Buyer stages of awareness every health prof-turned-entrepreneur must know

Caitlin: You know when you share anything about your offer and you get the feeling that it just either goes over people's heads or they just scroll on by,

Caitlin: it may not real be that your offer's bad. Often it's just because people seeing it aren't necessarily ready for what you're talking about,But there's a really simple reason for this, and it's something called the stages of awareness. And once you understand this with your marketing,

Caitlin: You stop expecting everybody to be ready to buy right now. You start creating content that gets them ready to buy.

Caitlin: Hello, hello. Welcome to the place for offbeat health professionals who have bravely swapped their healthcare hats for nonclinical creative caps. I'm Caitlin, a psychologist, turn copywriter, and this is healers with hustles.

Caitlin: All right, so basically these stages are basically how people move from not even thinking about your offer to being fully ready to work with you. So stage one is like an unaware audience. So they didn't even really think they have a problem, like they're just going about their day to day life.

Caitlin: Sure there might be red flags in their day that indicate there is a problem, but they don't really see that yet. And so if you try and sell someone a product in this stage, it won't land because they don't think they need anything. They don't see a problem. Right. And so in this stage, it's really important to maybe like plant seeds.

Caitlin: you could use relatable stories or everyday scenarios or maybe even little surprising facts to help people stop and think andsee themselves

Caitlin: in the story that you tell. But in saying that, it's also, I wouldn't be spending a lot of time trying to market something to an unaware audience because it'll take a lot, a lot of educating. so it's really probably a better, if you are time poor in your marketing to even skip this stage, go straight into marketing to the problem or air people, because these people know that something's off, but they're not exactly sure why.

Caitlin: So maybe they've noticed some symptoms like maybe. For instance, like they're having poor sleep or they're low on energy, or maybe they're really stressed out, but they haven't yet named what the underlying cause is. And that's where maybe in your marketing, you start connecting dots for them.

Caitlin: You are helping them see that this isn't just random experience that they're having. there's actually something wrong. Which brings them to this stage three, which is solution aware. So this is where people are aware that they've accepted that there's a problem, something's wrong.

Caitlin: And they do know there are ways to fix the problem, but there might be multiple ways to fix the problem, right? So they might be Googling options or asking a friend or doing, what I love to do is ask Reddit, and so that's why in this stage it's really important to show them. Yeah, the different solutions exist, but like why your approach is the best one.

Caitlin: So positioning your approach as the one that makes the most sense for them. So then we've got stage four, which is product aware. So maybe now if you've done a good job in, stage three, they know that your product exists, so they know what you do, but they haven't really decided if you are the right person for them yet.

Caitlin: So they might be comparing you to someone else. They might be doing a little comparison between you and a competitor. Maybe they're wondering if they can afford it or deciding if right now's the right time. Right? And so at this stage, your content really needs to reduce friction and hesitation. So using case studies, you know, testimonials, answeringQuestions and making it super, super clear about why you are the right fit for them. And then we've got stage five, Which is the most aware, so this is the final. I guess final step. So this is where they're sold on you. So they just really need the practical details to get them over the line. So that might be like how to book what it costs, like what your process is. And so that's where it's really important to use, really confident call to actions.

Caitlin: Like click it, you know, like book. Now. I wouldn't really say click here, but you, you're like book now. I wouldn't be bearing everything in text like you could even, this is where you could even have like a really short, snappy caption that just literally is quite bossy and tells someone what to do because you wanna make it as simple as possible.

Caitlin: 'cause these people pretty much have their credit cards out, right.

Caitlin: And so like, how does this, apply to healthcare workers or people with a healthcare background? Right? So if you've worked in healthcare, so say you were in private practice, for instance, a lot of your client, all of your clients will arrive.as a solution aware, like they're aware that, you know, psychology exists.

Caitlin: They're aware that dietetics exists, they're aware, blah, blah, blah. They're aware that your product or what you offer exists. Maybe they've been referred or they've sought you out. But when you take your work outside the system, right? Maybe you've, side stepped into something that's creative or something that's totally different from health, a lot of the time you'll meet people a lot earlier in the stages of awareness, and that's why there's like a little bit of a gap.

Caitlin: So you need to really help them move through these stages yourself. It's not just like, here's my business card, come work with me. They'll really need to understand like, why? What the problem actually is what the solutions are, and then why your solutions the best.

Caitlin: So how can we move people, through the stages? I've covered this a little bit before, but just to make it clear. So to go from like maybe unaware to problem aware, we can. Maybe be highlighting scenarios, little tiny aha moments. So maybe surprise in truth. But as I said, I wouldn't spend a lot of time here because it takes a lot, a lot of work of trying to move someone from unaware to problem aware.

Caitlin: So to move someone from problem aware, to solution aware what you really. Wanna do is, focus on, educating people about the problem and then subtly showing that your solution is there, right?

Caitlin: So you might wanna like bust myths or really highlight the problem.

Caitlin: So that might even be creating posts or creating content that's a bit more, in depth. So maybe like webinars, podcast episodes, longer form blog posts where you can really do a lot of education.

Caitlin: Then to go from solution aware to product. aware, you really wanna be talking all about your product, right? So you wanna be like, why you are different. So really talking about likelike the benefits of your product or your service.

Caitlin: Talking about like the process, your values, like the case studies, results, that kind of thing. And then so when it's product aware to most aware, that's just that like little gentle nudge. So really. It might be answering FAQs. You could even do that in solution where a product away. But it's like this like little tiny extra nudge, like offering guarantees or refund policies or things like that just to kind of get people over the line.

Caitlin: So really to sum up like this audience awareness gap is really the distance between where your audience is right now. And where they need to be before they can say yes or give you their credit card or metaphorically give you their credit card. Right.

Caitlin: And that's why like if you speak to clients or customers who are really at that most aware stages, that's the only people that you talk to, then you're missing a whole chunk of people.

Caitlin: So that's why, of course, it's really important to meet people where they are and then helping them get to where they need so that they work with you. And that's a another way that you'll really feel a bit more confident in your marketing and knowing that your marketing is really helping, people move through those stages.

Caitlin: So really you can't skip the awareness journey and expect people to automatically book in with you, right? Gotta meet them where you are, of course, a therapist's favorite phrase. Meet them where they are and then guide them through them, right? And then by the time that they're ready to buy, they'll already know that you are the one for them

Caitlin: All right. That's the end of another episode. Thank you so much for tuning into Healers with Hustles. If you've enjoyed today's episode, will you do me a tiny favor and subscribe to the show? Just tap the subscribe button on your favorite podcast platform, and you'll be the first to know as soon as the new episode drops.

Caitlin: Thanks so much for listening. Okay, for now.