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Written by Michel Fortin
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Can Your Prospects Take An Oath?

Can Your Prospects Take An Oath?

iStock 000000198924XSmall 150x150 Can Your Prospects Take An Oath?One prob­lem in copy­writ­ing I often see is the fact that the audi­ence is not tar­geted for the offer. An untar­geted, unqual­i­fied prospect won’t buy, no mat­ter how good the copy is.

Or at least, they will ask for a refund once they smell the cof­fee. But that’s not the topic I want to discuss…

It’s the sec­ond biggest copy­writ­ing prob­lem. Which is the fact that the copy doesn’t speak to the cus­tomer at the stage of aware­ness at which they hap­pen to be.

This is absolutely essen­tial to ensure that the copy is long enough, and strong enough, to appeal to, qual­ify, edu­cate, and sell the prospect. It’s about con­nect­ing with them.

What are these “stages of aware­ness?” There are four.

I’ve used these before I ever learned about their exis­tence. Mostly uncon­sciously through research­ing a tar­get mar­ket while writ­ing copy. I know, for exam­ple, that Eugene Schwartz talks about this and at great length in his book, “Break­through Advertising.”

Schwartz dis­cusses the var­i­ous stages of aware­ness and sophis­ti­ca­tion of a cer­tain mar­ket, but I pre­fer to use an acronym so it is eas­ier to remem­ber and follow.

I call it “OATH.” As in, “Is your prospect ready and will­ing to take an oath?”

It’s a cool mnemonic to help you remem­ber how aware is your mar­ket about the prob­lem, their need for a solu­tion, and of course, your solu­tion specif­i­cally. Here’s what I mean.

Depend­ing one where your reader is at, and the level of edu­ca­tion, cre­den­tial­iza­tion, and agi­ta­tion you need to pro­vide (and the length of copy you need to write, to a cer­tain extent), depends very highly on how knowl­edge­able and aware your mar­ket is.

Maybe they’re hurt­ing right now. Maybe they’re not there yet. “Not there yet” means they may be hurt­ing, but do they really know they are hurt­ing, and by how much?

That’s what their aware­ness level of the prob­lem means. And it’s also how edu­cated they are about the solu­tion — let alone your solu­tion — and how sophis­ti­cated they are.

Granted, this is answered to some degree by how tar­geted your audi­ence is, which is the first prob­lem I men­tioned ear­lier. But the sales copy should flow from, and fol­low with, that stage of aware­ness in order to bring them to a suc­cess­ful outcome.

I like to look at it this way: how pre­pared they are to take an oath, mean­ing how ready, will­ing, and able they are to buy, is based on any one of those four stages.

Here’s what “OATH” means…

O — They’re obliv­i­ous.

At this stage, they’re unaware about the prob­lem let alone a need for a solu­tion. They don’t know they’re hurt­ing or could be hurt­ing (i.e., that there’s a poten­tial prob­lem they don’t know about and should pre­vent with your solution).

So in this case, you need to edu­cate them a lot — about the prob­lem or poten­tial prob­lem. You need to bring it to the top of their minds. If you hit them too hard and too fast with the solu­tion and par­tic­u­larly the ben­e­fits of the solu­tion, with­out know­ing they have a prob­lem in the first place, you’re only going to con­fuse or lose them.

Often, this is what hap­pens with copy that’s too short or too presumptive.

Do they really know they’re hurt­ing? Even if they sim­ply have an unmet desire for some­thing, unbe­known to them they’re still hurt­ing at some other level. As my friend and copy­writer Craig Per­rine once said, “An unmet desire is also a prob­lem to be solved.”

A — They’re apa­thetic.

They know they have a prob­lem, but they’re indif­fer­ent about the solu­tion. Any solu­tion. They sim­ply don’t care for what­ever rea­son. Per­haps the prob­lem is not impor­tant enough or urgent enough to them. Per­haps they’re not hurt­ing enough.

So you need to blow up the prob­lem — or the risk of the poten­tial prob­lem, which is a prob­lem in itself. You need to aggra­vate it. Make it more real, more present, more urgent, more vivid. You need to pour salt into their wounds, so to speak.

More impor­tantly, you need to make them feel the con­se­quences of their inac­tion. Because good copy doesn’t really induce action. Good copy, in real­ity, is meant to pre­vent pro­cras­ti­na­tion — and pro­cras­ti­na­tion is the biggest killer of sales!

This is par­tic­u­larly true with higher stages of aware­ness, for the more aware they are, then the more their inac­tion is about pro­cras­ti­na­tion than it is about the lack of desire.

T — They’re think­ing.

They know they have a prob­lem and that there is a solu­tion, but they don’t know about your solu­tion. They’re shop­ping around, con­sid­er­ing other offers or just think­ing about whether they should be doing some­thing about their prob­lem in the first place.

So at this stage, you don’t need to sell them too much on the prob­lem or the solu­tion. After all, they’re think­ing about it. But you do need to sell them on your solution.

What is it? Why is it a good solu­tion? Why is it impor­tant to them? What makes it so unique, dif­fer­ent, or valu­able? What makes your offer so com­pelling above over all other alter­na­tives, includ­ing unre­lated ones? With the lat­ter, I mean indi­rect competitors.

An indi­rect com­peti­tor may be a totally dif­fer­ent solu­tion, a dif­fer­ent prod­uct or ser­vice, that soothes the same pain. So you need to build value in your solu­tion, too.

H — They’re hurt­ing.

At this stage, they’re des­per­ate! They know they have a prob­lem and how bad it is, they may know about the var­i­ous solu­tions that exist on the mar­ket, and they even know about your spe­cific solu­tion. But they haven’t gone ahead for some reason.

Per­haps they don’t know how to go ahead, or why they should go ahead right now. Per­haps they’ve used other solu­tions unsuc­cess­fully in the past and are afraid.

Their inac­tion may be they’ve seen other offers but they’re over­whelmed, dis­trust­ing, skep­ti­cal, or sus­pi­cious, or they’ve been burnt by other, sub­stan­dard solu­tions or scams.

Think of it this way: if they’re des­per­ate, then clearly they’re already sold. So why haven’t they bought, yet? What do they need to get over the remain­ing “hump?” What’s stop­ping them? What objec­tions do they have left or what ques­tions remain to be answered?

So here, you need to increase proof, urgency, and the value of your spe­cific solu­tion. No need for a lot of edu­ca­tion here. Just sell them on rea­sons why on get­ting your solu­tion and get­ting it now. Build per­ceived value, proof, and urgency.

At this stage, pro­cras­ti­na­tion is the cul­prit. Often, it’s based on fear. Whether it’s the fear of the unknown (they don’t know you from a hole in the wall), the fear of mak­ing a bad deci­sion, or the fear of buy­ing — such as secu­rity con­cerns, for example.

You need to allay that fear. To do so, you need to truly under­stand your cus­tomer at a deeper, more inti­mate level. You need to learn why they haven’t gone ahead yet or what they need to go ahead. And finally, you need to give it to them.

In a nut­shell, that’s my OATH formula.

So the bot­tom line is, by and large your audi­ence may be obliv­i­ous, apa­thetic, think­ing, or hurt­ing. Granted, this may not be true all of the time, but if your tar­get­ing is done prop­erly, then the vast major­ity will pre­dom­i­nantly fall into one of them.

Know­ing this will tell you a lot about not only how much infor­ma­tion you need to gather and pro­vide to edu­cate your reader, but what kind of infor­ma­tion, and what kind of offer, that will stim­u­late them and tran­si­tion them into buy­ing your solution.

And remem­ber, it all starts with your mar­ket. Copy­writ­ing is more about know­ing your audi­ence and help­ing them to buy, than it is about know­ing your prod­uct and sell­ing it.

About the Author

Michel Fortin is a direct response copywriter, author, speaker, and consultant. Visit his blog and signup free to get blog updates by email, along with response-boosting tips, tested conversion strategies, the latest news, free advice, additional resources, and a lot more! Go now to http://www.michelfortin.com. While you're at it, follow him on Twitter.

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Tags: advertising, apathetic, awareness, copywriter, copywriting, empathy, eugene schwartz, formula, hurting, market, oblivious, psychology, selling, solution, success, thinking
This post was written on Thursday, March 24th, 2005. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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  • This statement you made, Mike, is a bit confusing; "And that is, the copy doesn't speak to the customer at the stage of awareness at which they happen to be".

    I can only speak from observation of my prospects over the past few years, and it's safe to say their stage of awareness covers every phase you identified....since their thinking isn't monolithic.

    Let me explain. I give a free radio report out as a lead capture for people looking to break into broadcasting. They come from all walks of life and for every reason imaginable(usually their desire for fame/recognition/feeling important,)

    How do you write to prospects whose collective awarness stages aren't monolithic?
  • I would target either the greatest (predominant) stage, divide your message into several messages for each one, or cater to the lowest common denominator.

    Let me explain.

    I said at the very beginning that the bigger problem is lack of targeting. If your audience is not targeted from the get-go, then you're going to have a wide range of awareness stages to cater to -- wich might dilute your sales message, and hence your sales.

    I suggest you either target on a smaller niche, and create other sales messages for others. Or, worst case, cater to the lowest common denominator -- that is, the earliest stage (and present opportunities for people to skip sections where the education is unwarranted). This is done through jump links or putting the "edcuation" in Johnson Boxes, so it is apparent and easy to skip.

    This is a last resort. At least for me.

    But the j-box can have a headline that says "what is" and makes it visibly apparent that you're educating those in the earlier stages. "So what exactly is aromatherapy?" Etc, etc.
  • Hi Michel,

    Just a quick technical question about process: How can you determine (in advance) the stage of your prospect's mind-set "before" advertising to them?

    I think Madden's question was leaning towards this, but your answer assumed you (he) already knew the stage (stage O, stage A, etc.).

    As opposed to Schwartz's method, the stage was according to the level of entry into the market by the "product". For instance, is this a completely new product that NOBODY has ever seen vs. a fully entrenched one. BIG difference between Schwartz's stages (product centric), and yours (prospect centric).

    I also notice that the way you write is typically so compelling that the "stage" of the prospect's awareness just doesn't seem to matter that much.

    (Your article, "How to Craft Cash-Creating Climactic Copy" is just one of many examples.)

    Are these stages just therefore a "refinement" to copy, or is a specific copy targeted to a specific stage? This is what had me scratching my head.

    Aren't you happy you brought this up? :-)
  • I think refinement to copy may be more the case, because when in doubt, I usually cater to the lowest common denominator.

    But often, it's blaringly obvious, even before copy is written and especially if the stage is clearly defined and denominated, such as when the target market is within a highly targeted, highly specific niche.

    Take the copy I wrote for Frank Kern's Underachiever System for example.

    Internet marketers who hit that site were brought there through affiliate promotions. They already know about Internet marketing 101. They already know or probably have been burnt by other, or have bought every other, Internet marketing "how-to" course. And most important, they want to make money.

    So they're predominantly -- yes, predominantly, not monolithically -- in the thinking stage. They're a little more aware than you're typical newbie who never heard of Internet marketing before.

    The tighter the niche, the more targeted and stage-specific your copy should be. An example is a topic brought about on my forum at copywriters forum. A poster asked a critique of his website, which sells a healthcare-related prep exam ebook. The audience consists of uncertifierd hospital coders, and other non-CCS healthcare workers seeking their CSS credit.

    According to the original poster, "These are the folks who assign your ICD-9-CM codes when you visit the hospital for service. These codes then factor into a DRG -- which is what most payers base their reimbursement on."

    Now, I have absolutely no clue as to what this is or means. I'm not only oblivious, but I'm far from being a target.

    But in this case, the audience knows CSS, knows coding, is studying to pass the certification exam, and knows that it's hard to pass it the first time. The ebook is specifically geared to help them pass it, and pass it the first time.

    The original copy was appealing to the earlier stages. When I told him the copy should aim the later stages, like thinking or hurting.

    So this is, I guess, refinement to a degree. But it's highly specific. And if I were to write the copy from scratch, I would know that to a large extent.
  • Michael,
    Good Question and one that seems to be making the rounds these days. I say go with your gut and do what you already would like to do (I will assume) which is to blog your newsletter. And why are you asking the question? Are you A/B testing us? or do you have qualms leaving the luddites behind?

    James Maduk would say don't even think about it but go with the RSS tidal wave. I've taken Mike Mugrabi's lead and run with it and here's why. Mark Joyner is cashing in on the question: When do you stop A/B testing and commit?

    You can always hire a machine or another consultant to take the blame or the credit. The consultant machine sez that the "Rich" guys have a plan but trust their gut. And get this...Bottom line, you don't have to "either/or", you can "both/and" which has it's own special attraction.

    Remember, You're Michael Fortin and You can
    do whatever you want which has historically been leavened by your compassion for the great unwashed. Now you may be wondering
    "who was that masked flip-flop and why is he posting here?" Have a great day.
  • Is there any point at all to targeting the copy for those in the Oblivious stage? It seems to me it's going to be a much harder sell than it is if the copy jumps in at the Apathetic stage or later. If it's web copy, the Oblivious aren't even searching for anything. I can't think of any copy I've ever written that had to address Oblivous readers. Any virtuoso copywriters out there who could hazard a guess as to how often that might be the case, or give some concrete examples?
  • Eileen, you're right. As I said, if you target your audience, more often they're past the oblivious stage -- especially online, where people actually seek you out using keywords and phrases. It's likely they're knowledgeable of the problem to a certain degree.

    But it does happen. It depends on the product. And it depends on how knowledgeable they are of the 'real' problem. Sometimes, it's readily apparent. Other times, it's not.

    For example, one critique I did was for someone who wrote an ebook for insomniacs, and how to get more sleep. Often, and my assumption is, people don't know they're insomniacs, or they're oblivious to the fact that insomnia is not really the problem -- not only the root problem but also the problem(s) it causes/creates.

    Or look at it this way: they are stressed out, burnt out or lacking focus/energy. When they stumble onto your product, they're oblivious to the fact that insomnia may be the problem -- or that insomnia is the problem in the first place.

    In fact, they may think they sleep at night. But insomnia is also people who sleep lightly -- they are in alpha or theta sleep stages.

    (They wake up numerous times throughout the night, toss and turn, wake up at the slightest sound or movement in the room, etc. I had this problem, so I know. A person getting 5 hours of deep sleep gets more sleep than a person in light sleep, sleeping 10-12 hours!)

    Anyhow...

    That's just one example. Another is the preventative field, like insurance or medicine. Or an even better example, take a look at the "death" market: pre-written eulogies, casket sales, pre-arranged funerals, etc. I've done work for those, and the marketplace is pretty oblivious. Like insurance, it's the preventative market -- people don't really know they need/want a preventative solution.

    Granted, if you're online, people seek you out and thus the last example is a little misleading, for they are in the market for, say, a pre-arranged funeral service. They're thinking or, at worst, apathetic.

    But do they really know all the problems associated with NOT having a pre-arranged funeral service? And what about an audience who found you indirectly? Say, people who sought life insurance and, under that keyword, found your pre-arranged funeral service? Etc.

    (By the way, I wrote copy for someone who sold an ebook on how to avoid the pitfalls of buying a casket, of all things! That was a hard sell. And it required quite a bit of education. A lot of people were not only oblivious to the need for a casket but also to the fact that there are fraudsters in this business who fleece unsuspecting casket consumers.)

    :)
  • Thanks, Michel. That makes more sense now, especially as regards one of my areas of interest, the alternative health market. An individual, for instance, may not even recognize that low energy, or moodiness, or whatever, is not normal; they figure it's because they're 52, or extra busy, or whatever. You have to somehow get them to recognize first that they can and should feel well and healthy, and second, that the underlying cause (not enough dietary phytochemicals, or Co-Q-10, or seratonin, or whatever), can be addressed with a particular supplement or whatever.
  • Exactly!
  • Ken
    Hi Michel,

    A few months ago you wrote that you were having (or had recently had) some unpleasant experiences with clients (payment problems, unreasonable demands, etc.).

    Would it be possible for you to tell us what you learned from these experiences: i.e. how copywriters can avoid (or minimize the risk of experiencing) these problems.

    Thank you, Michel.
  • Thanks Michael, more interesting insights. With web 2 technologies it would not be hard to stream these OATH types by asking simple questions eg 'click here if you agree with this statement'. This could result in a more individualised and interactive web page experience. A little harder to make the pages though. Have you seen any sales pages that stream the readers like this?
    Simonthescribe
  • Great post and great formula!

    The A part of your formula is the hardest for me to deal with. How do you blow up the problem without turning people off by making the sales pitch too hyped up sounding?
  • Michael:

    Can one address prospects using auto-responders. The auto-responder will start from the lowest common denominator and then warm up all the way to finally asking the prospect to buy.

    If that is possible, what would that sequence be?

    Is it feasible to address the entire process in one copy versus an autoresponder that walks people through the phases?
  • That explains why my sales have been so slow, my market are people who want to change their lives, and 95% is oblvious to the idea that change is welcome.....any suggestion on how to wake em up?!!

    Bright Michelle
  • I'll be launching an Amazon campaign the end of March.

    Do you know of any authors in the health/nutrition areas that would like to participate? Other authors can be listed with a free download to get more subscribers. I will be sending a formal letter as soon as I get all of them together.

    Thanks.

    Dianne
  • Joshua U
    This comes at an interesting time for me. I'm rewriting my main sales letter with this in mind. How do you know exactly what level of OATH they're experiencing?

    I imagine looking at the keywords bringing you traffic might help a bit. A survey asking for their level of desperation could also do the trick.

    I'm in the communication skills niche. Some people may be searching for a solution to a recent fight they had, while most people are oblivious to the problems their communication is causing them. I think I partially answered my question.
  • @Joshua U - My wife has put out a video for a product she created. But the video she offers says a lot, and may answer your question...

    http://MarketingESP.com
  • A great wake up call Michel. By writing to the client using language appropriate to their stage of awareness, we help each other. I like it. It reminds me to be more aware of the user profile I built before starting the website. Better dig it out of the file!

    Also, I see where 2.0 techniques can really help. But first we have to connect. I love win win stuff!
    Colin
  • TheBadBlogger
    Hi Michel,

    I think the 2nd one is the hardest, is like changing the mind of your prospect to a new perspective way. You see, nowadays people are just too stubborn to listen even if the solution could solve their problem, but still like what you say," they simply don't care for whatever reason... "

    The Bad Blogger
  • So Mike would you suggest that upon our autorespond messages via email to our prospects that we try to devote some messages to different stages of people?

    Also do you suggest we try to mix up all the stages into our copy except oblivious? So we basically work really hard on making a copy that will appeal to people that are either "apathetic", "the thinker", and "the hurt & wounded"?

    Also should we experiment on trying to mix it up, shouldn't we not try like order or segment the 3 different stages in our copy because then readership drop out is increased if let's say "the thinker" or the "I'm hurt & wounded" aren't immediately introduced to their appeal, desire & interests in the first paragraphs or pages of the offer. So to combat that we mix it up all in each page and paragraph.

    May sound wierd but it never hurts to experiment.
  • @Ansub Chaudry - About autoresponder messages, the answer is no. If your niche is tight, then all your autoresponses should be catering to that specific stage of awareness. I doubt that you will have equally mixed groups within a tight niche.

    However, if your market is indeed made up of various stages of awareness, I submit that you should have separate websites, copy, and autoresponder lists for each one.

    The problem with mixing it up is, those who are hurt, and if you're trying to educate them on the fact that they do have a problem, and why they need a solution in the first place, you will push them away. Remember, they're hurting. They want it now.

    For example, let's say you sell a weight loss product, and you are targeting people who desperately want to lose weight (you know this through market research that the people you target have tried diets and other forms of weightloss, and failed, etc).

    You wouldn't go, "OK, but first let me tell you why you gained weight, and why being obese is bad for you," and write long copy educating them on it.

    You're going to lose them. They don't care. They want help. And they want it now.

    So objectively, it depends on how tightly defined and narrow your niche is. This means you need to research your market to find out the majority of your market. Chances are, your market will predominantly fall into one or at most two categories.

    If you do have people who fall in more, then you're going to need separate websites and separate copy targeted to each one, differently and separately. If you mix, be very careful not to alienate and annoy others.

    Hope this helps.
  • Thanks Mike, that helped a lot. Made sense.

    You really got some excellent content on this blog. You give more than you get. Thanks.
  • "credentialization", excuse me, what did you mean by using this word? In the context of

    "You see, depending one where your reader is at, the level of education, credentialization and agitation you need to do (and the length of copy you need to write, to a certain extent) depends very highly on how knowledgeable and aware your market is."

    this is "http://bit.ly/cAJ7f" in referance to that and probably just as confusing...

    This is a good article. And yes it is all about the audience...
    Take Care
  • Hmmm, looks like it was poorly written. I'll fix that. But what it was supposed to say:

    "You see, depending one where your reader is at, and the level of education, credentialization, and agitation you need to provide (and the length of copy you need to write, to a certain extent), depends very highly on how knowledgeable and aware your market is."

    Specifically, credentializing your copy means how much proof you must add to your copy to make it credible and believable.

    Here's another article I wrote about adding elements of proof, including credentialization proof:

    http://www.michelfortin.com/what-surgery-taught...

    Hope this helps!
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Secrets of a 10% Conversion Rate

Secrets of a 10% Conversion Rate

New! Paul Hancox combines direct selling and copywriting techniques to produce online conversion rates as high as 10%. His 127-page report shows you how. Click for more »