Hey friends,

There is a famous saying in marketing that

But why is it that the mass marketing can be so ineffective?

When it comes down to it there are two main reasons that marketing might not work.

Either

1) You don’t have Product / Market fit (the customers you are selling to don’t want what you’re selling)

or

2) You are reaching customers at the wrong stage of awareness for your product.

That second reason is what I’ll be discussing in this post.

It’s important when marketing a product to think about what stage of awareness your prospects are at. This is know as the level or stage of awareness (popularized by Eugene Schwartz in his famous book Breakthrough Advertising).

These five stages of awareness are:

1) Unaware: They are unaware of the problem you solve

2) Problem Aware: They are aware of the problem you solve

3) Solution Aware: They are aware of the solution category you provide (but not necessarily you)

4) Your Solution Aware: They are aware of you and your solution

5) Most Aware: They are fully aware of what you offer and just need to be convinced to buy now (or re-purchase)

So how does this relate to your product or service? In your marketing you need to reach your target audience at the awareness stage they’re at.

Let’s take 3 examples: 1) Selling an iPhone 2) Selling an iPhone case and 3) Selling an iPhone portable fan

Everyone knows what an iPhone is. I don’t need to raise awareness for the problem of not having a phone, or why an iPhone is a solution. I just have to say a new iPhone is released, mention some of it’s features and that’s it. An iPhone is an example of a product that is at level 5 awareness: Most Aware

This one is a little more complicated. If you’re selling an iPhone case, your customers could be at any number of levels. They could be unaware that not having a phone case is a problem (or not care or even think it’s a problem). Probably though, I would say that an iPhone phone case is at the Solution Aware stage.

This is the hardest type of product to market. If it’s a new product or new invention, then people probably don’t know they have that problem (or at least aren’t actively searching for a solution). This is the: Unaware stage.

Keep in mind that awareness stages can and should change. Even the iPhone started off in the unaware stage. Your goal is to use your content to drive them down the “awareness funnel” until they are fully aware of what you offer.

If you want to learn more about how to use customer personas in digital marketing, learn more at the AstroLabs Digital Marketing Course.

Stay tuned for the next edition in which we’ll go over some marketing strategies to use for these awareness stages.