Match the right content, proof and offer to each stage a customer goes through.
Pull up the last five things your business posted, emailed or printed. Next to each one, write who it was for: someone who has just noticed a problem, someone comparing options, or someone ready to pay. The answers show which customers you are talking to and which ones you are missing.
Picture two posts from the same tuition centre on the same day. One says "limited slots, sign up now" for a P5 maths class, and it is written for a parent who is ready to buy. The other is a short video of a teacher explaining why many pupils find P5 maths harder than P4, and what parents can watch for. It is written for a parent who has only just started to worry. Most businesses post only the sign-up-now kind, then wonder why nobody responds.
In Lesson 2.1, "The journey from noticing a problem to telling a friend", you saw that people at different stages ask different questions. Here you work out how to answer each set.
At every stage you can give people three kinds of thing. Content is material that helps people think. Proof is evidence that you can do what you say. An offer gives people a next step. The mix of the three changes as people move through awareness, consideration, decision, retention and advocacy.
At the awareness stage the person is not looking for you. They are looking for an explanation of something that is bothering them. Content that names their problem in their own words gets their attention, because it tells them they are not the only one with it.
Priya runs a maths tuition centre in Tampines. She records a two-minute video on why a child's marks often dip in P5, when the problem sums get harder. A home-based bakery posts about how far ahead to order a first-birthday cake. A financial adviser writes a short note on the questions to ask when your parents start talking about retirement. None of these sells anything.
Pushing an offer at this stage makes people back away, the same way you would back away from a stranger at a party who opens with a sales pitch. Your job here is to be useful, so that people remember you as the one who explained it.
At the consideration stage people are comparing options, and they want evidence. Proof includes reviews, results, photos of real work, and anything else that lets them check your claims. For a tuition centre, results only count if they can be backed up, and a child's name or marks should only appear with the parent's permission. The PDPA generally requires consent before you use someone's personal data this way. Get that consent in writing so you can show it later.
People comparing also want things a sales page often hides, such as clear prices and honest limits. Publishing your fees saves a parent from messaging five centres just to find out what each one charges. Honest limits build trust. A centre that says it works best with students who are behind and want to catch up, and that it is not the right fit for students aiming for olympiad competitions, is easier to trust than one that claims to suit everyone. Comparing is hard work, and the business that makes it easiest often gets chosen.
At the decision stage the person has mostly chosen and is now worried about risk: that it won't work, that the child will hate it, or that they'll be locked in for a year. A low-risk next step answers that worry by making yes feel easy to undo. That could be a trial lesson, a free fifteen-minute consultation, a clear refund term for the first month, or paying per term rather than per year. An online seller might offer free returns on the first order. Write the terms down plainly, because a vague promise feels like a trap.
After the first purchase the customer's question becomes "should I stay?", and later "would I recommend this?" A customer who hears nothing from you between purchases slowly forgets you, so retention needs a reason to come back. A hawker stall can use a loyalty stamp card. The bakery that made the first-birthday cake can send a message a week before the child turns two. A tuition centre can send parents a short monthly update on what their child covered and where they still struggle. Each of these works because it is useful in itself.
Advocacy follows when people have something easy to pass on. A parent who gets a clear progress update is more likely to forward it or mention it to a friend than a parent who only gets invoices. You can also simply ask. Once a family is happy, a polite message asking whether they know anyone who might benefit costs nothing.
When most businesses lay out what they have against each stage, they see the same pattern: plenty of decision-stage offers, a few reviews for consideration, and almost nothing for awareness or for after the sale. Those empty stages are where people drift away without the business noticing.
Every business has its own empty stages, and most owners find some blanks, so expect them. In the activity below, list what your business currently has under each of the five stages: awareness, consideration, decision, retention and advocacy. Where a stage is empty, name the blank or write down something you could make next month to fill it. An idea for next month counts as a fair answer, and a blank you can name is more useful than a stage you assumed was covered.
For each stage, write down one piece of content, one proof point and one offer that you already have or could make.
Junxiong-WFG Organisation is an authorised representative of AIA Financial Advisers Private Limited (Reg. No. 201715016G).