Did you know that at most,
only 5% of your target market is ready to actually buy your service?
And yet, most freelancers spend most of their time trying to market to this tiny number.
Every time you mention your pricing, offers or testimonials, nobody outside that 5% is really listening.
Isn't that a little bit crazy?
I think it is. So, if 95%+ are not looking to buy yet, what the heck should you be talking about?
In marketing there is a wonderful, tried & tested funnel called AIDA.
Awareness > Interest > Desire > Action.
Everyone in your audience sits in one of these four stages.
Right now you're probably targeting people at the bottom of the funnel; those with either a strong desire to buy, or those actually sitting there, credit card in hand (this is the "action" state at the bottom).
You're right to think that these people care deeply about your
pricing, deliverables and social proof.
But the people near the top of the funnel? Not so much.
In fact, those in the awareness stage might not even fully understand they have a problem. And so, you need to create content that raises awareness and creates interest.
My goal is to help freelancers grow their business and earn more money. I have
coaching programmes specifically for this. But you'll only find out the detail once you've shown desire and are probably ready to take action.
Rarely do I give much away about this publicly.
What I do talk about, however, are the things my audience cares about even if they're not yet at the buying (action) stage yet.
Here are some examples.
Then I'm the person they reach out to once they move down the funnel and become interested.
And when they're interested, I signal that I'm looking for them with
posts like this.
What comes next is what you're probably already doing - talking about your service, industry, offers, and demonstrating social proof.
I really hope this article has sparked something for you. I suggest you save it and return to it every so often.
Because once you see your content as needing to appeal to people at different levels of awareness, you can create so much more engaging, actionable stuff.
You'll be able to finally nurture prospects in your direction, so when the time comes, they're just ready to buy.
Before we wrap out, here's some homework for you. Take a sheet of paper and write down content ideas for each of the following states:
- people with low awareness of the problem your service solves
- people who are interested and want to find out more
- people with a desire to fix their problem
- people who are ready to take action and buy
Spending a couple of hours diving deep into this exercise could help you produce enough content for literally years to come. And as a possible side effect, it can help you cultivate empathy and get to know your ideal clients even better.
This might seem like a lot of work, but as I said: this is important.
