Even the most “optimized” landing pages — with a clean design, simple form, compelling image, strong value proposition, etc.— will fall short if it’s intended to serve your entire audience.
That shortcoming continues to be more costly. PPC campaigns are more expensive; organic search is more competitive.
So how do you keep from wasting clicks? By segmenting your audience based on awareness. Once you understand what they need, you’ll be able to give it to them — and generate more conversions.
This post walks through each stage of audience awareness to show you:
- How to identify customers who likely fall into each stage;
- Channels in which to target those potential buyers;
- Landing page principles that will help reach them effectively.
Segmentation by audience awareness
A post-click landing page that converts customers on your email list (who already know about your brand and what you do) needs to convey a different message than the one that tries to convert cold traffic (people who have no idea who you are).
Creating an audience segment groups together similar audiences to help you create relevant marketing messages (ads, landing pages, emails, etc.) that address their specific needs so they have a better chance of converting on your page.
Schwartz’s 5 stages of awareness
Eugene Schwartz presented 5 stages of audience awareness in his book Breakthrough Advertising. Although the book was published in 1952, marketers and copywriters everywhere still use its ideas to better understand how to market to audiences.
Each stage of awareness signifies the degree to which the prospect understands:
- Their pain points;
- Solutions they can take to alleviate their pain ;
- Your product as a solution ;
- Your product’s ability to solve their problem.
The 5 stages of awareness are:
- Most Aware. The prospect knows about their problem and your product and is looking for the right offer.
- Product Aware. The prospect knows about your product but isn’t sure if it’s the right one for them.
- Solution Aware. The prospect knows what they want, but doesn’t know if your product provides it.
- Problem Aware. The prospect senses that they have a problem but doesn’t know that there is a solution for it.
- Completely Unaware. The prospect has no knowledge of the problem or solution.
Tailoring landing pages to the level of audience awareness can help you present the right information at the right time.
For example, let’s say that you’re selling invoice-generating software to two different customers:
- Customer 1 wants to create better invoices for clients but doesn’t know such a solution exists (problem aware).
- Customer 2 is looking for invoice-generating software, but they just haven’t decided which one to purchase (product aware).
Your landing page should focus on different issues:
- Customer 1: The landing page copy and other elements will highlight how your product can help them solve their problems.
- Customer 2: The landing page will focus on explaining the benefits they’ll get when they choose your solution. Explain pricing points, list features—differentiate your offering from others on the market.
But how do you identify which visitor is Customer 1 or Customer 2? By traffic source. The traffic source—while not a guarantee—helps you understand the general awareness level of most visitors.
For instance, a user runs a Google search for “versatile conference cameras” is likely in the “solution aware” stage: They know they need a conference camera with a particular feature (versatility) but don’t necessarily know which brand or brands they’re interested in.
In this case, Google returns an ad for the Meeting Owl conference camera:
Since the user is aware they have a problem for which the conference camera is the solution, the landing page focuses on explaining the features of the product and how the product works:
Here’s how to apply those same insights to every stage of awareness.
1. Creating landing pages for “Most Aware” audiences
The Most Aware audience segment includes prospects who are already familiar with your brand and know about your product.
Who falls into this category?
These prospects probably already signed up to your email newsletter, subscribe to your blog, or follow you on social media. They could also include users who have bought something from you in which case you can up-sell or cross-sell to them or users who were on the verge of buying but didn’t.
Which channels should you use to target them?
You can target Most Aware audiences via the following channels:
- Email. For audiences who’ve already subscribed to your blog or have signed up for an offer, you can use email landing pages to guide them toward additional offers.
- Retargeting. These are for audiences who’ve already visited your website or clicked an ad and landed on your landing page.
- Social media. Use social media posts to direct them toward a specific offer.
- Brand-specific PPC campaigns. You can also target Most Aware audiences with relevant landing pages when they type brand-specific queries in search engines (including competitor brands).
Which questions does the landing page need to answer?
Landing pages for Most Aware audiences should answer the following questions:
- What other solutions do we offer? (this is for existing customers who you are trying to upsell or cross-sell to)
- What are the benefits of your product/service?
- How much does it cost?
- How successful have past visitors been with your product?
Include images or videos that showcase how your product works, how easy it is to use, and then guide them toward a call-to-action for purchase or trial (depending on your acquisition strategy).
For example, Grammarly uses email marketing to upsell Grammarly Business to existing customers. The landing page highlights the product’s benefits, mentions the price, features a customer testimonial, and includes a call-to-action that takes the visitor directly to a sign up form:
2. Creating landing pages for “Product Aware” audience
Product Aware audiences know about your brand and product but are still hesitant to buy because they can’t determine if your product is the best solution for them.
Who falls into this category?
Product Aware audiences have visited your website or sales page and maybe even signed up for a free offer, but they haven’t converted yet into customers.
Which channels should you use to target them?
You can target Product Aware audiences via the following channels:
- Remarketing ads. Use remarketing campaigns to reach visitors who visited your website but left without signing upon buying your product.
- Email marketing. If you have the user’s personal information, you can also reach them with remarketing campaigns through email marketing.
Which questions does the landing page need to answer?
Landing pages for Product Aware audiences should answer the following questions:
- Why should the user choose your solution? (Reinforce the user’s desire for the product).
- How does your product work?
- Why is your product the best at solving the audience’s problem?
- How does it stand out from other products in the market?
Use customer testimonials to highlight how your product offers the best solution in the market. Product Aware audiences are likely already familiar with your product category and, possibly, your specific product. You may be able to gloss over (or skip entirely) the basic features or benefits of your solution.
Let’s look at Workamajig’s remarketing ad and landing page that promotes a product demo. The page has minimal copy and features an image of the product dashboard supplemented by a video on how the product works:
A Vimeo remarketing ad leads to this long-form page. It features pricing options along with features and benefits of the product:
3. Creating landing pages for “Solution Aware” audiences
Solution Aware audiences know that there is a solution to their problem, they just don’t know that you have the solution.
Who falls into this category?
You’re likely to find these audiences on top-of-funnel blog posts or downloading gated content relevant to their problem. For example, a user who is struggling to set up PPC campaigns may register for a webinar from a PPC agency or read blog posts that describe how to set up successful paid campaigns. The approach with Solution Aware audiences is to warm them up with content that explains how your solution helps solve their problem transitioning them from one awareness stage to the other.
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Which channels should you use to target them?
You can target Solution Aware audiences via the following channels:
- Organic search. Lead magnets on blog posts can help capture emails from prospective clients and showcase the potential value of your solution.
- Squeeze pages: These short on-screen pages persuade users to give you their contact information in exchange for a content resource (such as a guide, ebook, or worksheet) that helps them solve their problem.
Use psychographics data such as user activities, interests, and opinions to create strong customer personas that help make sure that your squeeze page offer and messaging are relevant to the user. You can collect psychographic data from Google Analytics and customer surveys. Use the Reports tab and then select Audience > Demographics or Audience > Interests. Then, review the Demographics Overview report to analyze the high-level view of your audience from there you can click the ‘Other Category’ dimension to look at interests of the demographic groups.
Which questions does the landing page need to answer?
Landing pages for Solution Aware audiences should answer the following questions:
- Is there a solution to their problem?
- How does your product solve their problem?
- What benefits/features does your solution offer?
You’re soft-selling to Solution Aware audiences, so your landing page messaging should build rapport. Inform prospects about how your solution can solve their problem.
Kuno Creative launched a content and remarketing campaign for a medical manufacturer to generate leads and improve brand recognition among dialysis professionals. To improve brand recognition, Kuno created relevant content with blog posts, ebooks, etc. When a user engaged with the content, the agency retargeted them with gated material encouraging them to learn more — moving users down the funnel to a demo landing page. The new demo page focused on the product’s UVP and features, guiding audiences to the new demo landing page lead to a 283% increase in conversions and adding $30,000 potential revenue per sale.
Here is the comparison of the old Contact Us page and the new, optimized, demo landing page:
The Instapage Preferred Partner program landing page highlights how the solution can help agencies without overwhelming them with product-specific information:
4. Creating landing pages for “Problem Aware” audiences
Problem Aware audiences know they have a problem but are unaware of your brand. They aren’t subscribed to your blog and don’t receive your newsletter.
Who falls into this category?
You can mostly find these audiences through PPC ads on search engines and social media.
Their search queries will likely be broad but not product/feature specific. For instance, a user having trouble managing social media campaigns may search for “how to run social media campaigns” rather than “social media management tools.”
Which channels should you use to target them?
You can target Problem Aware audiences via the following channels:
- PPC ads. Create ad campaigns on search and social media that target these “problem-focused” queries. Use relevant long-tail keywords.
Which questions does the landing page need to answer?
Landing pages for Problem Aware audiences should answer the following questions:
- What is their problem?
- Why do they need to solve their problem?
- How is your product a solution to their problem?
- Have people with the same problem succeeded with your solution?
The landing page for Problem Aware audiences should show audiences that you understand their pain. Focusing on customer testimonials that showcase how past users solved the same problem can be a powerful tool.
After a click from a PPC ad, Trello introduces users to their product, focusing on how it can help companies achieve their goal of easy collaboration:
5. Creating landing pages for “Completely Unaware” audiences
Creating landing pages for Completely Unaware audiences is the toughest feat because although these audiences are logical prospects of your product, they aren’t aware of your product and that they need it.
As Schwartz puts it:
‘And finally—the most difficult. The prospect is either not aware of his desire or his need—or he won’t honestly admit it to himself without being lead into it by your ad—or the need is so general and amorphous that it resists being summed up in a single headline—or it’s a secret that just can’t be verbalized.
This is the outer reach of the awareness scale. These are the people who are still the logical prospects for your product; and vet, in their own minds, they are hundreds of miles away from accepting that product. It is your job to bridge that gap. ‘
These audiences are your classic cold traffic. They don’t know who you are, that your product exists, or that you can solve a problem for them.
Who falls into this category?
Completely Unaware Audiences have matching characteristics with your target audience but haven’t yet connected with your brand on social media, your website, or landing pages.
Which channels should you use to target them?
You can target Completely Unaware audiences via the following channels:
- Google Ads: Use Google Ads’ Audience Search and Audience Ideas features to help with audience targeting and create ad campaigns. The Audience Search feature helps you find additional audiences that are also related to your search terms.
Audience Ideas helps you select the right audience for your product or brand and improve your reach by surfacing audiences in your target market. You can suggest which audiences will be better suited for your ads. Google Ads will use suggestions for large amounts of aggregated advertising data, which can help you reach the audience best for your ads and potentially help you discover new audiences.
- Social Media Ads: Use social media ads like Facebook Ads to target audiences that share similar traits with your target audience. For example, Lookalike Audiences can include and exclude people that meet specific criteria. Selecting the option will automatically include or exclude people who meet your added criteria. You can also use the narrowing audience action to target people who meet all your criteria. However, be careful when creating narrow audience lists so that it’s not too specific that it becomes ineffective.
Australian Jewelry company Belle Fever used a combination of Facebook Similar Audiences, Lookalike Audiences, video ads, and Messenger to increase their customers by 65% and their revenue by 3.5%.
The company wanted to find more customers using a gameplay sequence with a video click-to-Messenger ad. They used the Facebook Pixel to track and target to users who hadn’t bought anything from the website for 180 days and also used Lookalike Audiences to target users similar to these audiences. Ultimately, the campaign was a success leading to a 4x return on ad spend.
Which questions does the landing page need to answer?
Landing pages for Completely Unaware audiences should answer the following questions:
- What is your product?
- Does it solve a problem?
- How does it solve the problem?
- What makes your brand credible?
The page should highlight what your product can do, then offer something for free to warm up your audience. Shorter pages are likely to work better: These users are most likely browsing your page without the intent to buy, so they have a shorter attention span.
Noom’s display ad and landing page offers prospects a smarter way to lose weight. When you click the landing page call-to-action button, you’re asked to enter your weight, height, age, and eating habits. Once submitted, they request your email address to send a free personalized eating and workout schedule:
Now that Noom has the user’s email address, they can then start sending users content that tells them more about Noom’s solution.
Conclusion
What helps you convert prospects on landing pages? Creating landing pages that take into account the user’s awareness level.
Segment audiences based on their awareness level. Your campaigns and bottom line will both thank you.