A Real‑World Case Study

Consider a recent example from the Copy Accelerator Pro Mastermind. A member developed a clever, legitimate offer showing women how to earn extra money simply by scrolling on their phones. The offer has broad appeal and realistic income claims ($75–$150 extra a month), making it perfect for stay‑at‑home moms, retirees, and twenty‑somethings looking for a little extra cash. Yet the ads promoting this offer were destined to flop because the copy was written for a solution‑aware audience rather than the problem‑aware women who make up the bulk of the market.

Speaking to the Wrong Audience

Here’s how the ads started:

• “I don’t mean to sound rude… but if you’re still looking into things like affiliate marketing, selling stuff on Amazon or dancing on TikTok to make extra money… you’re making a big mistake.”
• “What if I told you there was a way to build a second income that covers all your major expenses every month… without any of the headaches that come up with starting a traditional online side hustle…”

These leads assume that the reader is deeply familiar with online side hustles like affiliate marketing, dropshipping or webinars. In reality, most of the women who would be interested in this offer aren’t intimately familiar with those terms. They might have heard of “side hustles” in passing, but their biggest pain points are far more concrete:

• “We’re going to Disney next month and I really want to buy the Lightning Passes but they’re so expensive.”
• “I’m sick of feeling anxious about my car payment.”
• “I’d love to go wine tasting with my girlfriends, but I just went to New York and should be saving money.”
• “When did back‑to‑school supplies start costing so much?”

By focusing on gurus, webinars and failed side hustles, the ads miss the mark and fail to connect with the actual concerns of the audience.

Understanding Product‑Market Awareness

Product‑market awareness describes how familiar your prospect is with the problem, the available solutions and your specific product. Eugene Schwartz described five levels: unaware, problem aware, solution aware, product aware and most aware. Someone who is product‑aware needs little education—you simply need to prove your offer is the best. But when your audience is only vaguely problem‑aware, you must start by acknowledging their pain points, educating them about the root cause and explaining why your solution is different.

In our case study, the target audience is problem‑aware: they know they need extra money but aren’t familiar with affiliate marketing, dropshipping or other online business models. Ads aimed at solution‑aware prospects will confuse or alienate them. To reach them effectively, the copy must speak to their everyday frustrations, introduce the concept of earning side‑income by scrolling on their phones and build curiosity about how it works.

Lessons for Copywriters

The misalignment in this case study illustrates why product‑market awareness should drive every aspect of your funnel. When you tailor your message to the correct awareness level:

• You build rapport by acknowledging the prospect’s real problems.
• You create curiosity by hinting at a solution they haven’t tried.
• You spend the right amount of time educating versus persuading.
• You select appropriate assets—short ads and simple product pages for most‑aware prospects, or longer VSLs and advertorials for problem‑aware prospects.

Copywriters at every level should revisit this framework regularly. Even well‑known marketers sometimes fall into the trap of speaking to the wrong audience. Taking the time to identify your prospect’s awareness level will improve your conversion rates and ensure that your great offer doesn’t get lost in translation.

Conclusion

Product‑market awareness may be an old concept, but it’s essential to modern marketing. As this case study shows, even a clever offer can fail when the copy assumes too much knowledge. In 2025, when attention spans are short and competition is fierce, taking the time to understand where your prospects are on the awareness spectrum will help you craft copy that resonates, builds curiosity and drives action.

The post Why Product‑Market Awareness Matters in 2025: Avoiding the #1 Copywriting Mistake first appeared on Stefan Georgi.

What’s up 🙂

First off – I want to say thanks to everyone who shared their habits with me. I got a TON of responses to my last article, and I’ve really enjoyed reading them. I’ll be replying to each of you individually via email – but I just wanted to make a note here too.

As far as today’s article…

I want to talk about the importance of having a roadmap in your business.

Recently, I spent several hours working on some big picture stuff for Copy Accelerator…

And, specifically…

I spent this time further developing the foundational frameworks we’re going to use for the mastermind as we move into our second year.

I wrote about some of these concepts two weekends ago, when they were first being conceived…

But, I was able to further refine them…

And I’m attaching a picture of what I’ve got currently so you can check it out too.

This isn’t “final”…

Some of the names and word choices will change…

But I still think it’s pretty cool:

Now, let me give you some context for what you’re looking at…

The Promise of Copy Accelerator is to provide an unparalleled training and mentorship program that gives you everything you need to consistently create winning offers that scale on cold traffic.

And the graphic above is used to demonstrate how we fulfill this promise.

Specifically…

It shows how we help our members to achieve mastery in three spheres:

1. High Converting Front End
2. Optimized Upsells
3. Winning Ad Creatives

And it emphasizes the fact that all of our members…

Are part of a community of like-minded direct response copywriters and marketers…
Enjoy mentorship from the world’s best experts who have been where they want to go…
And receive in-depth feedback on every piece of copy that they produce.

Next, let's look at the middle part…

Where it says “What's Next?”

What's listed there are the assets and the processes that will allow our members to achieve their HOW.

The phrasing isn't final in this section (for example, I don’t really like the phrase “On-Demand Resources”)…

But I do think it’s a pretty solid start.

What’s pretty neat is that we’re going to be rolling out this framework at our February event…

Then, making sure that everything we teach and share ties back to this foundational framework as well…

But, believe it or not…

I’m not sharing all of this to make a pitch for Copy Accelerator or our event…

And you won't even find a link to our event sales page in this article.

Instead…

I’m sharing this because, after spending a few hours doing “deep work” on this yesterday…

I feel like I have more clarity about Copy Accelerator than ever before…

And my guess is that many folks on my list could benefit from doing something similar.

For any big project or business that you’re focused on…

It’s just so helpful to set aside some time to develop a roadmap…

Something foundational…

That all of your other actions and decisions will tie back into.

For the diagram I shared here…

It’s really like a cheat sheet.

Because now…

For any decision we make about the program…

Or content we create…

Or training we do…

We can make sure it’s related to this foundational framework.

It makes our lives easier…

And, it will help Justin and I to amplify our effectiveness even more.

That’s it for today.

I’m going to be responding to some emails and doing some admin work for the next hour or so…

Then jumping into prep for today’s Copy Accelerator call.

On the call today I’m dissecting a new sales letter that’s killing it for me and Cody…

So it should be a really good call and super valuable to our members.

– SPG

P.S. I recently went on a podcast with Rob and Kira of The Copywriter Club. It was just published recently, and you can listen to it here. There’s also a transcript of the podcast on that page, which is really nice since I tend to talk too fast (something I’m working on).

P.P.S. Want to see me open the biggest open-loop ever? Right now me, Justin Goff, Chris Haddad, and Dan Ferrari have an email thread going where we’re talking about joining forces on something in 2020. It might be our own product/offer. It might be a training of some sort. Might be something else. Or we might not do anything. But still – it’s a pretty tantalizing possibility, right?

P.P.P.S.This post originally came from an email I sent to my private list. If you want to see more stuff like this from me, you can apply to join my list using this link.

The post Having a Roadmap Makes Everything Better first appeared on Stefan Georgi.

Last week, Michel Roux died😢.

You might not have heard of Michel.

But you’ve almost certainly seen his work.

Back in the 1980s, Michel became the head of Carillon Importers Ltd…

And Carillon’s biggest import was Absolut Vodka.

At the start of Michel’s tenure, in 1981…

Carillon was importing around 20,000 cases of Absolut Vodka into the U.S. per year.

By 1993, they were importing 3 million cases per year.

That’s a 150X increase in sales over the course of just 12 years.

Not bad, right?

So what was Michel’s secret to taking Absolut Vodka from obscurity, to the #1 spot among imported Vodkas?

Well, if you’re a certain age you already know…

It was the Ads!

In the 1980s and 90s, Absolut Vodka Ads were everywhere. They were in the front or back of virtually every magazine, on every billboard, and plastered onto city walls. They become iconic.

Here’s what the Wall Street Journal said about the ads in their obituary of Michel:

“An early version depicted a bottle of Absolut underneath a halo with the slogan “Absolut Perfection.” Later ads morphed the bottle into images of Central Park, a phalanx of yellow taxis, a flock of pigeons (Absolut Venice) and a computer chip. The bottle even masqueraded as a Playboy centerfold.

Artists and other celebrities including Andy Warhol were paid to help promote the brand. To reach trendsetters, Mr. Roux advertised in magazines aimed at gays and lesbians and supported their causes before that strategy became common.

The ads had so much cachet that magazines offered special deals. In 1993, Countryside magazine paid the costs of producing an Absolut ad to appear in its pages.”

Now, what makes all of this even more remarkable…

Is the fact that vodka is pretty much tasteless!

I mean, stop and think about that…

How do you sell a tasteless, clear liquid to tens of millions of people a year?

It contains alcohol, but so does all of your competition…

And most of your competition (tequila, wine, bourbon, scotch, gin) have much more unique and complex flavor profiles too.

So, how on earth do you differentiate your brand of tasteless clear liquid…

Not just from all the other brands of tasteless clear liquid…

But from all the other types of better tasting liquids out there too…

So that when a consumer goes to the store or the bar…

Of all the hundreds of options in front of them…

They say: “I want THIS specific type of tasteless clear liquid, it’s MY drink!”

Well, for Michel…

The answer was all about creating an identity for the brand.

He took Absolut from being just another tasteless clear liquor…

To being a sexy, hip, LGBT-friendly lifestyle choice…

Something that signified to others that you were an artist, a creative, someone unique…

And he did it all through those brilliant ads.

Now for you copywriters, here’s the payoff you’ve been waiting for.

How many times have you been asked to sell a protein powder, or a probiotic, or an investment guide, or an e-book, or whatever else it is…?

And you’ve had a hard time getting inspired, or you half-ass things, because nothing seems unique about the product or offer?

The next time that happens…

Think about good ol’ Michel here…

The guy who was in charge of making a generic, tasteless clear liquid popular in the U.S….

And who promptly 150X'd the sales…

Not because the product was unique in ANY way…

But because he mastered how to speak to his target market…

Then, through visual storytelling…

He forged a connection with them…

Until their identities, and his product, became one.

P.S. This post originally came from an email I sent to my private list. If you want to see more stuff like this from me, you can apply to join my list using this link.

The post Lessons Learned From Selling 3 Million Cases of Vodka A Year first appeared on Stefan Georgi.