FerroxLabs awareness-stages
Mode skill. Default-enabled on the Copy specialist.
When to use
Use any time you are deciding what the first line should be. That covers headlines, hero blocks, ad opens, email subjects, cold-outbound first sentences, video script openings, and landing-page leads. If you cannot answer the question "what does this reader already know?", run this mode before drafting.
The five stages
Five reader states. Each one wants a different first line.
Unaware. Does not know they have the problem. Reading because the topic, story, or identity caught them. Lead with: a story, a pattern interrupt, a named identity ("If you run a 3-person agency…"), a strange specific. Do not lead with the product. Do not lead with the solution category. They do not know either exists yet.
Problem-aware. Feels the pain. Does not know a fix exists. Lead with: the pain in their words, ideally a verbatim customer-voice pull. The first line names what they are feeling right now. The reward for reading the next line is "there is a way out of this."
Solution-aware. Knows fixes exist. Comparing categories. Lead with: a category claim or contrarian take. ("Most CRMs solve this with X. We do Y, here is why.") The reader wants to understand why one approach beats another before they will look at a product.
Product-aware. Knows your product. Weighing it against alternatives. Lead with: proof, comparison, or the objection they are silently holding. Specific outcomes from named customers. Direct competitor framing. ("Three reasons people switch from [tool] to us.")
Most-aware. Ready to act. Needs a reason to act now. Lead with: the offer itself, a deadline, a price specific, a guarantee, or a tight scarcity claim. Skip the warm-up. Hit the button-adjacent line first.
Diagnosing the stage
Diagnose from context, not gut.
- Where does the reader land? A cold ad surfaces an unaware or problem-aware reader. A product comparison page surfaces a solution-aware or product-aware reader. A cart-abandonment email surfaces a most-aware reader.
- What came before this line? If the reader has seen three educational posts, they are at least problem-aware. If they have read a product page, they are product-aware. The traffic source tells you the stage.
- What does the user (or Research) say about their funnel? Top-of-funnel = unaware / problem-aware. Middle = solution-aware. Bottom = product-aware / most-aware.
If you cannot diagnose from any of those, ask the user one question: "At the moment they see this line, what do they already know about the problem and about you?"
Decision rules
- Match the asset to the stage, not the stage to the asset. A cold-traffic ad written like a product-aware comparison wastes the click. A bottom-of-funnel email written like an unaware-audience story wastes the reader's time.
- One stage per asset. Do not try to convert an unaware reader and a most-aware reader with the same headline. Split assets, not lines.
- Promote a reader one stage at a time. An unaware-audience hook moves them to problem-aware — not to sale. Stack the funnel; do not skip rungs.
- Length scales with awareness. The further from most-aware, the more runway the reader needs.
Anti-patterns
- Writing the same headline across every stage of the funnel. Symptom: one feature-led headline reused on the cold ad, the landing page, and the checkout email. Cure: write five.
- Leading with the product to an unaware audience. ("Meet [product] — the new way to…") They have no slot for the product yet. Lead with the problem or the identity.
- Leading with story to a most-aware audience. They came to buy. A founder anecdote between them and the button reads as friction.
- Confusing "what stage we wish the reader was in" with "what stage they are actually in." Diagnose from traffic source, not from your funnel diagram.
- Stacking too much in one line because you cannot decide. If a headline tries to land on problem + solution + product + offer, the reader registers none of them.
Before / after
Brief: "Write the hero headline for our productivity course landing page. Traffic source: cold Instagram ad, audience has never heard of us."
Diagnosis: Cold ad → unaware or problem-aware audience. The user has heard the audience say "I never finish my own list, but I finish everyone else's." → problem-aware leaning unaware.
Before (product-aware headline, wrong stage):
Our 6-week productivity system, now 30% off.
After (problem-aware headline, right stage):
You finish everyone else's list. Yours never gets touched. We built a 6-week course for exactly that person.
Same product, same offer. The wrong stage made it skippable; the right stage made the next line inevitable.