Knowing the stages of market awareness will allow us, marketers, to asses our target market on a macro level. This will help you determine your market needs, your target audience’s purchase history, and how many competitors you have. Thus, giving you the advantage and opportunity to stand out!
Eugene Schwartz, one of the best copywriters and authors in the marketing industry, popularized these five stages of market awareness. He enumerated and explained these five stages in one of his best-selling books, “Breakthrough Advertising.”
This only proves that it’s not enough to have a great product or service to sell – as a marketer, you also have to check on what your target market already knows about your offer. You need to meet them on where their current mind is at in terms of your product or service.
Stage 1: Unaware.
From the word itself, this is the stage where your target audience is not even aware of the problems they are facing, plus the solutions available to them. As written by Eugene Schwartz: “The prospect is either not aware of his desire or his 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 be verbalized.”
To write copy for these readers, you can impose a question that could lead to a problem that your offer will solve. This will be the way for you to walk them through the next stage.
Stage 2: Problem Aware.
This is the next stage after your market’s “unawareness.” Your market already realizes that they have a problem that needs to be solved. Or, as Gene Schwartz wrote about this stage: “The prospect has—not a desire—but a need. He recognizes the need immediately. But he doesn’t yet realize the connection between the fulfillment of that need and your product.”
And if you are to write a copy for this stage, you’ll start by focusing on the problem or that pain that your audience is having. Then, in the later part of your copy, you can build a desire that they can solve this pain and make life better. Like in the first stage, walk them through the third stage.
Stage 3: Solution Aware.
We are halfway through the five stages. In the solution-aware stage, your prospects already know the problem that they are having and have been searching for solutions that could work to solve their pain.
The only catch is that they are NOT yet aware of your offer. Or, as Schwartz described them: “The prospect either knows, or recognizes 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.”
The copy for this awareness stage will start with a specific solution or the promise of your product. You can show them proof that the solution you are offering does work – that’s what they need.
Stage 4: Product Aware.
This is where your prospect weighs their options – and your product is one of them. The product aware stage is where the real fight between you are your competitors happen before your target market arrives at their final decision.
As Eugene Shwartz described it: “Here, your prospect isn’t completely aware of all your product does, or isn’t convinced of how well it does it, or hasn’t yet been told how much better it does it now.”
At this point, you can be ahead of the competition by giving your offer’s features and benefits specifically. You can also put a scarcity tactic to convince your readers to take action.
Bonus Tip
One huge factor that will put you in front of your competition has a “unique mechanism” – that one feature or benefit that only you can offer. This may take a good deal of time to produce, but it’ll be all worth it. Or, you can have our team help you produce a compelling copy through extensive market research and unique mechanism development.
Stage 5. Most Aware.
Congratulations! You’ve arrived at the final stage. Here, your prospects are well aware of what you can do and are ready to make their purchase decision. All they need is a little push and a way on how they can avail your product.
In the book Breakthrough Advertising, the most aware audiences are described as: “The customer knows of your product—knows what it does— knows he wants it. At this point, he just hasn’t gotten around to buying it yet.”
The type of copy for this awareness level is straightforward and has a simple CTA.
Conclusion
So that’s the five awareness stages in a nutshell. Arriving where your target audience is will require intensive market and competitor research. Not to mention the gruesome hours to create a compelling copy. However, this can all be easy as pie for you if you let our team at Scope Design carry the work for you. Just click on the link below, and let’s talk.
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