Lurkers Are Listening: How Top of Mind Awareness Wins Hidden Leads
- The Change Starter
- Sep 1
- 4 min read
How Top of Mind Awareness Turns Silent Followers into Buyers
In the B2B world, a lurker isn’t someone suspicious hiding in the shadows. They’re your silent audience. These are the people who read your LinkedIn posts, watch your webinars, open your newsletters, and browse your website without liking, commenting, or replying.
It’s easy to assume that a lack of engagement means a lack of interest. But that’s a major misconception. In reality, many B2B buyers consume content quietly, waiting for the right time to make their move. Lurkers aren’t ignoring you. They’re absorbing, evaluating, and remembering.
Think of them as slow-burning leads. They may not be ready to raise their hands yet, but they are inching toward the tipping point. The key to unlocking their potential is staying top of mind.
The Psychology of the B2B Lurker
B2B decision-makers often operate under pressure. They’re accountable for major budgets, team performance, and long-term outcomes. That’s why they consume information carefully and cautiously, often without broadcasting their interest.
Public engagement can feel risky. Liking or commenting on a post might signal intent to competitors or raise internal questions before they’re ready to answer them. So, they watch from the sidelines.
There’s also the “pain threshold” factor. Buyers act when the pain of their current challenge outweighs the hesitation to change. And when that moment comes, when the pain tips the scale, they won’t search for solutions from scratch. They’ll reach out to whoever has been consistently helpful, visible, and top of mind.
Real Data, Silent Impact
If you’ve ever had someone DM you out of nowhere to say, “I’ve been following your content for a while, and I think we’re ready to talk,” you’ve met a lurker.
They often sign up for your newsletter quietly. They show up in analytics as repeat visitors with long dwell times. Then one day, a calendar invite hits your inbox. Discovery call booked. Big budget. Zero public engagement history.
This silent behaviour is more common than many marketers realise. Website analytics and email platforms often reveal a pattern of repeated engagement long before a lead ever makes contact. These signals may not be visible on social media, but they’re powerful indicators that your content is working.
That’s the real impact of top of mind awareness. Even when no one’s applauding, the right people are paying attention, and when the time is right, they act.
How to Finally Get Results from Marketing
By Stevie V Brown MSc
Success requires a clear strategy and consistent, measurable marketing system.
The CARE Factor Fix™ is a framework developed from primary research insights that provides the formula for businesses and marketing providers to partner in ways that get results.
How to Spot (and Support) Lurkers
So how do you identify these silent spectators?
Start with analytics:
Look at dwell time on key pages.
Track repeat visits from the same IP or email.
Monitor email opens and reopens.
These aren’t vanity metrics. They’re signals of interest without engagement.
To support lurkers, create content that builds trust:
Answer high-intent questions they might be Googling.
Share client success stories that resonate with hidden pain points.
Use email nurturing sequences that respect their pace.
When someone moves from passively lurking to actively exploring, maybe by downloading a guide or replying to an email, you’ve got yourself a warm lurker. And that is often the lead most ready to buy.
Shifting the Way You Define Leads
It’s time to stop equating likes, comments, and shares with business potential. Vanity metrics might look good in reports, but they don’t pay the bills.
Start valuing substance metrics:
Enquiries
Email replies
Website behaviour patterns
Form submissions
Redefining what “interest” looks like in your funnel helps you stay focused on nurturing the right people, even if they haven’t publicly raised their hand yet.
When you prioritise top of mind awareness over short-term validation, you make room for the lurkers to become leads on their timeline.
Take Action Now
So here’s your challenge: This week, post something with the lurker in mind.
Share a story, answer a question, or offer insight you know your audience needs, even if they never tell you they’re listening.
Keep showing up. Stay helpful. Stay visible. Build that top of mind awareness. Somewhere, a future client is silently watching and waiting for the right moment to say yes.
The leads you’re looking for might already be here. You just haven’t heard from them yet.
If your marketing efforts are focused only on visible engagement, you might be missing your most valuable prospects: the silent ones. Now is the time to shift your approach. Start by evaluating how consistently you’re showing up across channels, and ask yourself: Are you building trust with people even if they never click "like"?
At The Change Starter, we help businesses create marketing strategies that don’t just chase vanity metrics, but drive real impact. By focusing on top of mind awareness, we help you connect with the audience that’s watching quietly and deciding when the time is right.
Want to unlock the potential of your hidden leads? Get in touch today, and let’s build a strategy that speaks to the people who are already listening.
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