A Case Study For Every Stage of Awareness, Part 3: Solution Aware

(NOTE: This is part 3 of a 5-part series of posts. If you missed part 2, click here.)

In the first two parts of my series, A Case Study For Every Stage of Awareness, we covered the two stages where customers know at least some information about your product.

The goal was to provide more information — whether it was price in Most Aware or details about your specific offer in Product Aware.

Now, we’re getting further out. The customer isn’t *ahem* aware of your existence. Or they are, but only your name — and only in a fleeting sense.

This, my friend, is Solution Awareness.

What is Solution Awareness?

A prospect in the Solution Awareness stage knows ways to solve their problem exist. The issue here is they don’t know about yours.

Another way of looking at it would be this: they know of various kinds of solutions, including the kind you offer. However, they don’t know about your company at all because they haven’t explored these options. They only have a vague idea that the solutions exist.

These other solutions are known as substitutes. They provide the same function in a different form.

And, technically, you’re a substitute for these other solutions.

For example, the prospect’s problem might be they’re spending too much time on accounts payable stuff. They know of three possible types of solutions:

• Hire more in-house bookkeepers
• Outsource to a bookkeeping firm
• Get AP automation software

(There may be more, but the prospect might not know that — that’s the nature of Solution Awareness. Also, that gets into another Gene Schwartz concept called Market Sophistication — that’s for another time.)

You’re in that last category. The first two options are substitutes because they do the same thing – streamline bookkeeping – but in different ways.

To clarify the beginning of this section: the prospect knows that AP automation software is among the various kinds of solutions they can try. However, they don’t know about your brand specifically because they haven’t investigated each type of solution’s benefits and drawbacks.

Instead, they just know that there’s a thing called AP automation software.

Coming full circle: your first goal is to identify with the prospect’s problem. Name the desire they have. That’ll hit home. They’ll think you can read their mind.

Then, you demonstrate this problem of their’s can be solved with your type of solution. You might touch on the other solutions (if, according to your market research, your customer knows about them), but you’d portray them as inferior.

The final step that would move them to Product Awareness would be to introduce your product. But that’s for the previous article in this series.

Anyways, you’d want all three of these together in the headline if possible.

Using a Case Study for the Solution Awareness Stage

Solution Awareness is the first stage where the prospect has that buyer’s intention. They know solutions are out there, so they want to spend their money on something.

They just don’t know what that something is — and you can show them what that is with a cases study.

Let’s start with the headline, of course.

A good headline will (as alluded to earlier) call out your prospect’s problem/desire and show them that a solution (your offer) exists.

Here’s a good example using the accounting automation from earlier:

“ABC company saves X hours and increases profits by Y% with accounting automation.”

Notice how the desire (saving time and money) and the type of solution are both in the headline… but the brand name isn’t.

The brand name can go in there, but remember: they don’t know your brand yet. It’s more important to have the type of solution in there.

Then, the body.

You might talk about how the now-happy client discovered accounting automation after, say, hearing it from an entrepreneur friend.

Depending on where you use the case study, you may shift focus to the benefits of your specific product, too, since this case study would move your prospect to Product Awareness.

Continuing that example from two paragraphs ago, maybe your happy client did some Googling and found your company, or there were referred to you by someone.

Boom. That’s the most important part of nailing the Solution Awareness.

Obviously, the body of the case study would mention the brand name. But you wouldn’t frame the benefits of your offer as they compare against competitors. Once again, your prospect might know of those other customers — no need to make them aware.

Instead, you’d talk about the benefits of accounting automation in general (and the results they brought your happy client) as you reference your product.

Where Do You Use Solution Aware Case Studies?

Solution Aware prospects don’t necessarily know who you are yet, so your case studies will be further away from you in the online world.

Paid ads are probably the best example since they’re going to cold traffic (people who haven’t heard of or interacted with your brand before).

For example, Facebook ads. That headline example I gave earlier could easily be a Facebook ad headline (assuming you make any necessary compliance tweaks).

Then, the user clicks over and lands on the case study page. They learn about the happy client in the case study and what their original problem was, building that connection with the prospect.

Then the case study continues with the other foundational elements: how the client met you, beginning working together, wins, etc.

You may be able to pull this off in organic search results, too. Aka SEO. However, you have to be on your game about balancing keyword usage with Solution Awareness-oriented copy.

Solution Aware: Make Yourself Known With a Case Study

Solution Aware customers know they can solve their problems. But they need some guidance in understanding the various solutions on the market.

But most importantly, you need to draw their focus to the kind of solution you offer and its benefits. This will naturally let you transition from the general kind of solution (such as accounting automation) into your specific offer (your actual product).

With a case study headline that ties that type of solution to the prospect’s desire, and body copy that “twists the knife” and introduces your type of solution, all of this is possible.

Need help preparing a case study or several? I’m here to help. Contact me today!