Marketing Is Not a Dirty Word
The Audience Engagement Cycle
Our approach to purpose-driven marketing.
What Is the Audience Engagement Cycle?
The Audience Engagement Cycle (AEC) is Relish Studio’s marketing framework for purpose-driven organizations. It’s built on four activities: Attract (helping the right people get to know you), Connect (earning their like and trust), Bond (inviting them to try and buy, whether that means donating, volunteering, or becoming a client), and Inspire (turning them into repeat supporters who refer others). The AEC is Relish’s take on John Jantsch’s Marketing Hourglass, rebuilt for nonprofits, B Corps, and triple-bottom-line organizations.
Most marketing strategy starts with a funnel: pour lots of people in the top, squeeze a few buyers out the bottom. It works, but it treats people like something to be processed. That never sat right with us, and it definitely doesn’t fit organizations built to do good.
It’s how we plan every strategy, website, and campaign, and it’s the framework at the heart of Mission Uncomfortable, the book by Relish co-founder Stu Swineford and copywriter Aaron Wrixon.
Why a Cycle?
Think of the water cycle. People come to you, are changed in some way, and return to their lives. If you’ve done it well, they come back and bring others with them. That’s the goal: relationships that renew themselves, not a one-way chute.
Attract → Connect → Bond → Inspire → back to Attract.
A funnel asks where someone is. The AEC asks what you should be doing for them. It’s built on four activities:
Attract
Get the attention of the right people, not just more traffic, with content that answers the questions they’re actually asking, wherever they’re searching, from Google to AI assistants. Attract addresses all the ways your ideal audience gets to know about you and the products and services you offer.
Signs it’s leaking: You’re invisible in search for the things you’re known for. Most of your traffic comes from people who already know you. Your content talks more about you than about the problems your audience cares about.
Connect
Signs it’s leaking: Visitors can’t tell within five seconds what you do or who it’s for. Your proof (testimonials, results, partners) is buried or missing. You ask for an email address without offering anything worth trading it for.
Bond
This is where the rubber meets the road. In Bond, your audience is encouraged to take the next step in your relationship: to try and buy what you are providing. This could take the form of an exchange of emails inquiring about your services, donation or volunteer opportunities, all the way to becoming a donor, customer, or client.
Signs it’s leaking: Your only calls to action are “Donate” or “Contact Us.” Forms ask for too much, too soon. People visit again and again and never raise their hand.
Inspire
During Inspire, we transition supporters into repeat, ongoing supporters and engaged promoters of you and your programs. Stakeholders repeat their engagements and refer new business to you in this phase. You share your impact, invite their input, recognize their contributions, and make it easy for them to tell your story to their networks and further support your mission.
Signs it’s leaking: First-time donors or customers rarely come back. You have no system for asking for referrals or reviews. Your follow-up after a “yes” is a receipt and silence.
People don’t move through these in lockstep. Some donate or choose to engage with you the first time they connect. Others volunteer for years before they give, or follow your organization for ages before they become clients and customers. The AEC makes sure you have something meaningful to offer them at every point along the way.
An Investment, Not a Cost
The for-profit world talks about Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC). We prefer Stakeholder Acquisition Investment. Every hour and dollar you invest in building the systems that Attract, Connect, and Bond with your audiences pays off in spades when they are Inspired to come back to you again and again and become brand evangelists. These activities don’t represent money and energy out of your pocket; they’re investments in your organization that should return dividends and multiply your ability to affect the triple bottom line (profit, people, and the planet).
Putting the AEC to Work
The AEC isn’t a poster for the break room. It’s a working tool, and it shows up in everything we do:
AEC Assessment
An activity-by-activity review of your homepage, with a priority-ranked list of what to fix first.
Relish GPS
Our Growth and Purpose Strategy, which applies the AEC across your whole online presence.
Strategy FIRST
The full engagement, where we map your ideal stakeholders and your complete Audience Engagement Cycle, then build the plan to execute.
Website design
Every site we build is structured around the four activities, so every page has a job.
Common Questions About the Audience Engagement Cycle
What are the four activities of the Audience Engagement Cycle?
Attract, Connect, Bond, and Inspire. Attract helps the right people get to know you, Connect earns their like and trust, Bond invites them to try and buy, and Inspire turns them into repeat supporters who refer others.
How is the AEC different from a marketing funnel?
A funnel ends at the sale and asks where someone is. The AEC asks what you should be doing for them, and it treats the first “yes” as the start of a relationship. Inspired supporters loop back and bring in the next wave of new ones.
Is the Audience Engagement Cycle only for nonprofits?
No. It was shaped by years of nonprofit work, but it fits any purpose-driven organization, including B Corps, social enterprises, and other triple-bottom-line businesses.
How does the AEC relate to the Marketing Hourglass?
It’s built on it. John Jantsch’s Marketing Hourglass has seven steps: Know, Like, Trust, Try, Buy, Repeat, and Refer. The AEC groups them into four activities and adapts them for organizations where donors, volunteers, and partners matter as much as customers.
How do I find out where my organization is losing people?
Start with an AEC Assessment. We review your homepage against all four activities and hand you a prioritized list of fixes. It’s $699, or $399 for 501(c)(3) organizations.
Related Listening and Reading
Episode 45: Learning How to Identify and Nurture Your Ideal Audience with Julia Keller
Where Does Your Organization Stand?
Want the full story? Read Mission Uncomfortable.
Our AEC Assessment shows where your marketing is strong, where people are slipping away, and what to fix first.