by Charles George
Today, how we tell stories through our content builds audience awareness and cultivate customers.
In 1966, Eugene Schwartz’s book Breakthrough Advertising introduced levels of audience awareness.
The idea was sales copy needs to meet an audience at their awareness level regarding the problem the product solves.
He broke this down into five prospect and customer awareness levels:
Unaware, Problem Aware, Solution Aware, Product Aware, and Most Aware.
The most aware prospects have already researched solutions and products to solve the problem. At this stage, they evaluate specific products to determine which best solves their needs. At this awareness level, you can be direct and state the product and the price in the headline.
Unaware prospects are not aware the problem exists, so leading with the product or the price in the headline will not resonate with this audience. They will completely skip and bypass reading the ad.
For unaware prospects, make the headline and beginning of the ad story-based to educate the prospect about the problem and then lead them to the solution, which is the product.
Most aware people are low-hanging fruit. They are people actively searching for products to solve their problems. This is where most companies focus the majority of their customer acquisition efforts.
Unaware people offer the largest pool of potential prospects to grow your business. Plus, fewer competitors market to unaware customers. This provides a competitive advantage to educate, build trust, and cultivate relationships that lead to buying your products.
By understanding audience awareness, you can tailor the headline and the lead of the sales letter to match the awareness level.
Building an Audience in the 1960s
In the 1960s, to build an audience, companies would build a list of people who were interested in a topic or an activity, or who were solving a problem, finding a solution, or deciding on a product.
This was done through print, radio, and television advertising.
The company either did one or two-step advertising.
One-step advertising promotes the product directly and builds a customer list.
Two-step advertising promotes a free offer for lead generation so the company can follow up, educate, and lead prospects to become customers. For instance, the offer in two-step lead generation might be a call for a free brochure, a free book, or a report to educate more about the problem and then offer a solution.
Nurturing prospects and customers was done through direct mail. Thus, there was the expense of creating the content being mailed, printing, and postage with each communication.
Depending on how often the company communicated with prospects and customers and the type of content sent, this could lead to a significant but necessary expense.
Storytelling to Cultivate Prospect and Customer Relationships Today
Today, we have a plethora of ways we can use content to connect, build trust, and cultivate relationships with an audience.
For instance, one-step and two-step customer acquisition still exists. We can promote a product through another company’s email list via paid sponsorships or affiliate marketing. Or we can promote a report for two-step lead generation and follow up with the subscribers on our email list.
The difference today is the cost to follow up and the number of channels available to reach our audience. No longer are we limited to print, radio, and TV to market and build relationships with our customers.
We have an almost unlimited number of ways to build an audience and follow up that are low-cost and practically free.
We can post on social media, email our list, write blog posts, record podcasts, create videos, etc.
Because of this, we can now tell stories in different ways.
We no longer need to rely on the headline and lead of the sales letter to tell the story.
We can discuss a variety of topics that ultimately lead to the solution.
Recently, I watched a video on How to Plant Pond Plants The Easy Way – Without Soil. The video is about ten minutes long, and it is informative and establishes the expertise and authority of the presenter. Towards the end of the video, there is a call to action about his book Creating Natural Ponds. This video is terrific on every level.
In this case, I was problem aware, and looked for a solution on YouTube. The content lured me in, delivered value, solved a specific problem, educated me, built trust, and then offered the book for even more information. This video is so well done. I encourage you to watch it.
This video cost very little to produce and has over one hundred and twenty-one thousand views. All free opportunities to connect with people interested in the topic, build trust, and inform them about the book.
This same technique could be used with two-step advertising by offering a report or checklist, instead of a book, at the end of the video to build a list of people interested in the topic. Those who opt-in for the free report can be nurtured through email.
We can use keyword research to identify what people are searching for in a niche and then create content around the topic that introduces ideas and concepts to provide solutions.
Storytelling for marketing has changed dramatically because of how much content we can create to connect and build trust.
The same elements are still needed to write and tell a good story, but now we have more ways to reach people and build trust. Trust is the key.
However, our content and stories must still capture and hold our audience’s attention.
Today, the stories we tell through our content can lead to cultivating customers. Also, stories can enhance customer relationships that lead to loyal customers.
So, as you create your next piece of content, what story does it tell and why?
Does the content stand on its own, or is it a piece of a story being told across several pieces of content?
Build Your Authority and Your Audience to Thrive!
(Publish to Thrive Panel) How to Share Stories to Connect, Build Trust, and Influence
Leverage Your Stories With a Book, Podcast, and Speaking!
Stories are powerful.
They can connect emotionally with potential customers, plus they build trust and influence.
Today, we use stories to communicate and connect with others through social media posts, emails, blog posts, podcasts, videos, and speaking online or in person.
Authors and thought leaders influence people through their ideas, thoughts, speeches, and books.
For this expert panel, Gayle Turner, co-founder of the Storytellers Channel, Donna Kunde, Global Radio Authority & Podcast Expert, and Charles George discuss how to share stories to connect, build trust, and influence.
We will discuss how to leverage stories in a book, podcast, and speaking to build your audience and authority.
Join us for this complimentary online expert panel.
>>Expert Panel: How to Share Stories to Connect, Build Trust, and Influence.<<
Leave a Reply