Words are powerful. They are the crux of our existence as copywriters. And your choice of words is crucial in getting the results you seek, whether you’re a copywriter or not, and be it in business or in your personal life.

To compel others to do what you want them to do, words do the job. So it goes without saying that you need to choose your words. And you need to choose them carefully. Because words are more powerful than you think.

How powerful?

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Most of the copy people ask me to rewrite seem to offer great products and services. In fact, some of their offers are so good, prospects would be crazy to turn them down. But they do. And these sales pieces end up falling in my lap because they’re desperately unproductive.

One of the biggest problems I see in these pieces is the fact that the copy is stale, limp and anemic. Downright dull and boring.

You’ve heard the adage, “copywriting is salesmanship in print.” This is nothing new. It comes from the ageless teachings of the masters, like Hopkins, Barton, Collier and others, which still ring true today. Including the Internet.

But people tend to forget this axiom. Here’s why…

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One thing in copywriting that I often see as a problem 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 the very 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. And that is, the copy doesn’t speak to the customer at the stage of awareness at which they happen to be. This is pivotal to ensure that the copy is long enough, or strong enough, to qualify, educate and sell the prospect.

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

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