EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:
The 97% rule says that roughly 97% of the people who visit your site are not ready to purchase. They are researching, comparing, and building confidence rather than rejecting you. This matters most in the Consideration stage of the Marketing Funnel, where customers start asking which solution is right for them. In this stage, you need to have empathy for the 97% of people who aren’t ready to purchase yet. Brands that win in this stage are the ones that demonstrate credibility and proof instead of applying pressure. Optimizing only for the 3% who are ready to buy today produces short-term conversions at the cost of long-term trust.
“People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
— Maya Angelou, American poet and civil rights activist
I once found myself at a military checkpoint in Egypt. My passport had been taken away, I was unable to speak the local language, and I overheard the captain say, “American,” several times into his phone. I was a person of interest, and I didn’t know why. Another time, I was bouncing through the streets of Delhi in an auto rickshaw at 1:00 a.m., tired, itchy from bedbug bites, carrying all my luggage, and lacking a hotel to go to. In other cases, I have slept in an old, converted communist camp in Russia and even wandered deep into sub-Saharan Kenya alongside local tribes.
On the surface, these situations may sound a bit precarious. And to be honest, I was a little nervous in Egypt and frustrated in India. Yet I rarely felt unsafe. Why? Because I trusted the people around me. They were locals I had spent time with before the situation unfolded. I’d met them through people I trusted. In word and deed, they had shown themselves to be reliable.
That trust changed everything. It turned moments that could have felt terrifying into ones I knew would simply make good stories—experiences that enriched my life. It made the difference between panic and perspective.
The idea of trust, or the lack of it, also applies to brands like yours. At times, customers will not approach you and immediately feel a sense of relief. Often, they are feeling uncertain, weighing risks, and wondering whether your solution is right for them. Just as I relied on people who proved trustworthy in unfamiliar places, customers rely on brands that demonstrate integrity, provide evidence, and show up consistently.
From Awareness to Consideration
In the Awareness stage of the marketing funnel, a customer recognizes that they have a problem and begins to look for solutions. They move from being Problem Unaware to Problem Aware to Solution Aware to Product Aware and finally, to Most Aware. By this point, they ideally understand their options and are ready to weigh them. This transition brings them into the Consideration stage of the funnel…
