The hardest people to reach

Yesterday, I began talking about the 5 stages of customer awareness. Our job with our marketing (and it is true for all forms of marketing… even blog marketing) is to move the person from level 1 (unaware) to level 5 (most aware).

Today, let’s talk about the beginning phase – UNAWARE.

This one is the hardest.

To be clear, most of what we do with content marketing actually starts one level up – at PROBLEM AWARE. People go to Google and they search for a problem or something they want. They find it. And it leads to you.

But, we’ll talk about that tomorrow. Today, we’re talking about UNAWARE.

Here, the person isn’t aware of you. Not only that, they might not even be aware of the need or desire they have. The needs might be really general and they can’t really verbalize it.

People who try to operate in the personal development space have the HARDEST time because they are almost always talking to the unaware. Unaware people may have a problem that you can see, but they don’t see it. It is unclear. It is an amorphous blob and they can’t verbalize it. If they can’t verbalize it, they can’t search for it. Hence, tough market to reach. It is why I always say to the personal development crowd that they have to get more specific. Shoot for PROBLEM AWARE. Easier. Trust me.

The unaware are people out there in the ether (or, in our case, on the internet) who logically would be part of your target market. However, they have no idea you exist. Not only that, they’re not really even thinking about the problem you solve. They are about as far from being ready to buy something from you as they can be. They don’t know you – and they couldn’t care less.

For people who are unaware, you cannot sell to them. They’re not ready for it… For these reasons:

• You don’t talk about price anywhere.
• You don’t talk about your product.
• You don’t even talk about what your product does, or the problem it solves, or the desire it fulfills.

What does that leave?

The market itself. The person himself (or herself). And, their current state of mind and what THEY’RE interested in at the time.

You do this by appealing to emotion. You are speaking to a dissatisfaction they have. People who resonate with that will self-select themselves. You are talking about general beliefs and things they feel.

This is why you often see TV commercials where they barely mention the product itself. Instead, they talk in general emotional terms. All they’re doing here is associating their brand with that feeling.

At this stage, your job is to get your target market to show themselves. And you are doing this by putting forth your beliefs, or the things you stand against. And, by doing this, you are telling THEM what THEY believe, and what they stand against.

Because those who don’t – leave. Those who do – continue reading.

If you’ve never seen it, watch Simon Sinek’s famous TED TALK video How Great Leaders Inspire Action. This is a fantastic talk. But, he talks about the power of WHY. And how famous brands have used WHY to inspire action. This video does a great job of capturing how you best get the attention of the UNAWARE part of your target market.

Another way to reach the unaware is with content themed around current events and things currently going on in the marketplace.

Like, you may have seen some of the survivalist offers or financial offers that were going around with headlines themed around current frustrations, like the end of America, or how Obama was going to kill them or some such things. Think of it what you will, but it works because it reached a market on common ground – things they were fearful of. And, through the content, brought some of them forward to the point where they were buying survival gear or finance stuff on wealth preservation.

So, in terms of your content and your marketing, this UNAWARE phase is absolutely the most difficult.

Like I said, it is why our work generally begins at PROBLEM AWARE. We don’t usually mess with unaware.

But, if you were to try, I’d angle for the 2 approaches discussed:

• Use content and headline that states beliefs (for or against) that your target market may resonate with.
• Go for current events where your target market has a concern.

You then will parlay that connection into them being aware they have a problem. And it goes from there.

Blogs aren’t the best at this.

You can use a blog to do it, but you’ll generally need to use outside media to reach them in the first place. As in, paid ads. Your blog can always be where you meet them, tho.

Alrighty then.

Tomorrow, we’ll get into the next phase: problem aware.

This one is easier. And generally where we actually start.

– David