One of the Most Important Marketing Decisions You'll Make

Last week, Chris shot me a quick email asking for my opinion on a sales email he received.

Out of respect for the original sender, I won’t share the email here, but the gist of the question is this…

“This email pitched right in it - promise and price all in the email — does this direct approach work well in your experience?”

The answer — as with most things in marketing — is “it depends”.

In this case, Chris was already on the person’s email list and had been for years.

The guru was very well known to him and respected. He already knew the services he provided. And the email was the last day of a marketing campaign.

So in this case, it was absolutely the right time to do a direct email.

But that’s not always the case. And I see far too many marketers trying to go either direct or indirect approaches when they should be doing the opposite.

Direct vs Indirect: Why Customer Awareness Levels Matter

There's an opportunity for a direct approach in every campaign. How much and how often you can be direct all depends on awareness levels.

Awareness levels are a concept discussed by Eugene Schwartz in his classic book Breakthrough Advertising (1966) and marketers have been discussing it ever since.

There are five typical awareness levels:

• Unaware - they know nothing about you, the problem you’re trying to solve, or your solution

• Problem Aware - they are familiar with the problem, but they don’t know you or the potential solutions in the marketplace

• Solution Aware - they recognize both the problem and the potential solutions, but they’re still not familiar with you and your solution

• Product Aware - now we’re at the point where they may have even heard of your specific product or solution, but they still don’t know enough about you or the product

• Most Aware - they know you and your product, but more importantly, how it can help them solve their problem.

Back to Chris’ original question…

He was in a most aware state…

He knew the guru well and knew about his products. Plus, he was currently looking at different solutions to solve a particular problem that guru solved.

Add to that the fact it was also the end of campaign and it was the perfect time to use a very direct appeal.

But how do you know what message to send and when?

The Best Awareness Pyramid I’ve Ever Seen

Look around the internet for info on awareness levels and you’ll see plenty of images showing the five levels.

But hands down, this is the best image I’ve ever seen — and I’m giving full credit here to Todd Brown who has presented it in various different programs and live talks.

As you can see in the image above, Todd combined several concepts and the answer to multiple questions into one image:

• What are the awareness levels (the five levels of the pyramid)

• How do I know whether to be direct or indirect? (Far left of the image)

• What type of promotion best fits this awareness level? (Just left of the pyramid, guided by awareness levels)

• How long does my funnel need to be? (Above and below the pyramid. The more unaware you’re audience, the more time and funnel contact you’ll need to convert them)

• What price product can I sell with high conversion rates? (Far right of the image)

As with all things in marketing, there are exceptions to every “rule”…

I’m sure there’s someone out there right now saying “well, I’ve sold a back-end $2k product to a completely unaware audience with a 3-minute VSL!”

Sure you did, buddy.

True or not, there have been and will continue to be funnels that don’t perfectly fit this image… and that’s ok.

But if you’re struggling to figure out how to scale or wondering if you’ve got the right offer to the right audience, this is a great place to start.

This image made it into my printed swipe file - images and notes I keep near my desk at all times if I ever need a refresh.

I suggest you keep it handy too.

People like Tony Robbins and Russell Brunson have made a living being VERY direct because they had big names and most people know them by now.

There’s often no need to worry about big ideas and indirect approaches with high awareness levels.

But even with cold audiences or audiences still being nurtured, it's ok being more direct near the end of a campaign…

Especially with an FAQ where the entire purpose is to overcome any final objections needed to get the sale.

I hope you found something insightful in today’s issue. I’ll be back on Thursday with more.

Missing Pieces: Interesting Marketing Topics We’re Reading

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