The way we communicate with potential clients plays a deciding factor in whether this communication will prompt them to take some action. And this is the basis of this communication – influencing, driving and inspiring action.

This action will move our potential clients (prospects) through the client journey or marketing funnel – progressing them to the point where we can deliver them maximum value, and as a result of this provision of value, maximise the success of our business.

Here, we’ll discuss the best way to craft a marketing message (or ‘copy’) for content creation and advertising through channels like social media and Google Ads. This is the method of written communication we teach Range of Motion Business Mentoring clients.

Writing good copy begins with one simple question. ‘What does the prospect currently know?’. This question is key, because the message we deliver, and how we craft it, is dependant on the person we’re crafting it for. Different levels of awareness will require different copy in order to create action.

Determining where the prospective client is sitting on this awareness scale is one of the absolutely key elements of the process of establishing your avatar.

Once we have established what the client currently knows, we can bridge the gap between their current knowledge, and the knowledge they would require to see enough value in the service you’re providing to exchange their time and money for it. We bridge this gap by providing a solution to their problem.

We can answer the question of ‘current knowledge’ by categorising it in to one of five levels of awareness (as proposed Eugene Schwartz). These levels of awareness are:

• Unaware, where the prospect doesn’t know they have a problem that needs solving.
• Problem aware, where the prospect knows they have a problem but doesn’t know how to fix it.
• Solution aware, where the prospect knows they have a problem, knows there’s a solution they want, suspects there is a solution, but doesn’t know about your product or service
• Product aware, where the prospect knows they have a problem, and is aware of your brand and that you have a product or service that could solve their problem. Although they now what you do, they’re not sure it’s the right fit for them.
• Most aware, where the prospect knows your product and that it will solve their problem, they just need to know the deal or offer that will convince them to get started.

As we go from ‘unaware’ to ‘most aware’ we are also tracing the path of a lead from cold to hot. A cold lead, the most unaware, is the largest market segment, but also the one that needs the most work, not only through sales, but also through education in the form of content marketing. As the lead warms and becomes a hot lead, the sales funnel narrows (think of ‘unaware at the top of the funnel and most aware at the bottom of the funnel) and the market segment becomes smaller but at the same time more valuable to your business. As they progress downwards through the sales funnel, your delivery must change.

The stages of awareness, the temperature of the lead (from cold to hot), the stage of the sales funnel and the size of the market all determine the marketing message we should be providing to the prospect. Providing copy that’s inappropriate for that particular prospect, or skipping stages in this model will result in a reduced ability to influence action.

Before we go into detail on the actual copy to use for each stage of customer awareness, it’s useful to summarise the change in marketing message into one simple principle. The colder a prospect is, the more indirect the marketing message needs to be. The warmer a prospect is, the more direct the marketing message needs to be. Specific to writing copy, the ‘directness’ of a marketing message can be measured by how quickly this copy gets to mentioning the the product and the specific details of the offer.

Before we delve into each of the levels of awareness and the specific marketing message we should use for each, let’s look at some of the key elements of good copy.

Your copy should have one strong idea, one desirable benefit, one driving emotion and one inevitable solution. This ‘Rule of One’ states that your copy should have one big idea. It’s easy to get caught up in all the features and benefits of your service, and it’s easy to assume that the more benefits you tell your potential client, the more impactful the copy will be. But that’s not the case. What they actually want is one key idea. They want to know what you can give them that no one else can. They want to know how you can solve their biggest problem. You need to tell them your unique selling proposition. Note that this doesn’t mean you only talk about one topic, just that you talk about one idea. For example, Range of Motion might advertise with copy that explains the benefits of our one-on-one individualised approach to fitness. Although there may be many benefits, there’s only one idea. The individualised approach. The same goes for the techniques you use in your copy, including those we’ll explore here. You can offer deals, make promises, solve problems, give away secrets, make bold statements and tell stories, but they must all support one important idea.

You might think it’s easier to write about one idea than many, but it’s not the case. Writing about one idea means you need to know your avatar intimately – you need to know their biggest pain point, so you can fix it.

Let’s explore each of the levels of awareness, and exactly how to craft a marketing message for that prospect segment. A lot of the work done into linking the level of awareness with the specific crafting of the message was done by Masterson and Forde.

Unaware:

Beginning with the coldest lead (who has no knowledge they have a problem) the focus here needs to be on education and content creation. For a fitness business, an unaware lead is someone who doesn’t know that they need exercise in their life. They don’t know the lack of exercise is causing them problems, and because of this they haven’t been looking for a solution to a problem they don’t know they have.

There are two lead types that can be used for the unaware prospect, the Story Lead and the Proclamation Lead.

The Story Lead relies on the great human tradition of storytelling. It’s built in to our DNA. Because the copy is a story, this is the most indirect of all the lead types – and the reader often doesn’t even realise they’re being sold to. The story will allow you to build social proof. A basic testimonial is one example of a story lead, but it doesn’t take the reader on a journey like a good story will.

Let’s start with the headline. The headline should contain the key elements of a successful ad, one strong idea, one desirable benefit, one driving emotion, one inevitable solution. Notice there’s no mention of your exact product or service here. Remember, with indirect selling, the mention of exactly how you can solve the customer’s pain points doesn’t happen until the end.

The headline for the copy should follow three steps:

• The hero of the story (who needs to match your avatar) attempts to do something extraordinary.
• The hero is doubted by his peers.
• The hero proves them wrong.

For example, the following three headlines would be effective for a fitness business:

• His family laughed when he told them I was going to cut down his alcohol consumption. But then they saw his body start to change…
• Her best friends didn’t believe her when she said she was going to start exercise. Now they’re joining her!
• No one thought he could become a top athlete. Now his competitors can’t keep up!

Then, the story itself. We covered the Hero’s Journey in another part of this series, but it’s worth repeating the information here.

The Hero’s Journey follows a standard format:

• Hero get call
• Hero rejects call
• Hero reluctantly accepts call
• Hero meets obstacles
• Guardian angel helps hero
• Hero triumphs
• Hero returns home

To make this easier, you can use this template:

(hero) knew that (x needed to happen) because (the reason x needed to happen). But (he/she) didn’t think this was possible because (the the obstacle standing in the way of x happening). (Hero) (admitting a change was needed and the first step to make that change to get x to happen). During this process (The obstacles that the hero faced during the process), but with the help from (business/trainer’s name), (hero) was able to (how they overcame the obstacles). As a result (the thing that was achieved) and (the way the achievement was celebrated). (What has happened as a result of this achievement, refer back to the reason x needed to happen). (The next step/challenge/goal).

Let’s have a look at a real world example:

John knew that he needed to lose a few kilos because he was finding it hard to keep up with his son. But he’d failed this process again and again, and his weight yoyo-ed constantly. John took the (sometimes scary step) of reaching out to Range of Motion. Initially, during this process, work commitments and lack of time got in the way, but with the help from his coach, Dan, John was able to build some healthy habits around exercise and nutrition. As a result John has now lost 15kg and celebrated by ticking his goal off on the Range of Motion goals board. He can now keep up with his son – kicking the footy with him for 2 hours last weekend! The next step is to ensure the healthy habits remain for the next decade.

You can see there’s no direct sale or call to action in here. All we’re doing is moving the potential client up the stages of awareness.

The Hero’s Journey too complicated for you at this stage? No problem, here’s a simplified approach. Craft the stories for your documentation around three things:

• Identify a problem the subject of your documentation was/is facing (match this to one of the pain points of one of your avatars).
• Explain how this problem was solved by your business.
• Hint at the next step – what’s next?

As well as the Story Lead, the Proclamation Lead is another effective way of writing copy for the unaware potential customer.

The Proclamation Lead is at its core, a bold (often remarkable) statement. The statement usual begins with a headline which often (but not always) is emotionally compelling, and can sometimes be a prediction. This statement should reflect one of the pain points of the target avatar. Immediately after the main headline, you should have a sub-heading that promises a solution to the pain point.

For example, the following three headlines and subheadings:

• Food is Slowly Killing Your Family. But there’s a way you can fight back and take control of their health.
• Spend Five Minutes Doing This and You’ll Live Ten Years Longer (the main headline here is an example of a predication, and the headline hints at the solution, removing the need for a sub-heading).
• Your Exercise Program is Wasting Your Time. But with a few small changes it can become a highly efficient way to improve your performance.

After the headline and sub-heading, the copy will prove the validity of that statement/headline, and will explore the solution to the pain point that was raised in the headline. This will be supported by science, anecdotes and success stories. As you progress through the copy, you should get more and more specific about the nature of the solution to the problem.

Unlike the Story Lead, the Proclamation Lead WILL reveal the product or service you’re providing to solve the problem, but (as this is still an indirect form of marketing) won’t do so until the end of the copy, and won’t do so as a hard sale, but just as a mention that the service you’re providing can solve this problem.

Let’s look at a complete copy for a Proclamation Lead:

Your Exercise Program is Wasting Your Time.
But with a few small changes it can become a highly efficient way to improve your performance.

Most people follow standard, balanced, unbiased exercise programming. And this is fine, if you’re happy to just go through the motions with minimal or no improvement. But if you’re serious about your performance, and consider yourself an athlete, you might just be wasting all your hard work.

Look at the scoreboard of any functional fitness competition and you’ll see that the person on top of the podium isn’t the person with the highest finish in an individual event, it’s the person without any low finishes in any event. It’s not the person who has the strongest strengths, it’s the person who has the strongest weaknesses.

Top athletes are now realising that an individualised approach to exercise programming is what’s needed to destroy weaknesses and dominate podiums. It’s now very unlikely that an athlete following unscientific, non-customised programming can achieve their goals. In fact, we’ve seen athletes who’ve switched to ultra-specific, individualised programming, like ‘Range of Motion Individualised Programming’ overtake their peers and march up the leaderboards.

It’s important here to then finish this copy with an offer or deal. This final part of the copy is in fact another type of lead, an Offer Lead, which we’ll discuss later.

You can see how this lead type is educating the reader about a problem they didn’t know existed – that their abilities are imbalanced and that this is damaging their performance. It’s hinting at a better approach. It’s drawing their attention to evidence to support this approach. And finally it’s mentioning ‘Range of Motion Individualised Programming’ as a solution to the problem, without putting on a hard sell.

Problem Aware:

Now we can move on to prospects who are Problem Aware. They they have a problem but don’t know how to fix it. For a fitness business, a problem aware lead knows they have a problem. Maybe they’re overweight, are suffering from depression, have a family history of heart disease, or are disenchanted with their physical abilities. They have these problems but don’t know how to fix them.

The first of the two lead types here is the ‘Big Secret Lead’.

Firstly, it’s important to remember that the person reading this copy already knows they have a problem. So you don’t need to devote time to explaining the problem like we had to for the unaware prospects. So now we can focus on solving their problem… but not straight away.

We begin with a headline that introduces that a secret exists that will solve their problem.

For example:

• If You Added Just One Thing to Every Meal, You’d Change Your Life.
• Not Available at Your Average Gym, This is the Most Important Thing You Can Do For Your Health.
• The Secret Advantage Top Athletes Have Over Their Competition.

You can see each of these headlines, as well as hinting at a secret, also promise the ability of this secret to solve a problem.

Then, following the headline, you slowly provide clues as to what the secret is, not completely revealing it until near the end. This builds anticipation and emotional tension as you hint at the solution to a problem they’d like to solve. Not only are you slowly revealing the solution to them, but because it’s a secret, they’re about to find out something that other people don’t know about – giving them an advantage.

As part of this copy, give examples and case studies of people (people just like your avatar) who have taken advantage of this secret and how it solved their problem (without yet revealing what the secret is).

Then, reveal that the reader (your prospect) can take advantage of this secret – that it’s not just reserved for other people.

In some copy, the secret will never actually be revealed (or only part of the secret will be revealed), instead requiring a purchase to access the full secret. This may be the example when selling information, like a course or a book. In a service-based industry like the Fitness Industry however, the secret can be revealed, with the service you’re selling being required to take advantage of the secret. Or even better, reveal the secret, but not how to implement it. If you do reveal the secret, it shouldn’t happen until the end, when the prospect is already emotionally invested.

Let’s look at an example of a secret lead for a fitness business.

If You Added Just One Thing to Every Meal, You’d Change Your Life.

So many people are set in their eating habits, not knowing that they could make one tiny addition to every meal that would completely transform their health.

This one thing helps your body repair muscles. Muscles burn energy. So by repairing your muscles, you’ll burn more fat – up to 6kg extra every year!

Eating this also released a special chemical in your body that makes you feel full, meaning it’s a great way to feel satisfied after meals without having to eat all those empty calories.

Just ask people like Jess, who started adding this in during dinner and removed her cravings for sugary dessert – overnight! Or Pete, who added this to his lunch and no longer needed a guilty afternoon snack. Or even Tash, who started eating this twice a day as part of her regular meals and has lost 6kg in eight weeks!

Did we mention it tastes great too!? It can actually make eating more enjoyable. And the thing is, this isn’t some expensive, exotic, unknown food. It’s something you can find scattered all around the supermarket. In fact there’s probably some in your fridge right now!

You can find it in meat and seafood and eggs and poultry and even as a supplement. What do these things have in common? They all contain protein. A macronutrient that most of the population don’t eat enough of. Even those people who do eat it haven’t built the habits they need to make it a regular part of a healthy diet.

To feel fuller longer, lose weight, increase muscle, improve your fitness, and just generally become healthier, let Range of Motion Nutrition Coaching teach you how to introduce the magic of protein into your nutritional habits.

Remember, as we’ve already mentioned, you then need to finalise this copy with the Offer Lead we’ll talk about soon.

So how does this work? The heading reveals a secret, we discuss the benefits of this secret, we introduce people who’ve benefited, we hint at where the secret can be found, we let people know it’s available to them, then we reveal the secret, but let people know that they’ll need our help to completely unlock it.

As well as the Big Secret Lead, problem aware prospects can also be communicated with using the Problem-Solution Lead. But this is also used in the next level of awareness, ‘Solution Aware’, so we’ll cover it there.

Solution Aware:

The next group of prospects are solution aware – they know the solution they want but they don’t know that the service you’re offering provides it. In a fitness business, this comprises a large segment of our target demographic. It is widely accepted and understood that exercise provides far reaching benefits and solves many of the problems of our avatar. Because of this, we don’t have to spend as much time using the Story Lead, Proclamation Lead and Big Secret Lead. Not to say that we won’t use them (we will, particularly if the product or service we’re providing is new, niche, or unusual) but we won’t use them as much. Solution Aware prospects are those who know they need the service you provide, but aren’t aware of your business as an option to solve their problems. There’s a gap between what they know about themselves (that they have a problem and that there’s a solution) and what they know about your service. Your job is to close that gap to bring on board the client.

In a Problem-Solution Lead (which as we’ve mentioned is also appropriate for a problem aware prospect), the copy will ask a question that evokes emotion (the deeper the emotion the better) and empathises with the problem of the prospect – showing you understand the problem. Empathy here is key. You have to feel their pain. Then, you offer hope of a resolution to this pain. It isn’t about educating the prospect, it’s about letting them know their problems are heard and understood.

Writing the question is simple. Ask yourself what the biggest problem is that your prospect faces. What keeps them up at night? What is their biggest worry? Then rephrase that as a question or a statement. The question might be: “Have you looked everywhere to try to find a diet you can stick to?”, the statement version might read: “We know you’ve looked everywhere to try to find a diet you can stick to”. You can make the headline even more powerful by addressing a personal shortcoming the prospect may have, like, “Do you lack the willpower to stick to healthy eating?”.

You’ll follow this questions or statement up with the solution. Unlike the previous lead types we’ve covered, this is now beginning to become more direct, so the solution can come sooner in the copy. You’ll use the ‘if, then’ approach. For example, IF you can’t find a diet you should stick to, THEN you need Range of Motion Nutrition Coaching. The headline and subheading might read something like: Have you looked everywhere to try to find a diet you can stick to? It’s time to say goodbye to meal plans and counting calories and macronutrients and learn how to build tiny and easy habits that will last a lifetime. Then, you can complete the copy by offer the solution to their problem. “You can stop looking. Range of Motion Nutrition Coaching will teach you how to build these easy habits and become the last nutritional support you’ll ever need.”

Then, as with every lead type, you conclude this with the Offer Lead we’ll talk about later.

As well as the Problem-Solution Lead, problem aware prospects can also be communicated with using the Promise Lead. But this is also used in the next level of awareness, Product Aware’, so we’ll cover it there.

Product Aware:

Our next step up the awareness scale are those prospects who are Product Aware. They know what you sell, and the service you provide, but they’re not sure if it’s the right solution to their problems. The lead now becomes a lot warmer than the previous leads we’ve discussed, and thus the marketing message becomes more direct. These are the people sitting on the fence – about to buy but just in need of a tiny bit more convincing.

A Product Aware prospect for a fitness business would be someone who consumes your content on social media, understands most of what you do, but isn’t certain you’re the right fit for them.

For this prospect, we use the Promise Lead (which as we’ve mentioned can also be used for a Solution Aware prospect). The Promise Lead is simple – it promises the reader the end result, which is your unique selling proposition. The copy must target something your prospect already wants, or it won’t work. You can’t create a desire, that’s the job of less direct lead types. And this is the key, you have to identify the pain point that the target avatar wants solved, then promise to solve it. In the end, all a potential client really wants to know is what’s in it for them and that it solves their problem.

For this to be effective, the promise you make needs to be unique, and a promise that none of your competitors are making.

Elements of this Promise Lead can be found in all of the lead types we’ve discussed here, but the difference here is that in this example, we’ve stripped back the other techniques (because we’re now going direct) and leave the promise as a standalone.

Understand though that this lead type isn’t the most direct, so we don’t aim to make the sale in the headline, though it shouldn’t be difficult to guess what the product or service could be. What we DO sell is the end result, the problem being solved, not the actual product or service that’s going to solve it. The headline will build anticipation and tempt the prospect to read on.

Because people are now hyper aware of when they’re being advertised too, they can often be suspicious of Promise Leads (because they see them everywhere). As such (aside from their use in other lead types as we’ve discussed) the Promise Lead should only be used when your potential client is already almost ready to buy.

When writing the heading, you need to consider the features of your service, versus the benefits of your service. The feature may be Personal Training (this is what you do), but the benefit would be personalised care (this is what they receive). People don’t care about what you do, they only care about how it makes them feel and how it solves their problem. Don’t market what you do, market what they receive. By listing everything you do (the features), then converting each one to a benefit, you’ll have a list of the things you should be marketing.

The headline should focus on the effectiveness of your product or service to deliver on what it promises to. Usually this will draw the prospects attention to what it is yo do best than your competitors. Again, it comes back to the unique selling proposition. What do you do faster? Or bigger? Or to a higher level of quality?

Let’s look at an example of a Promise Lead:

The Fastest Way to Storm Up the Competition Leaderboard.

Individualised programming is the most effective way to improve your athletic performance – fast. With Range of Motion Individualised Programming you’ll have all the tools you need to chase podiums and top ten finishes. You’ll finally get a return on the hard work you’re putting in to training.

Range of Motion Individualised Programming has created CrossFit Games and Regionals athletes, and now it’s time to help you too.

Then, we’ll insert the Offer Lead at the end. If we break this down, you can see we’re making a promise in the headline with the product’s biggest benefit (increasing performance), we’re connecting to what the prospect desires (the glory of competition success) and we’re providing proof that it works (the success of other athletes).

Most Aware:

Our final stage of awareness is the prospect who is Most Aware. This is the warmest of all the leads. The prospect knows the product or service you provide. They know it’s the best solution for their problem. All the convincing is done. All they need now is a compelling and enticing deal to make them pull the trigger.

We achieve this through the Offer Lead, and the prospect’s level of awareness make this the easiest copy to write. The Offer Lead is also the shortest of the lead types. It doesn’t need to be long because the convincing is already done.

You’ll remember that we’ve talked about the Offer Lead before. It’s the copy that will go at the end of every piece of sales copy we write, so it becomes vitally important. The difference here though is that the Offer Lead here stands alone. You’ve delivered the prospect to the highest level of awareness, so we no longer need the other techniques we’ve discussed to move them up the continuum. It’s time to make the sale.

This is the most direct of all lead types. And as such, the headline should imply that you will be asking for money. If you’re showing the Offer Lead to the right level of awareness, have done your job in delivering them to this stage of awareness, and have proven the value of your product or service, they’ll be happy to pay.

At its most basic level as Offer Lead may look something like:
“Free One-on-One Session to Test Drive Range of Motion”.

We’re providing an offer (by saying it’s free) and we’re also implying an eventual purpose (because we’re saying it’s a test drive).

We can go a bit deeper into this lead however by adding in something we learnt previously, including the copy from a Promise Lead.

This now might look like:
Free One-on-One Session to Test Drive Range of Motion. Unlike any exercise session you’ve ever done.

We’ve made a bold claim, a guarantee, to support our deal.

There’s one more element we need to add to an Offer Lead, a ‘reason why’. You have to explain why you’re offering this deal. Your prospect knows that you’re not just doing it out of the goodness of your own heart – they know you eventually want them to pay you money – so tell them why you’re offering them this deal. Maybe places are strictly limited (which also adds some urgency) or maybe there’s time pressure (like you’re preparing them for an upcoming event).

So basically, next in our copy, we need to answer the question, ‘what’s the catch?’. And this is important, because we want the ‘catch’ to actually be a positive for the prospect. Something that will help them in the long run.

For example:
Free One-on-One Session to Test Drive Range of Motion. Unlike any exercise session you’ve ever done. At Range of Motion we do things a bit differently, and the best way for you to understand this difference is to experience it. We believe that an individualised approach to fitness is the right fit for you, and we want to prove it to you with this test drive. We’re confident you’ll fall in love with what we do.

We’ve added to our deal and our promise by explaining why we’re happy to offer this deal. To convince them that we’re the right fit for them.

The ‘catch’ could also offer scarcity, justifying our ability to provide such a good deal:

Free One-on-One Session to Test Drive Range of Motion. Unlike any exercise session you’ve ever done. Strictly limited to the first ten applications.

The ‘catch’ allows us to justify why we can afford to provide such a good offer.

Finally we want a call to action. What do you want them to do? How do they take advantage of this offer? Make it easy for them. In the end, the Offer Lead requires action.

So these are the five levels of awareness, and the six lead types that can most effectively market to them. We’ve already discussed how the message becomes more direct as the lead becomes warmer. It’s also worth touching briefly on how each lead type ties in to our overall marketing strategy. In this series we’ve spoken about social media advertising and Google Ads. We’ve discussed the concept of retargeting cold leads who’ve already been exposed to your marketing materials. Now we’ve covered the levels of awareness, we can get specific about how each level fits into our retargeting strategy.

For prospects who fit into the unaware, problem aware and solution aware categories, we should focus heavily on content marketing, educating the audience and solving their problems without a hard and direct sell. These three levels of awareness are perfect for retargeting. Use strategies like the Facebook pixel to identify these people. If you’ve written your copy well, you’ve now increased their level of awareness and you can now expose them to more direct marketing strategies. This is where the warmer and more aware product aware and most aware categories come in. These copy types will be shown to the people who’ve already consumed your content, perfect for retargeting.

The way we communicate with potential clients plays a deciding factor in whether this communication will prompt them to take some action. And this is the basis of this communication – influencing, driving and inspiring action.