EP22: Unaware Audiences

In Demand: How to Grow Your SaaS to $1M ARR and Beyond

Your business growth feels like it’s plateauing and so you’re thinking about focusing on a less aware audience is that a bad idea?

In this episode of In Demand, Asia Orangio, CEO of DemandMaven, breaks down 5 levels of audience awareness and where it makes sense to place your marketing attention and budget.

TL;DR

• 3:00 - Going after unaware audiences is the last thing you should plan to do when you're growing your company, but there are lots of marketing agencies that will recommend you do just that.
• 6:20 - Going through an example of why a founder might get to a place where they want to go after unaware audiences.
• 7:30 - "Unaware audience" comes form Eugene Schwartz's idea on 5 levels of awareness:
  • Unaware - people don't even think they have a problem or a pain point.
  • Problem Aware - people who experience the pain, but don't know there is a solution to it.
  • Solution Aware - people who have decided that they want to find a solution to the problem they've faced or pain they're experiencing and are beginning a search.
  • Product Aware - people that have become specifically aware of your product and have likely started engaging with your marketing.
  • Most Aware - people that have done their research, watch reviews and tutorials, downloaded a guide, attended a webinar, etc.
• 13:45 - You should not focus on an unaware audience because convincing someone they have a problem, when they don't care is an incredibly difficult and costly challenge.
• 18:00 - If you get to a position where you are a market leader and feel that the marketed is capped, it may make sense to allocate resources to unaware audiences, but is likely a better strategy to look at other problems and paint points you could solve for a different problem aware audience. Hubspot starting in marketing automation and expanding into sales and customer success is a great example of this.