg 216w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">If you don&#8217;t have a media budget, your ad might have to cover pretty much the entire funnel all in one go &#8211; in which case it probably needs very entertaining &#8220;<strong>copy<\/strong>&#8221; (text) to keep people reading<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Consider your media<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A big agency will typically run media over a mix of channels because they have different strengths. If you are a smaller operation then you likely have to pick and choose more carefully.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Posters and radio ads:<\/strong> Relatively cheap, very geographically targeted, but have to have quite simple messages (especially posters). Also, in some places posters can be tricky to buy as the supply chain for them can be overly complicated and somewhat opaque.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"800\" height=\"338\" src=\"https:\/\/illuminated-text.com\/cb\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2023\/11\/billboard-s.jpg\" alt=\"A gate into a construction site. The boards on one side read &quot;180 state-of-the-art apartments, 210 room boutique hotel, 62,000 sq ft office space&quot; and on the other side says &quot;live \/ relax \/ work&quot;\" class=\"wp-image-2942\" srcset=\"https:\/\/illuminated-text.com\/cb\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2023\/11\/billboard-s.jpg 800w, https:\/\/illuminated-text.com\/cb\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2023\/11\/billboard-s-300x127.jpg 300w, https:\/\/illuminated-text.com\/cb\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2023\/11\/billboard-s-768x324.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Boards outside a construction site in Manchester, trying to build brand awareness for what is being built<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>TV ads: <\/strong>Expensive to make and run (sometimes very so, depending on which area&#8217;s &#8220;media market&#8221; you are buying in), but can have some considerable top-of-funnel brand-building credibility. People tend to assume that if they are seeing ads for a product on TV that it must have reached some minum level of seriousness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Point of sale ads:<\/strong> These are the adverts that are placed inside of shops &#8211; right where people are deciding whether to make a purchase. Obviously these tend to be bottom-of-funnel selling &#8211; prompting people to try things, or reminding them of ads they have already seen. That said, the authors recall visiting a garden center that had little video screens attached to shelves, running short videos on loop explaining the benefits of some of their products. This was an effective way of combining middle and bottom of funnel advertising..<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Internet ads:<\/strong> These come in a range of options. Common ones are banner ads that appear on web pages, search ads that appear near results in search engines, and &#8220;pre-roll&#8221; ads (the short video ads that run before videos on sites like YouTube). Internet ads offer many advantages. They are often cheap to produce, they can be run in small or large quantities, and they offer very precise tracking of how well they work &#8211; you can get precise metrics for how many people click on them, and how many of those people convert.#up into sales.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"brxe-div footnote_anchor\"><div class=\"brxe-div footnote_shifter\">\n<pre class=\"wp-block-verse\">#down. \"convert\" is digital marketing jargon. See the glossary at the bottom of this page<\/pre>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Internet ads offer some degree of targeting, because you can ask for them to be aimed at sometimes very precise demographics, interest groups, etc &#8211; although it isn&#8217;t always clear how accurate that targeting is &#8211; you mostly have to take the vendor&#8217;s word for it (that trust is open to abuse &#8211; and does get abused). In fact, a known problem with online ad markets is that they are very &#8220;opaque&#8221; &#8211; it&#8217;s hard for an ad buyer to know precisely what they are getting &#8211; often you don&#8217;t even know which pages your ads are appearing on because they are sold in bulk through real-time auctions organized by middle-man agencies, not the page that hosts the ad itself). <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Consider how long it runs for<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ads are often more effective with some repetition, that is ideally, spaced out over time (instead of just seen back to back). <strong>Spacing<\/strong> aids with learning and memory <span class=\"zp-InText-zp-ID--4193465-R2XCKC92-_-4193465-J89SA8L5-_-4193465-CNSAKP9Q-_-4193465-UU9MQMUM--wp2890 zp-InText-Citation loading\" rel=\"{ 'pages': 'np', 'items': '{4193465:R2XCKC92},{4193465:J89SA8L5},{4193465:CNSAKP9Q},{4193465:UU9MQMUM}', 'format': '(%a%, %d%, %p%)', 'brackets': '', 'etal': '', 'separator': '', 'and': '' }\"><\/span>. But if an ad runs too many times, it can create &#8220;<strong>burnout<\/strong>&#8220;, where people get sick of it (what ad did you get sick of? We all have at least one). <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The classic solution to burnout is to create variants of ads, in which there are different &#8216;creative&#8217; executions of the same message (or, for longer-term campaigns, of messages that evolve over time to cover perhaps different product attributes or benefits).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Beyond ads: Content marketing<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If you start doing internet searches for &#8220;how do I make a website&#8221; you will quickly find lots of helpful resources like &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.hostinger.co.uk\/tutorials\/how-to-make-a-website\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.hostinger.co.uk\/tutorials\/how-to-make-a-website\">How to make a website from scratch: A beginner&#8217;s guide<\/a>&#8220;, and &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/kinsta.com\/blog\/wp-page-builder\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/kinsta.com\/blog\/wp-page-builder\/\">10 reasons to build your website with WP page builder<\/a>&#8220;, and &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.wpbeginner.com\/guides\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.wpbeginner.com\/guides\/\">How to make a WordPress website in 2023 (ultimate guide)<\/a>&#8220;. A skim of these sites will show that they are well-written and full of useful advice, tailored to the needs of people who are contemplating building their first site. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Isn&#8217;t it wonderful that the world is full of people who help us for free! Thanks, helpful people!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If you look closer, these sites are all made by companies that are looking to sell things to people who are building websites#up. And yet, these are not traditional sales pages: They don&#8217;t say: &#8220;want a website? Sign up here and pay us!&#8221;. No, they offer simple, useful, easy-to-digest advice that educates beginners on the many things they need to know, no matter who they buy their services from.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"brxe-div footnote_anchor\"><div class=\"brxe-div footnote_shifter\">\n<pre class=\"wp-block-verse\">#down. The first two sell web hosting (cloud storage for websites' files), the third sells software that adds functionality to some kinds of sites. They all sell consulting services to help consumers build sites<\/pre>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Why would the firms go to such lengths to be so very helpful?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It is called <strong>&#8220;content marketing&#8221;<\/strong>. These firms know that there are many people who want advice on how to build sites, but who aren&#8217;t ready to buy the key services yet. They are providing free advice in order to start building a relationship with these people. This is a classic top-of-funnel marketing strategy. By providing dozens of pages filled with advice on the many issues that beginner page builders will have, they are positioning themselves to later be able to gently suggest themselves as options when those people do need services (i.e., they can shift to bottom-of-funnel, sales building). The key is that when those bottom-of-funnel offers are contemplated, the firms hope to appear as far more credible, likeable, knowledgeable, and helpful providers, whom people should be willing to trust.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Web-pages are not the only kind of content you can create for this. People try to get followings on social media platforms (such as Linked-In) by offering helpful and friendly free advice, they build up email newsletters (this may sound old fashioned, but is still a thing that happens &#8211; especially in niche industries). In the podcast linked above Mark Ritson openly admits that his participation in the interview is a form of content marketing. What these people are all doing is building brand recognition with potential bosses, clients, or consumers, so that when they later want to sell something (be it their services or merchandise, etc) they have a receptive audience who knows and trusts them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Content marketing: are you building the right audience?<\/h5>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">One trap that aspiring content marketers sometimes fall into is spending a lot of time, energy, and money building big social media followings, only to find that the edgy interesting content that drew their crowd has assembled followers who aren&#8217;t particularly interested in the services they are trying to sell. It might be gratifying to their ego to see that they have so many people reading their output, but if it doesn&#8217;t help put food on their table, this is all it is: an ego boost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Think of the webpage service companies we started with: Their pages giving advice on how to build web pages are tailored to appeal to people who are thinking about starting one, but aren&#8217;t sure how. It provides information, guidance, and reassurance to bring them to the point that making that page becomes a more realistic option for them. At this point these consumers have moved into the firm&#8217;s core target market: people who need web hosting, or who have web pages that need basic functionality adding. It&#8217;s beautifully targeted content marketing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">A glossary of terms from this page<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table><thead><tr><th>Marketing jargon<\/th><th>Meaning<\/th><\/tr><\/thead><tbody><tr><td>Brand-building<\/td><td>Communications that focus on create long-term brand awareness and associations<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Sales-building<\/td><td>Communications that focus on creating short-term sales by getting people to buy a given product now<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Top-of-funnel<\/td><td>Marketing activity aimed at brand-building to a large pool of potential consumers<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Middle-of-funnel<\/td><td>Activity that educates consumers on what the product is \/ how to works \/ what its key benefits are \/ etc<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Bottom-of-funnel<\/td><td>Activity aimed at converting people who may be &#8220;ready to buy&#8221; into sales<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Create urgency<\/td><td>Give consumers a sense that they will lose out if they don&#8217;t buy soon (because the product will be gone, or some deal will expire, etc)<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Conversion rate (or a person &#8220;converting&#8221;)<\/td><td>The percentage of people who see a piece of digital content (e.g., ads, websites, etc) who then buy the thing offered (i.e., who convert from viewers into buyers)<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Call to action<\/td><td>The part of a message that prompts the user to act now (to buy, visit a dealership, get a quote, etc)<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Spacing<\/td><td>Showing adverts so that people&#8217;s exposure is repeated in a way that is spaced out over time (so there are days or weeks between their exposures). This increases memory of them<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Burnout<\/td><td>When people see an advert too many times and get bored of it.<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Content marketing<\/td><td>Creating information or resources that people might read for interest value, that is mostly not trying to actively sell anything. It is a top-of-funnel way to create brand recognition and make it easier to sell to people later.<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Copy<\/td><td>The words in an advert. &#8220;Copy writer&#8221; is a job that one can have in marketing<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"> <\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Review<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">{pods_post_review}<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-dots\"\/>\n\n\n\n<div id='zp-InTextBib-zotpress-391a1f95d51aea575d93a0f373f4e39f' class='zp-Zotpress zp-Zotpress-InTextBib wp-block-group zp-Post-2890'>\r\n\t\t<span class=\"ZP_ITEM_KEY ZP_ATTR\">{4193465:L7AMGU85};{4193465:R2XCKC92},{4193465:J89SA8L5},{4193465:CNSAKP9Q},{4193465:UU9MQMUM}<\/span>\r\n\t\t<span class=\"ZP_STYLE ZP_ATTR\">apa<\/span>\r\n\t\t<span class=\"ZP_SORTBY ZP_ATTR\">creator<\/span>\r\n\t\t<span class=\"ZP_ORDER ZP_ATTR\">asc<\/span>\r\n\t\t<span class=\"ZP_TITLE ZP_ATTR\"><\/span>\r\n\t\t<span class=\"ZP_SHOWIMAGE ZP_ATTR\"><\/span>\r\n\t\t<span class=\"ZP_SHOWTAGS ZP_ATTR\"><\/span>\r\n\t\t<span class=\"ZP_DOWNLOADABLE ZP_ATTR\"><\/span>\r\n\t\t<span class=\"ZP_NOTES ZP_ATTR\"><\/span>\r\n\t\t<span class=\"ZP_ABSTRACT ZP_ATTR\"><\/span>\r\n\t\t<span class=\"ZP_CITEABLE ZP_ATTR\"><\/span>\r\n\t\t<span class=\"ZP_TARGET ZP_ATTR\"><\/span>\r\n\t\t<span class=\"ZP_URLWRAP ZP_ATTR\"><\/span>\r\n\t\t<span class=\"ZP_FORCENUM ZP_ATTR\">0<\/span>\r\n\t\t<span class=\"ZP_HIGHLIGHT ZP_ATTR\"><\/span>\r\n\t\t<span class=\"ZP_POSTID ZP_ATTR\">2890<\/span><div class='zp-List loading'>\n<div class=\"zp-SEO-Content\"><\/div><!-- .zp-zp-SEO-Content -->\n<\/div><!-- .zp-List --><\/div><!--.zp-Zotpress-->\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Is your ad trying to build your brand, or convert viewers into buyers? Practical marketing comms (with handy glossary of terms)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2949,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"chapter":[20,24],"exclude_from_index":[16],"class_list":["post-2890","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","chapter-8-communications-1-foundations","chapter-12-practitioner-perspectives","exclude_from_index-include"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/illuminated-text.com\/cb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2890","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/illuminated-text.com\/cb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/illuminated-text.com\/cb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/illuminated-text.com\/cb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/illuminated-text.com\/cb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2890"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/illuminated-text.com\/cb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2890\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3402,"href":"https:\/\/illuminated-text.com\/cb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2890\/revisions\/3402"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/illuminated-text.com\/cb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/illuminated-text.com\/cb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/illuminated-text.com\/cb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/illuminated-text.com\/cb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2890"},{"taxonomy":"chapter","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/illuminated-text.com\/cb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/chapter?post=2890"},{"taxonomy":"exclude_from_index","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/illuminated-text.com\/cb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/exclude_from_index?post=2890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}