Stage 3: How to Advertise When Prospects Know That There’s a Solution To Their Problem — But They Don’t Know Which One Is The Best)

This week, we’re moving  up the marketing awareness scale again and so we land in the kingdom of “Solution Aware” prospects. 

Just for a record there are five marketing awareness stages and they range between prospect being completely unaware that they even have a problem and a raving fan of the brand that needs no persuasion (example: hardcore fans of Apple).

At this stage, we’ve already reached the  middle of the scale and we’re looking at a Solution Aware audience. 

The prospect already knows what he wants but  not that your product solves it. 

So to make the sale, you need to show that you know specifically how to help them reach their goal with what you offer and by the same token you understand their problem. Usually, such prospects need a bit of extra education before they start considering different options.  

So how do you market to such people?  

In the old-school mail order world, you’d simply follow what Gene Schwartz nailed in a short paragraph. 

“ The three steps in the process are simple. 

Name the desire and/or its solution in your headline.

Prove that that solution can be accomplished. 

Show that the mechanism of that accomplishment is contained in your product”

In one sentence: the goal is to move your audience from solution-aware to (your) product-aware. 

At this stage (and the next one —“Product Aware” — as well)  you can leverage your brand’s USP (Unique Selling Proposition) – i.e. your argument for why  YOUR solution is the best solution out of all available solutions.  

Now, since advertising and talking to people are not as rigid as science, you will not see the theory reflect the reality verbatim. The internet has provided us with new ways of delivering our marketing message but the principles of effective communication haven’t really changed. 

Below are examples are showing Facebook ads geared towards a solution-aware audience (people who already want to devote some attention to their pets) 

Let’s look at some other examples of solution-based headlines (all come from Breakthrough Advertising by the aforementioned Gene Schwartz). 

“Here, amorphous desire has been crystallized in the headline. Then sharpened

and expanded in the first few paragraphs; satisfied and documented in the body of the ad; and focused inevitably on the product throughout“ 

Note that almost none of them refers to a specific product. The exception is the first one but even then, the name of the product is tied to a bigger problem solution. 

Boy is that ingenious! Now, the examples:

“Light a Lucky, and you’ll never miss sweets that make you fat.”

“Who else wants a whiter wash—with no hard work?”

“How to win friends and influence people.”

“To men who want to quit work some day.”

“When doctors feel rotten—this is what they do.”

“Now! Run your car without spark plugs!”

“Who ever heard of 17,000 blooms from a single plant?”

Stay tuned for the next episode which will be the capstone of our series and the last group of potential buyers which is  Most-Aware.

Now, here’s a step you might consider…

If you’ve got a weird feeling that you’re leaving money on the table because people skip past your emails/ads and you want an extra set of trained, brown and charming eyeballs to look at your stuff—I might be the guy you want to schedule for a free copy-audit. You can book it here: https://calendly.com/oscarolczakcopywriting/30min

Alternatively,  you can share this article with someone you think could benefit from reading it or leave a comment below. Because why not.