How much does your prospect know?

How much does your prospect know?
Why You Need To Grasp Your Prospect Awareness Levels

I run a lot of Google Ads & Facebook Ad for Clients.

It would be fair to say that a high percentage of these clients were either running their ads or someone was managing them for them.

For most of these clients, they were not getting a return on their Ad spend. Simply put, they were performing poorly.

Waste is the biggest killer when it comes to spending money on Advertising.

So when I asked to review these ads, it doesn’t take long to pick up clues to where they’re wasting large wads of cash.

It staggers me how terrible these Ad Campaigns & the Strategies behind are.

Let me share how a well crafted AdWords campaign was a financial disaster

I was speaking at Copywriting workshop.

At the panel session, we were reviewing their ads.

A woman told me she could not understand why her ad Campaign was bombing so badly costing her a fortune.

She told me she had spent $1000 over the last month.

So I asked her how many sales has she made?

She Responded, “I have not made a sale.”

Ok? Let’s take a look at your ads.

On face value, it was a well written compelling ad getting a ton of Clicks.

She was offering a beautiful set of Costume Jewellery for under $90.

Photo by Avantgarde Concept on Unsplash

The copy got women to click on the ads.

So the target audience & copy were good. So what was the problem?

So we then went & looked at Landing page where she was sending all her visitors.

Whoa, Instantly I could tell there was a major problem with the messaging on this page.

She had made a Rookie error which chewing cash at a frightening rate.

She was so close to the product she couldn’t even fathom what was wrong with the conversions of the ads.

It was so Obvious why she was not making sales.

You see her ad was targeting women looking for Costume Jewellery under $100, but she was sending to her Homepage. Her homepage was set up to Showcase all the Jewellery she stocked.

So most of the Homepage was taken up with Cartier, Bvlgari, Mikimoto & Graff  Jewellery.

Right at the bottom was her Costume Jewellery range.

The Trouble was there was such disconnect they never got to the bottom of the page with costume jewellery before hitting the back button.

These women clicking on the ads were expecting to see Costume Jewellery, instead saw glossy photos of $10k jewellery Masterpieces.

Photo by Andy Holmes on Unsplash

Sure they look stunning, but that’s not what she is promoting in her ads.

This problem was easy to fix. Just send the ad traffic to the costume Jewellery page.

An Easy fix.  But what an expensive lesson.

What a waste.

Lesson: Trying to create a campaign that tries to do everything. Is going to waste plenty of resources & usually do a poor job.

She was hoping if she enticed them with Cheap Costume Jewellery, they would get so excited & fall in love with the exquisite Jewellery that they would be tempted to buy an elegant piece.

There was a total disconnect from the offer in the ad, Cheap Costume Jewellery to reaching landing page looking like Tiffany jewels.

I say we can make a fair assumption to say women looking for Costume Jewellery are not the same ladies buying Cartier.

Most ads don’t get a good conversion because they’re trying to be all things to all people.

When people are searching on Google, They are all at various stages on their quest to find information to solve their problem. And they have different levels of prospect awareness, from most aware to least aware.

Not Everybody has the same understanding and awareness of the problem

In Breakthrough Advertising Eugene Schwartz suggests there are five stages of awareness.

I have mentioned Breakthrough Advertising on many occasions on my blog. This book is a must read, but it is for advanced marketers… I’ll be honest it’s a heavy read, it took a couple of reads to digest these powerful copywriting & Marketing concepts. It’s not what you would as your first marketing book.

I reckon I’ve read it least 10-12 times. I each time gain more insights, why understanding five stages of awareness is so vital to all marketing campaigns.

There are five stages of awareness, as described by the legendary copywriter and author of Breakthrough Advertising Gene Schwartz:

The State of Awareness Of Your Market

Gene states you should start with Market (Your Audience), and you end with your product.

“The bridge between these two – their meeting place – is your ad.”

“Your ad always begins with your market, and leads that market inevitably into your product.”

This forms the opening chapter the rest of the book goes in great detail how to do this.

You Have To Start With 3 Questions

So Where Do Your Prospects Fall on the Awareness Scale

So to work out your Prospect’s State of Awareness, we need to ask these questions. (Warning the English is a bit dated, so you may have to reread them a couple of times to get the gist of the question.”

Answering these will help you determine the State of Awareness in your Market.

1 – The Most Aware

Most Aware – The customer knows of your product knows what it does – knows he wants it…

Conflicted (Very aware)

Your Prospect knows of your product, knows what it does, and knows they want it.

The most aware is most responsive, but also the smallest type of prospect to go after.

These people are easier to make a sale, and most businesses want easy. So the most aware market has the most competitors try to grab 3-7% looking to something now.

2 Product Aware – The Customer Knows of the Product But Doesn’t Yet Want it

Your project isn’t completely aware of all your product does, or isn’t convinced of how well it does, or hasn’t yet been told how much better it does it now…

Suppressed (Product aware)

Your Prospect knows of your product, but doesn’t yet want it

3 Solution aware – How To Introduce New Products

The prospect either knows, or recognises immediately, that he wants what the product does: but he doesn’t yet know that there is a product – your product – that will do it for him…

Yearning (Solution aware)

Your Prospect recognises they want what the product does, but doesn’t know there is a product that will do it for them.

4 Problem Aware – How To Introduce Products That Solve Needs

The prospect has – not a desire – but a need. He recognises the need immediately. But he doesn’t yet realise the connection between the fulfilment of the need and your product…

Needy (Problem aware)

Your Prospect needs the product but doesn’t realise the connection between the fulfilment of that need and your product.

5 Least Aware – How to Open Up a Completely Unaware Market

The most difficult- The prospect is either not aware of his desire or need – or he won’t honestly admit it to himself without being lead into it by your ad – or the need is so general and amorphous that it resists being summed up in a single headline – or it’s a secret that just can’t verbalise…

Oblivious (Unaware)

Your prospect is not aware or won’t admit they have a desire.

Unaware — prospects who aren’t even aware of a problem, you, your product, or any solutions — is the biggest universe of prospects. A universe… almost all of your competitors are likely ignoring.

All markets have people at all levels.

So why is awareness important?

Eugene Schwartz said, “Knowing what your prospects know in advance of a sales pitch is just as important as knowing who he is or what he wants.”

So rather than giving a lot of theory on Awareness

So let’s look at how a Chiropractor markets his services.

So does the Chiropractor Want & Need? Prospect Awareness Levels

They are looking for more patients who are suffering back or some other joint pain in their local area,

Chiropractic Services Target Audience

Looking for more patients who are suffering back or some other joint pain in their local area

Most Aware

Most Aware – Knows, likes, trusts you, wants to you to fix their sore back

They want to make an appointment with you. They just want to know when you can see them, You’ve already earnt their Trust.

Product aware

Product Aware – knows he wants a chiropractor, looking for the right one

They have lower back pain right now.

So They’re aware of their low back pain, they’re aware of the different types of treatments.

So they’re aware that there is Physical therapy, & their Doctor mentioned some strong over the counter painkillers, that there’s surgery, that there’s massage, that there’s chiropractic, and so on, They’ve decided chiropractic care offers them the best option.

Solution aware

Solution Aware – debating which solution to use to solve their back pain

They know there are several alternatives to relieving a Sore Back. They’ve come across plenty of so called solutions – Myotherapy + Chiropractic, Remedial Massage, Osteopaths, physiotherapist, Acupuncture, Shiatsu massage. But are not sure which will work for them.

Problem aware – Pain Aware

Problem Aware – wants to solve back pain, but doesn’t know solutions

They have a sore back. The pains getting more intense & are continually flaring up. It’s starting to impact the quality of their life. So they’re looking for answers to ease their back pain.

Least Aware

Unaware – has occasional back pain, but not concerned enough to think about it

A weekend warrior playing regular Sport Like Footy ( Soccer, Rugby League, Union or AFL) or having a regular game of golf, maybe a man or Woman over the age of 60, who doesn’t yet have low back pain, or perhaps they have really mild, back pain. The Back pain doesn’t really bother them because back pain so mild & infrequent they’re not even looking for a solution, they’re not contemplating anything.

Photo by Kenny Webster on Unsplash

“If your prospect is aware of your product and has realised it can satisfy his desire, your headline starts with the product. If he is not aware of your product, but only of the desire itself, your headline starts with the desire.

If he is not yet aware of what he really seeks but is concerned with the general problem, your headline starts with the problem and crystallises it into a specify need.”

Gene Schwartz

This excellent rule to follow, when advertising, it will save you a ton of money.

Breakthrough Advertising – Eugene Schwartz

Hot Traffic – “If your prospect is aware of your product and has realised it can satisfy his desire, your headline starts with the product.”

Warm Traffic – “If he is not aware of your product, but only of the desire itself, your headline starts with desire.”

Cold Traffic – “If he is not yet aware of what he really seeks, but is concerned about the general problem, your headline starts with the problem and crystallised specific need.”

So not only does your Prospects Awareness plays an essential role in your advertising. It’s a vital component for all your campaigns.

Obviously, someone who is conflicted will have more motivation to buy something to solve their problem while someone who is oblivious requires a lot more work to get them to take action.

You have to get into your prospect’s head and figure out what’s on their mind. What their level of awareness is in regards to you, your product, the problem it solves, their awareness of their own problems and much more…

When you discover what level of Awareness you prospects, then you can write your content for each stage.

When you get that Awareness Stages will affect your headlines your Copy. Your Landing Pages & how you structure your campaigns, your ads will be more effective.

Knowing whom you’re targeting and their Prospect Awareness is critical because it tells you how “direct” or “indirect” your Marketing needs to be.

Once you comprehend Prospect Awareness, it frames and wraps around all your marketing.

Eugene Schwartz spends 225 pages on Breakthrough Advertising elaborating on these ideas. When Schwartz wrote Breakthrough Advertising the internet didn’t even exist.

It’s still as relevant as the day it was written now there are so many web facets which add to your marketing complexity, which I’ll cover in future blog articles. If that’s all right?

Do you need help getting a handle on your Prospect Awareness or Digital Marketing?