Posted: February 5, 2025Categories: ,

Why familiarity blindness is stunting your growth (and how to fix it)

Stop posting, start converting — there’s a smarter way to create content that works. 

When you’re so close to your business, it’s easy to miss the gaps. It’s like walking past a crooked picture frame every day and not even noticing it.

This is what’s happening to your content strategy right now. It’s called familiarity blindness — or what you might know as tunnel vision or a blind spot. You’re so close to your product, your message and your process that you can’t see where you’re going wrong.

 

Wait What Vision GIF by Nick Jonas

The real problem isn’t your product — it’s your messaging

You’re likely producing great content but aiming it at the wrong stage of the buyer journey. It’s like trying to sell a spa pool to someone who’s never even considered owning one. Here’s what we see happen time and time again…

Businesses often spend all their time and effort on the Decision and Purchase stages of the buyer journey because that’s where the “money” is, right? 

Wrong.

If you’re not addressing the Awareness and Consideration stages, you’re leaving a massive chunk of potential customers untapped. 💰

What does that actually look like?

Here’s a snapshot of the 5 key stages of the buyer journey and what’s happening at each point:

  • Awareness: Your future customers may not even know they have a problem yet.
  • Consideration: They know they have a problem, but they’re still searching for the best solution.
  • Decision: They’re ready to buy — but they’ll buy from the brand that’s been most visible, helpful and trustworthy.
  • Purchase: They make the purchase, but if you stop engaging here, you risk them feeling “abandoned.”
  • Retention: Post-purchase engagement that ensures customers stay connected, refer you to others and come back to buy again.

If you’re ignoring Awareness, Consideration or Retention, you’re making it far harder to win at the Decision stage — and that’s where most businesses burn out. 

But don’t worry – it’s fixable!

 

TV gif. From WandaVision: Agnes Harkness (Kathryn Hahn) gives us an exaggerated wink and tilts her head with a smile.

 

How to snap out of familiarity blindness

If you’re nodding along, thinking, “Yep, that’s us,” don’t worry. Here’s how to regain clarity.

Step 1: Revisit and map out your buyer journey

Let’s get back to basics and break it down into: Awareness → Consideration → Decision → Purchase → Retention

Ask yourself:

  • Where are we showing up?
  • Are we supporting our audience at every stage?
  • Is our content addressing the right questions at each stage?

If your content is all “buy now” messaging, then you’ve got work to do.

 

Step 2: Talk to your your customers – no seriously, just ask them

Your customers have the answers, but if you’re not asking the right questions, you’re flying blind.

Here’s how to fix that:

  • Survey your customers via email, phone calls, social polls or DMs.
  • Read reviews — especially the negative ones. They tell you where expectations aren’t being met.
  • Ask the right questions:
    • What problem were you trying to solve before finding us?
    • Why did you choose us over a competitor?
    • What nearly stopped you from buying?
    • What would make you recommend us to a friend?

Why is this important?
Because everything changes — competitors, customer needs and industry trends. By staying connected to your customers’ motivations, you can spot gaps (or new opportunities) and adjust your messaging accordingly.

 

Step 3: Spot the gaps and fill them with = intentional content

Now that you’ve got clarity on your buyer journey and customer motivations, it’s time to fill the gaps.

Here’s how:

  • Awareness: Create content that identifies customer pain points (e.g., “Why your skincare routine isn’t working”). If you’re a jewellery maker, create storytelling content around key life moments (birthdays, anniversaries or “just because” moments).
  • Consideration: Educate and nurture them with guides, tutorials and case studies that help them make an informed choice.
  • Decision: This is where product features, pricing, and social proof (like testimonials and reviews) live.
  • Retention: Post-purchase email sequences, customer success stories, and exclusive “thank you” offers to keep customers engaged and coming back for more.

 

Step 4: Build a content plan for every stage

No more “content for content’s sake.”

For every piece of content you create, ask:

  • What stage of the buyer journey is this content for?
  • Does this content answer a customer question or need?
  • What action do I want the reader to take after seeing this content?

Use a content calendar to plan posts for Awareness, Consideration, Decision, Purchase and Retention stages.

That way, you’re never scrambling to “just post something!” dilemma.

 

Step 5: Stay consistent, not constant

Here’s the myth: You need to post 5 times a day to stay “relevant.”

Here’s the truth: Consistency beats volume.

Instead of flooding your feed with random content, focus on intentional, high-impact posts.

It’s not about doing more — it’s about doing it better.

 

A real-world example of familiarity blindness (and how we fixed it!)

Meet the jewellery maker who was stuck in “hobby mode.”

She was creating beautiful pieces, but she couldn’t see the bigger picture. Her content focused on products, not people.

The result?

Beautiful jewellery — but not enough sales.

Here’s what we did:

1 – Surveyed her customers and learned that people weren’t buying “jewellery” — they were buying milestone moments (birthdays, anniversaries, achievements).
2 – Reworked her messaging to focus on the emotional impact of gifting jewellery for life’s special moments.
3 – Built out a content strategy for every stage of the buyer journey:

  • Awareness: Storytelling posts about life’s milestone moments.
  • Consideration: “What to wear at special occasions and events” content, as well as UGC (user-generated content) from customers.
  • Decision: Customer reviews, “last chance” offers and detailed product information.
  • Retention: Follow-up emails that encouraged repeat purchases for future milestones.

The result?
More engagement, more sales and no more “post and hope” saga!

Schitt's Creek gif. Annie Murphy as Alexis crosses her fingers with both hands as she smiles earnestly before looking down.

 

Stop posting, start converting — here’s why consistency wins every time

This concept of familiarity blindness directly ties into the bigger picture of why a consistent social strategy matters for SMBs. Without consistency, businesses fall into the “post and hope” cycle, where random content is pushed out without a plan to guide potential customers through their buyer’s journey.

A consistent social strategy does the following:

  • Fills gaps in the Buyer Journey: By having a plan that addresses Awareness, Consideration and Decision, you ensure your customers’ needs are met at every stage.
  • Increases engagement & conversions: Consistency builds trust. When customers see a steady stream of valuable content, they’re more likely to convert.
  • Prevents burnout: Posting randomly leads to burnout. A clear strategy gives you focus, intention and a repeatable system to keep you consistent.
  • Builds brand authority: If your content constantly shows up with insight and value, you position your brand as the go-to expert.

Done guessing? Let’s build a content strategy that works

If this list hit close to home, that’s a good thing. It means you’re aware and awareness is the first step to fixing it!

Book a discovery call with me today and let’s create an actionable plan that works for your business.