This is the fourth blog in a series focused on helping you improve the awareness of your prospects, to move them towards becoming a customer through effective content marketing.
In this post you’ll learn how to take your prospects from being ‘product aware’ to being ‘most aware’. This means they’re ready to become a customer, but just need information on terms and price.
You can find the other blogs in this series here;
The Current Situation
At the start of this stage of awareness, your prospect understands what their problem is, knows that a solution exists, and is aware that your offering is potentially the solution they need.
They will have hopefully begun to form an opinion about that last point, thanks to the content you created on the features and benefits of your offering from the last stage. But there’s still a way to go.
Addressing Questions & Objections
Everybody has questions that need answering before they decide to buy something. There are other obstacles to people making a purchase too, like how your offering compares to alternatives or competitors.
These all need to be overcome or answered before you can make a sale. The best way to do this is to answer them in your content, so that your customer doesn’t;
- Have to get in touch with you for an answer.
- Look for an answer elsewhere, which takes them away from your site.
- Give up.
Think about the questions and objections that previous customers or prospects have raised about buying from you. Then find a way to address them in your content.
Let’s use the example from the previous blogs in this series, of the Apple Watch being used by runners to skip songs.
In this scenario, you could explain the ways that the Apple Watch’s functionality is superior to its competitors, and how that will make the process of skipping tracks easier. This will then allow the runner to have a more focused, enjoyable running experience.
As we mentioned before, refer back to the benefits to the customer.
To FAQ or not to FAQ
Would an FAQ section be suitable for your offering?
This isn’t cheating! It can actually help your customer find the answers to their questions quicker than having to read through longer posts.
An FAQ section also keeps the reader on your page and avoids the three actions I mentioned above that you want to avoid, which risk losing them as a potential customer.
You shouldn’t rely on FAQs too much though; by allowing the reader to cherry-pick what sections they read, they can prevent you from creating compelling calls to action.
Produce the Evidence
When you’re trying to convince someone about something, what’s the thing that’s most likely to convince them about the truth?
Proof.
You can build a lot of trust and goodwill with your prospects by creating and sharing valuable content with them, but when you’re moving them towards conversion you need to provide the real-life evidence of your capability.
The best way to do that is through case studies and testimonials — hitting hearts and minds with social proof.
Case studies provide the evidence (supported by data where possible) that you can deliver solutions to your customers’ problems; with reference to specific examples. Case studies are for the mind.
Testimonials play a part in that too, but what they’re best at is providing an emotional hook for your prospects, to show that their peers have benefitted from trusting you, so they can too. Testimonials take care of the hearts.
People don’t generally want to be early adopters, so demonstrating that your offering isn’t a risk helps provide reassurance that by choosing you they aren’t taking a shot in the dark.
Where do we go from here?
If we imagine a customer being on a linear journey of awareness from being completely unaware, to being ready to make a purchase, this is nearly the end of the line.
You’ve created content for every stage of the process, and helped your potential customer understand why your offering is the best for them.
All that’s left to do is explain the terms of the deal. So that’s where we’re going next!
If you’re finding it difficult to bring your customers from product aware to most aware, we’d love to help you, so give the Prize team a call today.
