If you're investing in marketing but not seeing the results you expected, you're not alone. Most businesses think they have a traffic or leads problem, but our experience shows it's usually a positioning problem.
In this post, we'll reveal why your marketing messages might be missing the mark and how to align them with where your buyers actually are in their journey, not where you wish they were.
The biggest marketing mistake companies make is simple yet profound: speaking to the wrong buyer at the wrong time.
This happens because most businesses create marketing that targets only purchase-ready prospects, people who are actively looking to buy today. The problem?
According to marketing research, these "ready-to-buy" prospects represent only a tiny fraction of your potential customer base.
As Daniel Priestley explains with his CrossFit example:
"How many of you are ready to sign up for a CrossFit gym today?" A few hands go up.
"How many of you in the room are not happy with your weight?" About 90% raise their hands.
This perfectly illustrates the gap between purchase-aware prospects (those ready to sign up for CrossFit) and problem-aware prospects (those who recognize they have a weight issue but aren't ready for a specific solution).
When you position all your marketing at the purchase stage, you're effectively ignoring 90% of your potential customers.
To effectively position your marketing, you need to understand and create content for these three critical awareness stages:
At this stage, prospects are just beginning to acknowledge they have a problem they'd like to solve. They're not looking for specific solutions yet, they're simply recognizing their pain points, frustrations, or desires.
How to position your marketing: Focus on articulating the problems your prospects are experiencing better than they can themselves. Help them name and understand their challenges.
Example Content:
Prospects at this stage have acknowledged their problem and have decided they want to solve it. They're now actively researching options, comparing approaches, and evaluating potential solutions.
How to position your marketing: Educate prospects about different approaches to solving their problem. Position your solution as one of several options, but highlight the unique benefits of your approach.
Example Content:
Only at this stage are prospects ready to make a buying decision. They've researched solutions and are now comparing specific offerings, looking at pricing, and evaluating which provider to choose.
How to position your marketing: Now is the time to focus on your specific product/service features, pricing, implementation process, and direct comparisons to alternatives.
Example Content:
According to Google research, today's prospects need an average of 11 touch points, spanning over seven hours of interaction with your business, across four different platforms before making a purchase decision.
This means:
If you're only showing up in one channel (like just SEO, just Facebook, or just networking events), you're likely missing crucial opportunities to guide prospects through their journey.
A common misconception is that it takes years for prospects to convert. While some industries do have naturally longer sales cycles, the truth is that properly positioned marketing can dramatically shorten the time from first touch to purchase.
The key insight: It's not about waiting years for prospects to be ready, it's about having the right message for where they are today.
When you meet prospects at their current awareness stage instead of trying to force them to the purchase stage, you create a natural progression that moves them through the funnel more efficiently.
Many businesses complain that their ads aren't converting despite targeting the right audience. The issue is often this: you're making the right offer to the wrong awareness stage.
Consider this analogy:
"If I'm walking out of a steak restaurant having just eaten an amazing steak dinner and you walk up to me and hand me a $300 coupon or gift certificate to walk into the steak restaurant down the street, my answer is no. It doesn't mean the steak isn't good. It doesn't mean your restaurant isn't good, but I just ate."
Similarly, if your prospects are in the problem awareness stage but your ads are pushing a purchase decision, your timing is off.
They're not hungry for your solution yet.
An important trend to note: AI is enabling prospects to go even deeper into their buying research without ever contacting you.
This means:
As AI tools become more integrated into the buying process, positioning your marketing to intercept prospects during their research phase becomes increasingly critical.
Here's a straightforward approach to improve your marketing positioning in the next 30 days:
Remember this key insight:
"Every single one of those questions is the seed of a lead generation campaign that you're sitting on."
While aspirational marketing (selling the dream, goal, or vision) has its place, experts emphasize meeting prospects at their pain points first:
"Don't get so caught up in selling them the dream. Don't get so caught up in selling them the goal. Don't get so caught up in selling them the vision. Meet them at their point of pain."
The most effective approach is to start with acknowledging pain (problem awareness), then transition to aspirational content (consideration stage), and finally to specific solutions (purchase stage).
This approach has driven over $300 million in revenue for clients through a strategic 90-day sprint process.
The key is spending the first 30 days identifying customer questions and turning each answer into targeted content for visibility and lead generation campaigns.
When done correctly, this repositioning leads to consistent conversions, not because of some marketing "magic" but because you're finally aligning your message with where your prospects actually are in their journey.
The modern buying journey is complex, with prospects researching independently across multiple channels before ever reaching out to you.
By positioning your marketing to meet prospects at each awareness stage, not just at the purchase stage, you can:
Remember, the key is patience and proper positioning. Not everyone who encounters your brand is ready to buy today, but with the right messaging strategy, you can stay top-of-mind until they are.
If you're serious about aligning your marketing with your prospects' buyer journey, we offer two powerful next steps:
Get access to our complete positioning framework, expert coaching, and a community of growth-minded business owners implementing these exact strategies.
The Inner Circle provides ongoing support to help you implement what you've learned in this article and much more.
Not sure where to start? Our AI Marketing Assessment provides a comprehensive evaluation of your current positioning strategy and delivers a customized growth roadmap with clear action steps.
This assessment has helped businesses identify their biggest positioning gaps and create a clear path to improved conversion rates.
Take the next step toward marketing that actually converts by choosing the option that best fits your needs today.