Are you creating content for all stages of your customer awareness journey?

Have you ever been in Instagram and someone hops into your DMs and just starts selling to you.

Let’s be real… the answer here is very likely a big fat yes, right? I know it happens to me a couple of times a week.

It’s real annoying when this happens (please don’t do this).

Sometimes I know what the person is talking about… and sometimes to be frank I have no clue.

And that is because they are trying to sell something to me while I am in a completely different place in my customer awareness journey.

This happens a lot.

It’s very easy to create content that serves the client who is making their final purchasing decisions.

But what happens when you only have content that serves people in the final purchasing decision phase of their customer awareness journey?

It means you are missing out on potential customers just because you haven’t helped walk them through the stages to where they are ready to buy!

You need to have a different conversation with your audience and potential customers depending on their customer awareness journey.

If they are completely unaware of what problem your service helps fix it’s a completely different conversation than those who already know love and are committed to you right?

The 5 main phase of your customer awareness journey

• Unaware
• Problem Aware
• Solution Aware
• Product Aware
• Most Aware

Now let me break down each stage starting at the beginning.

Stage 1 : The Unaware Customer

For those who are unaware, they don’t even realize there is a problem, let alone what your service does to  fix said problem. 

The problem and your business are completely off their radar.  For example, if you are a template shop that makes graphics and templates through the online program canva, and you customers buy your templates to make graphics in their biz, and unaware person would be a new business owner who is brand new to the whole online marketing and graphics world.

Stage 2: The Problem Aware Customer

Then you have the problem aware. 

These guys realize they have a problem. They just are figuring it out and don’t know the solutions or what can be done to fix their problem…. But they want to know. So they are down to research to find out.

Stage 3: The Solution Aware Customer.

Then you have the solution aware. These potential customers know their problem, Know that there are options out there that can help them solve it. Most likely don’t yet know of your biz. 

 They may know of some of your competitors. They understand what it is you and your competitors offer and what problem it will fix.

Stage 4: The Product Aware Customer

Now we move on to Product aware. These guys are almost ready to buy. They know their problem, researched the solutions to fix their problem and are currently looking for the best option. They know you exist along with some other options and they are deciding if what you offer is the best solution.

Stage 5 : The Most Aware

Once you’ve past that stage, we come to the final stage of awareness which is Most aware. 

These guys know you. Know what you sell, know how you can help them. Have worked with you before and can’t wait to work with you again. They are brand loyal, will buy anything you put out there and are enthusiastic. These guys don’t need to be sold to, they are already waiting with their wallets out.

So, to recap… There are 5 stages of your customer awareness journey:

•  unaware

• problem aware

• solution aware

• product aware 

• and most aware.

The first three stages *unaware, problem aware and solution aware* are all people who are still in the figuring out what the options are.  These are people who are going to be less open to a sales pitch and need more education before they even know if they want what you offer you know?  

But I see it all the time.

Businesses missing the mark and jumping on the sales pitch assuming that the customer is at a product aware stage and ready to make a purchase.

When in reality they are in the problem aware stage and trying to figure out the solution… they are not ready to buy anything.

If you jump in front of your customer that is in research mode telling them of all the features of your service or product … they are going to jump ship with a quickness. Because they are not at the right stage of their customer awareness journey

When I realized this. It was a GAME CHANGER! 

You see, as a wedding photographer, I spent years not having to worry anybody that wasn’t in the product aware stage.

Because, well, 1, everyone knows the problem a wedding photographer is going to solve right?  And two, it is such a specific niche that, by the time I was chatting with people, they were already in the final decision making stage which is product aware.

For the most part, people don’t research or think about wedding photography needs until they are engaged and have a wedding date right?

Once I shifted my business to branding photography and helping other businesses, I automatically jumped into the assumption that people knew they needed brand photography and just tried to sell them on hiring me.

It worked for those who knew me already. I worked with a bunch of wedding professionals who I’ve known for years. But I was missing the mark in educating those who didn’t realize how impactful on-brand images for their buisiness can be.

So, the lesson here is to look at how you talk to your audience and the people YOU know would be perfect fits for your service, and create content that aligns with all 5 stages of the customer awareness journey.

Just because YOU know it, doesn’t mean they do yet.

Make sure you have thought through  where people are on their awareness level. And while the product aware folks are essentially the low hanging fruit, it’s also what everyone else it trying to pick.

If you change your game plan and start to educate people in the problem aware and solution aware stages, they will already know like and trust you when they get to that product aware stage. And guess who they are going to call. (It’s you, they are gonna call you.)

It’s a longer game plan, but friends…. That is how you get people to the most aware. Those clients who love and rave about you to everyone!

I challenge you to look at all the ways people can find you and make sure that you have information to help those problem aware and solution aware people out. Because eventually if you do it right…. They’ll be clients for life! 

That’s it friends! Neat topic right? Makes you think a little harder on how talk to your audience! 

And I’m not talking about audience in the terms of just instagram and social media. But  via your educational blog posts and different pages of your website as well as how you talk about your business to people you meet in person. 

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