Customer Awareness.
Let’s kick this module off with another concept from copywriter Eugene Schwartz, the author of Breakthough Advertising. In that book, Schwartz outlined an idea he calls the Prospect’s State of Awareness.
In the Research Mastery Course we talked about the importance of learning who your prospective customers are, the problem they have, and what they believe. But your prospects are not all the same. Some may not realize that they have a problem or that their problem needs attention. Others are very aware of their problem but may not know there is a solution for it. Another group knows they have a problem, they know there are solutions out there, but they don’t know which one is best. A fourth group knows they have a problem and they’re aware of at least some of the solutions and among those, they believe a particular product (hopefully yours) will help them. And a fifth group is ready to buy your solution now.
The place where a particular reader is on this spectrum, determines the message you share with them. It also determines the kind of copy you might write for them. And the length of that copy.
Let’s dive in a bit deeper and show you what this means.
Let’s start with the Most Aware group. The customer knows about your product. She knows what it does and she wants it. She just hasn’t gotten around to buying it yet. So your copy needs to get her to take that last step—buy your product.
That might mean all you need to do is present her with an offer—your product name, a price, and a call to action.
When you sit down to write, you may only need to understand why she hasn’t purchased yet. This is something you should uncover during the research process we’ve shown you in the Research Mastery course. Maybe the product is too expensive? In that case, a discount offer might be enough to get her to purchase. Or she hasn’t been able to find it? Share the store location or URL to make it easier. Or maybe she’s hesitant because other solutions have failed. In that case, remove the risk with a guarantee or trial offer. If it’s a matter of inertia and she just hasn’t felt the need strongly enough, you may need to describe the pain or problem she is experiencing and show her how much better the future will be once she’s used your product (this is called future pacing).
In most cases, when writing to a Most Aware audience, your copy will be relatively short. It will primarily be focused on the offer and call to action. The typical copy deliverables you would write for this audience include ads, product pages, purchase pages, abandon cart sequences, and emails with urgency. The most aware audience lives at the bottom of the marketing funnel. Customers are ready to buy, you just need to make it easy for them to do it.
This is the ad that Schwartz mentions to demonstrate how to write to this audience. Here’s another example.
The next group of customers Knows about the Product but Doesn’t Want It Yet.
Here your customer isn’t completely aware of everything your product does, or maybe she isn’t convinced of how well it works, or she doesn’t know how much better it is now.
In this case, your copy needs several of the following seven things:
- It needs to reinforce your prospect’s desire for your product
- It needs to help her understand how your product solves her problem
- It needs to explain how your product works (and how fast)
- It needs to introduce proof and details to support your explanation
- It needs to announce a new mechanism and show how it delivers the solution in a new and better way
- It needs to show how the mechanism removes any limitations that other solutions have, or…
- It needs to show that this mechanism is completely different from every other solution—so much so that it’s practically a different product from the other solutions that do a similar thing
Because your prospect is familiar with your product, your copy should focus on showing how it’s the best option for them now. You would write about the product, how it solves the problem, and prove that it is the best solution. You don’t need to write very much about the problem or agitate the pain your customer feels. They are well aware of all of that. At this point, they just need assurance that this solution is the right solution.
Here are a couple of the ads Schwartz uses to illustrate the copy meant for this audience. Of course, Schwartz was writing in 1966, so these ads are a bit dated. I’ve tried to track down a few additional, more recent examples to show how you might do this.
Often, but not always, this copy will be longer than what you would write for the first group. You need to say enough to help your customer realize that your solution is the best solution. But this copy should still be relatively short. Just enough to prove your product is the best.
And the types of copy—the deliverables—you write for this group is similar to the first group… closer to the bottom of the funnel—sales pages, landing pages, case studies that demonstrate how the product works, and copy that helps reduce risk like guarantees and proof.
Okay, let’s look at the third group of customers. They are Solution Aware—that is, they want what the product does, but they don’t yet know about YOUR specific product and how it will help them.
As a copywriter, you have two missions with this group of customers. The first is to connect with their worldview and the desire they have to fix their problem. And the second is to introduce your product and direct your customer’s desire to it. In other words, help them want it.
There are three steps to doing this… first name the market desire, the problem or the pain your customer has. Second, introduce your product and prove how it solves the problem or answers the desire. Finally, show that the mechanism that delivers the solution is part of your product. If you can, connect the mechanism directly to the problem or pain. You’ll see how to do that in some of the examples, but let’s say your customer’s problem is they can’t exercise because they don’t have a weight set, your mechanism should work without weights and deliver the desired outcome in a different way.
When done well, you will capture the market desire or problem and the solution in a single, focused statement. But it can take more than one or two lines to develop the sales argument and bring your reader along for the ride.
The copy you write for customers in this stage of awareness includes sales emails, sales pages, white papers, demonstration videos, case studies, and anything else where you can show how your product solves the problem. Your copy should focus on the customer’s beliefs and how they need to shift in order to buy your product. We covered this in some detail in the research docs included in the Research Mastery course.
As for length, this copy is usually longer than what you would write for the previous two groups. You’re not just presenting a buying opportunity, you’re showing the reader you understand what they need, you’re showing them a solution, then you need to show them how it not only works, but works better than other potential solutions. And that takes time.
The fourth group of customers has a problem or need. They want to get it fixed, but at this point they don’t realize there are solutions. So they don’t feel a need to look for one.
To connect with this audience, you need to understand what’s going on in their world. What are they experiencing? Struggling with? Frustrated by? Upset about? What’s holding them back? What’s keeping them up at night? If you know this stuff—and you found all this out when you completed the research docs included in Research Mastery—you have the focus of your copy. Or at least the focus of your headline and lead.
Here are a few examples that Schwartz quotes in his book to show you what we’re talking about.
Sometimes the problem isn’t obvious, so your copy needs to help your reader understand they have a problem, like in this famous ad “Do you make these mistakes in English?”
At this point we’re writing for customers who are at the top of the marketing funnel. They are looking for information, exploring, considering all their options. The kind of copy you might write for customers at this stage of the buying process includes blog posts, white papers, emails, brochures and other marketing support materials, as well as sales pages… though if you’re writing a sales page at this stage, you need to start with the problem and what’s going on in your reader’s world, not heavy sales copy. You might even start with a lead that appears to be completely unrelated to your product then create the connection with your copy.
And the length of what you write for customers who are problem aware should be as long as it needs to be. You’re helping your readers understand their problems, you are empathizing with them, then connecting that problem to their desire to fix it, and finally introducing a solution, answering objections and making it easy to say yes to the offer. That takes space. And often, a lot of words.
The last group—the fifth group—of customers is made up of those who are completely unaware of the problem they have and the fact that there may be a solution for it. This is the most difficult group to write to. They are pretty indifferent. Again, they don’t even know they have the problem you solve or they can’t admit it to themselves.
You should probably avoid these potential customers as it can take a lot of education before they are ready to take the next step. But if you are writing for this group, focusing on the market and what they are feeling… anger, jealousy, a desire to get even with someone or to make money. By focusing on their desires, you can then introduce them to the specifics of the problem, and move them toward solutions and eventually to your product and offer. This can take a lot of time and copy. It usually doesn’t happen all at once, though it could.
Those are the five different groups of potential customers. I’m going to repeat myself a bit here because this is important, but copy that will work for group one, the most aware will not work for group five who are completely unaware.
Talking about prices or where you can find a product means nothing to a person who does not know or want your product. The same is true of any copy about what your product does or the problem it solves. And conversely, focusing your copy on the market and its desires would be a complete waste when writing for customers who are ready to buy now.
Knowing your prospect’s stage of awareness is a super power when it comes to time to write copy.