Stages of Buyer Awareness + How To Apply to Social Media Marketing
If you want a social media strategy that converts like into leads, an essential first step is understanding buyer behavior. We know that buyer's are all different, but they often share a common journey when discovering a brand for the first time on social media.
While there is a clear line between sales and marketing, as social media marketers, we play such a vital role in nurturing and engaging the community, guiding potential customers to the next step of the buyer's journey. We are the frontline of communication that crafts the messaging between the brand and the customer, so it's up to us to create content that effectively creates the desire for our product/service.
What is a Buyer Awareness:
Buyer awareness is a term used to describe the different levels of knowledge that a potential customer has about a brand. Think of this in your own world - when you see a product on a grocery store shelf for the first time, you're likely not just going to throw it in your cart, right? The product might catch your eye, you're likely going to read the label, maybe the ingredient list, then you're going to look at the price and decide if you should put in your cart to purchase. "Do I need this?" might run through your head a few times in the process. This is essentially the same process you go through in a digital world, too.
The Stages of Buyer Awareness
There are five common stages of buyer awareness:
Unawareness: At this stage, the buyer has no awareness of the your brand, and they may not even realize that they have a need or problem. This is where brands have to create awareness of the problem to establish the need.
Problem-Awareness: In this stage, the buyer recognizes that they have a problem or need, but they might not be aware of potential solutions yet. They are focused on understanding their challenge better and seeking information about how to address it.
Solution-Awareness: At the solution-awareness stage, the buyer is now aware of potential solutions to their problem. They are researching and comparing different options to find the best fit for their needs. Businesses can provide detailed information about their specific solution, showcasing its benefits and advantages over competitors.
Product-Awareness: In this stage, the buyer is familiar with your product or service as a potential solution to their problem. They have narrowed down their options and are seeking more in-depth information about your offering, such as features, specifications, pricing, and customer reviews. Building a strong brand presence through consistent messaging, quality content, and positive customer experiences is essential at this stage to encourage them to choose your brand over another.
Post-Purchase Awareness: After making a purchase, the buyer enters this stage. Of course we love that we got a sale, but we still need to nurture them as a loyal community member. We want them to continue the conversation with us and stay loyal to the brand.
How To Apply This to Social Media
Now that you know what buyer awareness is, the five stages of buyer awareness, it's time to direct apply this to our marketing strategy on social media. Knowing these stages and recognizing them, will allow us to better support and connect to our audience. How? It's all about crafting content for each of these stages and speaking to each to push them through the next stage. We have to meet the customers at the stage they are at!
Content Inspiration for the Stages of Buyer Awareness:
Unawareness:
Share statistics, share blog articles, and talk about WHY this is a problem.
Problem-Awareness:
Post FAQs (and answers), talk more about what this problem creates.
Solution-Awareness:
Share about the solutions to the problem, the benefits of your product/services and why it solves the issues they experience.
Product-Awareness:
Share case studies, testimonials, share how you're different from other solutions
Post-Purchase Awareness:
Post UGC, offer exclusive discounts to them and start a loyalty program or referral program and advertise this on socials. (segmented email marketing will be helpful here, too!)
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