I was talking with a friend of mine a couple weeks back who has an online business. She’s just starting out — about 6 months into her business — and she’s super, super frustrated

As we were talking, my friend said something that really caught my attention.

She said “I’m putting so much free, amazing content out there. This is stuff clients pay me for, and I’m just giving it away for FREE… but it seems like no one even cares. I’m trying so hard, what’s happening? Why isn’t anyone paying attention to this great information I’m giving away?”

When I took a look at what she was putting out there, I saw 3 BIG problems right away:

• Problem 1: All of her headlines were very straightforward and left nothing to curiosity.
• Problem 2: All of her material was at a Level 1 message.
• Problem 3: She had no clear next step in any of her materials.

Let’s break this down because it’s so easy for all of us to make these mistakes, and they can really hold us back when building a business.

Biggest Show Takeaways:

PROBLEM 1: No Curiosity

• You’ve GOT to use curiosity based marketing hooks for most of your marketing. You want people to be intrigued and take notice.
• Don’t just tell people what your email, blog post or whatever is about. If you do, you’re giving them the opportunity to basically say, “I don’t need that” before they even try to see what you’ve created.
• You need to engage their brain with a curiosity gap — which is critical to capturing and keeping someone’s attention. Most of all, you need to be memorable.
• Creating a great curiosity marketing hook is one of the BIGGEST things you can do for your business.
• What makes a great curiosity marketing hook?
• • It’s elusive. A great hook is hidden in plain sight. This isn’t something your audience can easily GUESS, and it makes them want to stick around and find out more.
  • It’s remarkable. It grabs your audience’s interest and demands an answer NOW.
  • It’s relevant. It speaks to one key benefit that appeals to the reader’s own selfish desires.
  • It resonates. It triggers an emotional response. You’re tapping into stories, memories, beliefs, and values that already exist within your audience.

Problem 2: Customer Engagement Levels

• When you’re creating any marketing, be it a video, a blog post, a webinar, an ad, a sales page, even a Discovery Call, you’ve GOT to know how hot — or not — your audience is. (This refers to the Five Levels of Customer Awareness pioneered by Gene Schwartz, one of the legends of direct response advertising.)
• The Five Levels of Customer Awareness has been proven time and again as the BEST way to hook and engage your audience.
• The 5 Distinct Levels of Awareness:
  • LEVEL 5: Completely Unaware. No knowledge of anything to do with what you’re selling. This person is thinking about other things and won’t seriously pay attention to you.  
  • LEVEL 4: Problem-Aware. Your prospect senses he has a problem but doesn’t know there’s a solution.
  • LEVEL 3: Solution-Aware. Your prospect knows the result he or she wants, but they DON’T know about you and your offer.
  • LEVEL 2: Product-Aware. Your prospect knows what you sell, but he/she isn’t sure it’s right for him/her.
  • LEVEL 1: The Most Aware: Your prospect knows your product and only needs to know “the deal.” They’re your HOT prospects.
• If you’re talking to your audience at a LEVEL 1, and they’re still at a LEVEL 4, it’s like you’re speaking two different languages. You may be giving them SUPER valuable, incredible free stuff, but you’re giving it to them in a language they don’t yet understand.
• That’s why marketing funnels are so valuable. You have a way to map out your customer’s path from LEVEL 4 to LEVEL 3 to LEVEL 2 and finally to LEVEL 1 where they’re ready to buy.
• Your BIGGEST job is to figure out your audience’s starting point so you know how much warming up you need to do.
• When in doubt, start at LEVEL 4: Problem Aware.  

Problem 3: No Clear Next Step

• When I was reading my friend’s blog post and looking at the opt-in email sequence, my biggest question was: “Okay, so NOW what should your ideal audience be doing?”
• The blog post didn’t have a proper opening, there was no call to action to download a valuable freebie that could go with the topic, and no suggestion to leave a comment. It was just an article, so when someone finished reading it, they felt like they were done.
• The email series that began after someone opted in for the free lead magnet lacked a next step. Each email had a beginning, middle, and an end but there was no call to action or cliffhanger for the next email.
• The marketing didn’t drive any engagement because she was basically making people feel like they had what they needed.

Want to know which marketing funnel is right for you and your business? Take this free and easy quiz, and in less than 5 minutes, you’ll know EXACTLY which funnel is right for you.

Links mentioned in this episode:

Blog post: 11 Ways To Steal Drool Worthy Headlines

Marketing Funnel Quiz: https://www.michellelevans.com/marketing-funnel-quiz/