Vol 4: The Awareness Problem

21 Dec

The hardest part of growing a business? It’s not building your product. Or perfecting your service. Or doubling sales. It’s simply gaining enough attention. Because without awareness, nothing else matters…

This Week:

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FEATURE
The Awareness Problem.

Whether you're an unknown startup or a household name, the biggest challenge isn't creating great products—it's capturing attention.

Even giants like Apple and Coca-Cola constantly work to stay top-of-mind. For smaller brands, it's an uphill battle every day.

I've seen way too many business owners pour their heart into building an amazing product that ends up gathering dust in the corner of obscurity. Not because it wasn’t brilliant. But because nobody knew about it.

Because they were so focused on revenue... they forget that without awareness there can be no leads, prospects, or customers.

The truth is, every brand has an awareness problem. All the time.

Blissfully Unaware

Brands often make the mistake of believing a fantastic product will naturally attract attention. Naively thinking, "If we build it, they will come." 

But in reality, there are a million reasons they won’t.

The B2B buyer journey is a long, slow, multi-touch process. Months can pass as buyers get to know, like, and trust your brand. As their problems become painful enough for them to take action. As they sort out the budget. Get decision makers on board. Research their options.

In other words, it’s a long way from problem to purchase.

During that time, countless distractions will vie for your buyers’ attention. Your audience is bombarded with ads, emails, and other messages every second of every day. And now, with AI tools democratizing content creation, that noise is about to become deafening.

The bottom line: If you're not constantly working to get in front of your audience, you're invisible.

AI Won’t Save You

Without a strategy for non-stop awareness at scale, you're fighting a losing battle.

Not just the battle for attention.

The battle for growth.

For a brand to scale, the pipeline needs to be constantly flowing. Whether you need 100 website visitors to generate a single lead, or 1,000... awareness is what fuels it.

Enter AI. Now, you can create 10 times the content in a fraction of the time. Articles, emails, social posts… surely that’ll drive 10 times more leads, right?

Here’s the problem: AI tools bring unprecedented scale and efficiency. But your competitors have them too. When everyone is churning out similar content at lightning speed, the noise floor rises. Standing out becomes harder than ever.

This isn't just about putting out content. It's about crafting the right message and delivering it at the right time, across every relevant channel, to generate the right kind of awareness for each stage of the buyer journey.

In other words, it’s about strategy.

The Awareness Formula

Here’s my recipe for awareness that actually moves the needle. The ingredients? Messaging, timing, and persistence.

1. The Right Message

Your brand’s narrative must do two things:

  • Speak directly to your buyers’ biggest pain points.

  • Differentiate your solution from every alternative out there.

AI can help generate ideas, but the nuance of crafting a message that truly resonates? That’s on you.

2. At the Right Time

Think of the B2B buyer journey as a progression from cold to warm to hot.

  • Cold stage: Buyers are identifying a problem.

  • Warm stage: They’re evaluating categories of solutions.

  • Hot stage: They’re comparing products.

Create valuable content that engages buyers at every stage, not just the last one. AI can help with research, writing, and more. But it can’t replace a deep understanding of your buyers’ journey. 

3. Everywhere

Your brand needs to be omnipresent. Period. Identify the channels that matter most to your audience and dominate them. Whether it’s LinkedIn, YouTube, podcasts, email ... Be there. All the time.

AI can help scale your presence across multiple platforms, but high-volume AND high-quality is non-negotiable. One without the other won’t cut it.

The Recap

For ambitious brands, awareness isn't an option. It's a necessity. 

It's not a faucet you can turn on and off. It’s a full-time job. 

It’s not a passive idea that relies on word-of-mouth. It’s an intentional act.

And it's not about blindly hoping AI will solve all your problems.

It's a strategic, relentless approach to constantly get your message in front of the right buyers, at the right time, everywhere.

Your product deserves to be seen. Your brand deserves to be known. Start today by rethinking your approach to awareness. Focus on your message, timing, and omnipresence. That's how you’ll win the battle for attention. That's how you’ll fuel your pipeline. And that’s how you’ll grow in the AI Era.

5 RESOURCES
Listen. Learn. Level up.

Awareness isn’t the only play B2B brands need to run continuously. The marketing landscape is evolving faster than ever. And so are buyers. That’s why smart marketers, founders, and business leaders are constantly leveling up their marketing knowledge with books, podcasts, newsletters, and more. 

Here are 5 ways you can too:


👋 COMMUNITY 
Superpath by Jimmy Daly
Like a support group for B2B content marketers, but actually useful. Get real advice from people who've survived the content trenches and lived to tell about it.

📖 BOOK 
”High-Impact Content Marketing” by Purna Virji 
Because your audience needs more than just another "10 tips" listicle. Learn how to create content that actually makes people feel something (besides boredom) and turns casual readers into ride-or-die customers.

🎙️ PODCAST 
B2B Growth by Sweet Fish Media
Your daily dose of B2B marketing sanity. Get actionable insights on everything from demand gen to AI without the usual "thought leadership" fluff.

🎓 TRAINING 
Demand Curve Growth Program
For when you're tired of throwing marketing spaghetti at the wall. Learn demand generation from people who've actually generated demand (imagine that).

📰 NEWSLETTER 
Foundation Marketing by Ross Simmonds
The B2B marketing newsletter for people who are done with "post and pray" strategies. Ross shows you how to get your content in front of actual humans who might actually buy something.

HEADLINES
In case you missed it.

News we’re following this week:

Why Your Old SEO Tricks Won't Work with AI Search ↗
MarTech.org dropped a 13-point survival guide for the AI search apocalypse. Because ranking for "best widget solutions" just got a whole lot more interesting.

Google Makes AI Images Less Annoying to Create ↗
Bye-bye confusing text prompts – Google's newest AI lets you generate images straight from existing photos. Your social media team's collective sigh of relief is audible.

Klaviyo's Crushing It (and Making Everyone Else Nervous) ↗
With a 34% sales jump, Klaviyo's proving that AI-powered marketing automation isn't just fancy robot talk – it's where the smart money's going.

Want Real B2B Authority? Stop Outsourcing Your Brain ↗
Building in-house expertise isn't just good for your ego – it's how you become the company everyone else wishes they were. Time to let your smartest people shine.

B2B Tech & Healthcare are on Fire ↗
Google's AI has been doing some serious people-watching, and turns out B2B tech and healthcare searches are through the roof. If you're not already there, you might want to catch up.

QUOTE
Your weekly inspiration.

“You can’t be seen until you learn to see.”

- Seth Godin

Awareness starts with understanding. It’s not just about being visible—it’s about seeing your audience clearly: their problems, their frustrations, the outcomes they desire. Seth Godin’s words remind us that standing out requires more than presence; it requires empathy and strategy. In a noisy, AI-fueled world, the brands that truly see their buyers will be the ones buyers notice.

That’s all for this week. If you found this valuable, please share with a friend or colleague! We’re already hard at work on the next issue. Until then…

Cheers,

Carter & The Brand Theory Team

Before you spend another dime
on marketing…

See how the Growth 2.0 System helps brands like yours scale profitably and predictably by taking the guesswork out of marketing. It’s the step-by-step framework for transforming your business into a breakthrough brand. And I’m giving our entire playbook away for free!