The 5 Levels of Customer Awareness

At Bramble Desk, Hollis has five reader briefs open beneath a sticky note that says "Start with the benefit." The first describes someone reading an article about finishing a project. The last describes a returning customer who wants to inspect an upgrade.

Hollis, Bramble Desk, its offer terms and the reader interviews below are invented. The software turns selected project notes into a client-handoff checklist for a person to review. Hollis needs to choose what each reader should encounter first on the way to that offer.

What do the five levels describe?

Eugene Schwartz's Breakthrough Advertising, published in 1966, distinguishes readers by what they already know about a need and the available offers. Writers commonly use five labels: unaware, problem-aware, solution-aware, product-aware and most aware.

Use the model to decide how much explanation a particular reader needs for this decision; nobody has to pass through all five levels. The arrival route can suggest a starting point, but you'll need evidence from their questions too. Treat each brief as an assumption you can revise.

Questions to use when sorting a reader brief

Unaware

• Have they connected this situation with a need for help?

Problem-aware

• Can they name the difficulty without describing an approach?

Solution-aware

• Are they comparing ways to solve it?

Product-aware

• What question do they still have about this product?

Most aware

• Do they want this offer and need its terms?

Match the opening to what the reader already knows about this decision.

Hollis keeps the product's capabilities fixed across the five briefs. That prevents a tempting shortcut: inventing a feature to make an opening work. The question is where to begin explaining the same offer.

Unaware: begin with a recognizable situation

The first reader hasn't connected finishing a project with needing a handoff process. So Hollis starts with the moment they already know: "The client approved the site on Friday. On Monday they asked where the logo files live."

The next line names the problem: "Follow a finished project to find the details a client still needs."

The article shows a client asking which file version is current after final delivery. Check your interview notes for a similar episode before choosing this opening for your own readers.

For this brief, Hollis puts a practical handoff example before the software introduction. It gives the reader a way to gather file locations and access details even if they decide to use their existing tools.

Problem-aware: connect the difficulty to a route forward

The second brief describes someone searching for help with scattered handoff notes. Hollis opens with "Stop rebuilding the client handoff from scattered project notes." The supporting line reads, "Gather selected notes into a checklist your team reviews before sharing."

The body needs to show how that method works. The sample demonstration includes human review; the product doesn't approve a handoff by itself.

Leave the incomplete link visible until the team member corrects it.

Check the manual step in the demonstration

Hollis puts a deliberately incomplete file link into the sample notes. The demonstration must show a person checking the suggested checklist before sharing it with a client.

A team member checks the file link before the checklist reaches the client.

If readers are more worried about who signs off than where the notes live, Hollis will need a different opening. Customer pain-point research helps you distinguish the problem you can demonstrate from the problem people actually want solved.

Solution-aware: help the reader compare approaches

The third reader is comparing ways to hand off a project. The headline invites that comparison: "Compare two ways to turn project notes into a client handoff."

The supporting line introduces Bramble Desk's approach: "Collect selected notes from contributors, review the suggested checklist and share a read-only client page."

Include the approach a reader already has. A shared document might meet their needs, especially with one person responsible for keeping it current. Hollis compares that workflow with gathering notes from several contributors.

A solution comparison for Bramble Desk

Shared document template

• A sensible choice when someone keeps a repeatable process current.
• The team gathers and adds every detail itself.
• The team controls how the document is structured.

Bramble Desk workflow

• Designed to gather selected notes from several contributors.
• A person reviews the suggested handoff checklist.
• The result is a read-only client page.

Compare who gathers the details and how each workflow produces a reviewed handoff.

Both demonstrations use the same sample notes so a reader can compare who gathers each detail. Product positioning covers choosing the comparison that helps a reader judge fit.

Product-aware: answer the question delaying the choice

The fourth brief describes someone who knows Bramble Desk and worries about exposing internal notes. Reintroducing the product would leave that question unanswered. Hollis opens with "See what clients see before you share a page."

The supporting line reads, "Compare the internal checklist with the read-only page your client receives." Hollis's demonstration shows a team member removing an internal note before sharing. The preview labels that manual step beside the share control.

A different product-aware reader might need an import demonstration or a setup estimate. Use the question supported by your research, then provide enough detail for them to decide whether the product meets the requirement.

Most aware: make the offer easy to inspect

The returning customer in the fifth brief wants shared handoff templates. The headline names the offer: "Shared handoff templates for your team."

The supporting line gives the terms: "Five seats for $30 per month, billed monthly. Review the plan, then send a sales inquiry to request the upgrade."

A colleague has labelled the button "Activate." Hollis follows the prototype and finds that it opens a plan-review screen before a sales inquiry. They revise the label to match that step.

What the button promises

Overpromises

Activate

Describes the next step

Review the team plan

Use "Review the team plan" when the click opens a plan review before a sales inquiry.

The plan review comes before the sales inquiry.

Keep the seat count beside the monthly charge, even for a returning customer. Copyhackers' awareness guidance offers practitioner applications of the framework; treat these openings as drafts to test.

How do you choose a level without guessing?

Hollis returns to the evidence attached to each brief. A category comparison suggests knowledge of possible solutions. A brand search is more ambiguous: it could come from an existing user or someone investigating a recommendation.

The interviews behind Hollis's briefs point to a solution comparison: most readers already use a shared template and ask what would change with Bramble Desk.

Write down what you know, then mark what you're inferring. If the page serves several starting points, give readers visible routes to the explanation or offer they need.

Awareness also won't explain every abandoned action. Fogg's Behavior Model includes ability and a prompt alongside motivation. Check whether your next step demands information or effort the reader can't provide at that moment.

Before Hollis assigns an opening

• What can this reader already explain about the problem?
• Which alternatives have they come across?
• What do they know about our product?
• What evidence supports those assumptions?
• Does the next step fit what they know and the effort they can give?

Market sophistication addresses the claims a market has already encountered. A newcomer to your product can still be weary of familiar category promises, so keep that question alongside your awareness brief.

Draft five openings for the same offer

Spend five minutes sketching all five reader briefs for one offer. Write down what each reader already knows, marking the evidence beside your assumptions. The Psychology collection covers other parts of the decision.

Allow fifteen minutes to draft a headline and supporting line for each brief. Identify what you'd show immediately underneath; Hollis's material below lets you check whether each opening has somewhere to lead.

What Hollis puts after each opening

Unaware

A worked handoff example the reader can use without buying.

Let someone recognise the situation and improve their own process.

Problem-aware

A demonstration of gathering scattered notes into one checklist.

Show how the proposed method addresses the difficulty.

Solution-aware

The same handoff completed with a shared template and with Bramble Desk.

Make the comparison concrete and identify manual work in both.

Show more

Product-aware

A preview showing which internal notes the client can see.

Answer the specific permissions question delaying the decision.

Most aware

The plan terms beside the button that opens a review screen.

Make the billing interval and included seats visible.

Each opening has something specific to show beneath it.

Spend five minutes choosing the version best supported by your readers' questions, keeping that evidence beside your headline draft.

Hollis lays the five briefs beside those interview notes and selects the solution-aware opening. On the launch-page draft, they place the shared-template and Bramble Desk demonstrations directly beneath that opening, with the same project notes visible in both.