The awareness stage is the first step in the buyers’ journey. Once you grab their attention, you can move them down the sales funnel to consideration and decision. But what are some of the best approaches and techniques for the awareness stage? What offers will take buyers from awareness to consideration? 
Raising Awareness
The awareness stage is where customers realize that they have a need and that your business may be able to help them solve their problem. The beginning of the buyers’ journey is where people start doing research and you want to draw them to your business.
Take a look at recent search queries to identify what people are seeking—most likely the search terms are fairly broad and generic. According to Pardot, once buyers realize a need, 72% turn to Google, so make sure your SEO is on point so that readers can find you.
And, you need to have appropriate, quality content on your website so when they visit, they can understand right away what you offer and how you might be able to help them. Take advantage of this opportunity to help potential customers narrow down what they are looking for—information—just don’t scare them away with too-good-to-be-true offers.
What to Offer
As we said, buyers in the awareness stage are seeking information, so provide them with educational material that focuses on addressing their pain points, not hyping your brand. This is where white papers, reports, e-books, and the like are going to shine. Here are three examples:
1. 10 SEO Mistakes to Avoid During Your Next Web Site Redesign
Why it works: This is a guide that nearly anyone with a website will benefit from—Find out what the top ten SEO mistakes are by downloading this free guide + checklist—and the checklist is a user-friendly bonus to walk people through the steps. It shows potential clients the type of information you offer and the areas of marketing assistance you offer
2. How to Attract Customers with Facebook
Why it works: Everyone uses Facebook, just not always effectively. Here the reader can see exactly what points they will learn—called out in bullet point form—from the guide and gets a feel for the type of marketing help they can expect from you.
3. CRM Software Free Product Demo
Why it works: Offering a free demo allows potential clients to see exactly how your product works and how it can help them with customer relationship management. Plus, visual presentations are appealing and easier for less technical individuals to digest. They get a better understanding and you get that high-value email address.
As with the examples above, we recommend that you build out a few campaigns for prospects based on buyer personas. It’s a fact that, on average, nurtured leads produce a 20% increase in sales opportunities versus non-nurtured (Demand Gen Report). Again, remember to focus on providing info and establishing credibility and not to push heavy sales pitches.
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