ConvertDesigning Web Sites to Increase Traffic and

Conversion

Using the Awareness Ladder

Your product is a treatment for male pattern baldness

Using the Awareness Ladder

1. People who are experiencing hair loss and who may find it annoyance, but do not consider it a problem.!

2. People for whom hair loss is a problem, but are not aware that treatments are available.!

3. People are aware of some solutions, but do not yet know about your treatment.!

4. People know your solution, but do not know it’s any better for them than other products.!

5. People may be convinced of the benefits of your product, but are not yet ready to commit to buy.

Using the Awareness Ladder

5 2   C H A P T E R 4 : U S I N G T H E AWA R E N E S S L A D D E R

Understanding the Six Steps of AwarenessThe Awareness Ladder (Figure 4-3) can help give you insight into any marketing or selling opportunity. To understand it fully, you need to be aware of a few simple laws about the buying process:

Everyone, at some point, starts at Step 0 (before they realize they have a need).They can only ever buy from Step 5—when they are convinced by the proposi-tion that the solution will address their needs.The sequence is logical. Prospects can only go up one step at a time.So, to achieve a sale, you must get people from their current level of awareness to the top of the ladder, one step at a time.

5 Convinced

$

4 Benefits

3 Your Solution

2 Solutions Exist

1 Problem

0 No Problem

"

FIGURE 4-3  The Awareness Ladder has a set of simple principles that help you visualize any marketing or selling process.

Not aware of the need

The “no problem group” is the hardest to market !

Educate: invest in creating a need before you can offer a solution!

Costly!

Creating a market for competitors as much as for yourself

Aware of a Need (But not aware solution exist)

Publish articles that specifically match searches for your target “problem” terms. (“hairloss women”, “regain hair”)!

Each page could start by discussing the issue in general, acknowledge that it is undesirable, and then lead to suggestions that treatments may exist.!

Could link on to other articles that discuss what solutions are available.

T H E N E W CO N CE N T R I C M O D E L   5 9

2

O

$

1 1

00

1

00000

11

0 0

1 Step 1

Step 2

Steps 3 – 4

Step 5

0 0 0 00

2

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FIGURE 4-4  In the new model, each offering or proposition benefits from a structured funnel of pages that guide prospects up each step of the Awareness Ladder.

Any page may span more than one ring in the concentric model, if it leads the pros-pect through more than one awareness step.Step 0 pages, if you have any, will not usually exist on your own site. (I address these more in following chapters.) Their job is to create the sense of a need, and then to lead to content that discusses the problem (Step 1) and maybe also how it may be addressed (Step 2). The pages should then link on to content for the next relevant step. Don’t assume that Step 0 content has to be web pages. Because you have to go out to Step 0 prospects, a variety of media may be effective, including banner ads, direct mail, or even print, television, or radio ads.Step 1 is the domain of “problem pages,” which attract traffic looking for more infor-mation about problems. Their job is to communicate that solutions exist (Step 2), and may also introduce your solution (Step 3), and then link to the next step.

Aware of some solutions (But not your specific one)

Publish more articles that compare the effectiveness of different known treatments (and emphasize the particular strengths of his own solution.)

Aware of benefits (Bit not convinced)

Simply communicating benefits is not usually enough to compel someone to take action and buy.!

May encourage visitors to engage with a mental picture of life with a full head of hair.!

Should reinforce your own claims with 3rd party evidence, in the form of testimonials, press clipping, and “thank you” notes from happy customers.