1
Stage 1 of 8
Audience
"I Am Learning"
What's Happening
Someone becomes aware that your category exists. They're building awareness, developing vocabulary, and starting to understand what questions to ask.
- • Consuming content broadly without specific intent
- • Learning the language of the space
- • Deciding which voices resonate
- • Not yet comparing solutions or evaluating vendors
What You Should Do
- ✓ Provide genuinely useful educational content
- ✓ Allow anonymous engagement — don't gate everything
- ✓ Capture Signals without requiring identification
- ✓ Be patient — this stage can last months or years
- ✗ Don't push for sales conversations
- ✗ Don't treat content downloads as "leads"
Signals That Indicate This Stage
Content consumption
Articles read, videos watched
Social engagement
Likes, follows, shares
Event attendance
Webinar registrations
Channel presence
Newsletter subscriptions
Transition to Researcher
When Signals show focused investigation — returning to specific topics repeatedly, comparing different perspectives, going deeper rather than broader — they're becoming a Researcher.
Quick Facts
- Typical Duration
- Weeks to years
- Engagement Style
- Passive, content-driven
- Your Role
- Educator, thought leader
- Success Metric
- Growing awareness, trust
Examples
- SaaS: Developer reads blog posts about API best practices
- Services: VP subscribes to newsletter on transformation
- Mfg: Ops manager attends industry webinar
Ready to move beyond Audience?
Track your journey from Audience to Champion. Your Value Path makes progress visible.