Crystal Clear Communications Blog

Awareness of the need for change is the first step in persuading people to act. In good news, awareness is the easiest step in the process of changing. It’s moving from awareness to action—changing behaviors—that’s difficult.

Why is moving from awareness to action so difficult? Think about the best conference you attended or the best advice you’ve ever been given. You received great ideas to change your work or personal life. And you went back to your everyday life full of good intentions.

Good Intentions

I’ll make more time for myself.

I will test all email subject lines.

I’ll make a Message Map before I start my presentation.

But you didn’t do what you intended. Why? Because you went back to a calendar full of meetings, deadlines, soccer practice, and grocery shopping.

You’re not alone. It happens to every one of us, including our buyers. We know we need to change a habit, find a new vendor, or improve a process. But it’s hard to break our current everyday patterns. It’s hard for buyers too.

When buyers search for or read your content, they’ve already recognized a need for your solution or service. It’s getting them to take the next step, to act on that perceived need, that’s difficult.

Why does it sometimes take so long for buyers to move from awareness to action? Because like us, they are busy, and their everyday lives and business processes get in the way. It’s our job as marketers to develop content that cuts through the clutter and makes it easy for our buyers to take the first step toward buying from us.

Here’s how to:

• Develop and use buyer personas
• Make a Message Map
• Serve buyers the right content at the right time.

Create Buyer Personas

As a first step, put yourself in your buyers’ shoes. Think about how busy you are, and of times when you meant to do something, but you didn’t.

What stopped you? Did you have more urgent priorities? Did you not need the product or service badly enough to change habits? Were there too many other people involved in the decision?

These are all reasons buyers don’t move from awareness to action. To help crystallize what your buyers are thinking and doing, create buyer personas or buyer empathy maps for each persona.

Use buyer personas to help you decide on the type, frequency, and placement of your content marketing.

Create a Message Map to help buyers move from awareness to action

To cut through all the clutter your buyers receive daily, you need a clear, compelling message. With a Message Map, you fit your entire message on one page, so you see what to say and say what you mean, enabling you to deliver messages that resonate with buyers.

In your Message Map, start by talking about the benefits to your buyers first—what’s in it for them. Once buyers understand what’s in it for them and reasons to believe the benefits, then move on to your differentiators, points that will persuade buyers that your solution is the best fit for their needs.

Offer the right content at the right time

Buyers prefer different types of content at different stages of their buying journey. Ensure you offer the right mix of content to help them evaluate options and resolve concerns.

For example, while blogs are great for the awareness stage, as they move from awareness to action, many buyers prefer other types of content such as whitepapers, videos, and newsletters. You can find out which types of content are best for each stage of the buyer journey here.

Moving buyers from awareness to action is often the most difficult stage for marketers in the buyer journey. Creating buyer personas, using a Message Map, and offering the right content at the right time can help move your buyers from awareness to action more quickly.

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