This is my first post about the fifth and final element in the Circuit Questionnaire: your market or markets. This element starts by asking about your target market’s level of awareness. Surely, you need to know what your target market is before you can answer this question?
Your Target Market
We shall go into this in more depth later but it cannot be said often enough, this is perhaps the most important question you need to answer: what is your target market?
Obviously, you cannot answer questions about your target market until you have identified it. Identifying your target market strongly implies reducing the size of your theoretical market. What do I mean by that?
Most people set out by aiming to market their business or cause to everyone. It seems, at first glance, this is the best way forward; tell everyone about your offer. However, the fact is only a small number of people are your prospective customers and it makes much more sense to talk to them!
The people who have the problem your offer solves, who are interested in your cause, are much more likely to listen if they hear you addressing them.
Level of Awareness
Your target market will have a level of awareness, as defined by the awareness ladder. Ideally, you speak to them at that level of awareness. So, if they know they have the problem, you do not need to persuade them they have the problem! If they know there are solutions, you need to show them yours.
Find out the level of awareness they are at and take up the narrative from there. Your aim is to move them to the next level.
Awareness of Their Problem
People aware of their problem are at level 1 or 2 of the awareness ladder. At level 1, they live with the problem because they are not aware there are solutions. They may endure the pain or work around the problem. Work arounds are often not the most cost-effective ways to manage a problem.
At level 2, the prospect will have discovered solutions to the problem and they are deciding which solution to adopt. This is a transient state because soon they will opt for a solution, will it be yours?
Awareness of Your Proposition
This is level 3 of the awareness ladder and if prospects are aware of your proposition, they are likely to approach you to enquire about your service. At this stage, you aim to move them to level 4, where they are aware of the details of you and your proposition.
So, to find your target market, you need to ask who is likely to be interested in your proposition. In general, the further down the awareness ladder you go, the more people there are who could be prospects but they will be harder to move.
You will need less time and money to move people who are higher up the ladder but they can be far and few. This is why most businesses use several marketing approaches, depending on where their prospects are on the awareness ladder. It is possible to move to level 5 (sale) online but many coaches, for example, find that at level 3 they are more effective moving from their website to a face-to-face meeting (live or Skype).
We’ll look at this in more detail next time.
How do you use levels of awareness, when you approach prospects?