Lesson 5: Awareness and sophistication of your niche

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In this lesson, you’ll learn how to adapt your cold email messaging to your niche’s Awareness and Sophistication levels.

You’ll discover how to identify whether your prospects are unaware, problem aware, solution aware, product aware, or most aware – and how that changes what you say in your emails. We’ll also explore market sophistication levels to help you understand how crowded your niche is, and how to position your offer so it stands out and feels credible in a competitive space.

Welcome to Lesson 5. 

Today we tune your message to the state of your buyer and market. 

We will use Eugene Schwartz’s ideas on Awareness and Sophistication.

Awareness is about what the person knows right now.

Eugene suggests five states a person can be at any moment.

To be clear this awareness is around ONE specific pain or problem.

Meaning, you have to gauge how fresh the problem you’re going to email about is.

So the five states are:

Unaware, the prospect is not aware and is not thinking about the problem.

Problem aware, they feel and acknowledge the pain. They don’t know any solutions yet.

Solution aware, they are aware of some solutions, but not your product or service type.

Product aware, they know vendors and you are one of them.

Most aware, they know you, they only need a clear next step or a gentle push.

Okay, now we know the categories. 

Let’s dive into some examples of how to use them.

If you think the majority of your niche is unaware, focus on the problem.

You want to make them aware that they have a problem. 

Typically, you would want the prospect to arrive at that conclusion themselves.

You may try to illuminate the problem, the cost of inaction, and why it’s worth fixing.

We will cover copywriting templates in the later chapters.

Problem aware prospects would require a message around solutions.

Here it’s important to know how prospects talk about solutions.

What have they tried, why did it fail, what language do they use?

Review your research inbox. Check or look for more research around:

Outcomes, failed outcomes, and the language they use.

You need to make them nod about the solutions you suggest to their problem.

Now solution aware. Here the prospect is aware of different solutions.

Your goal is to make them realize your type of solution is the right one.

You could focus on case studies, success stories, how your solution led to their dream outcome.

Then comes product aware. 

They know they want your type of solution but there are direct competitors.

Here you want to highlight why your specific product or service is the right fit.

What makes it unique and why does it make sense to choose you?

Lastly, most aware. 

This could be a cohort of people that visited your website.

They are aware of what you offer. 

Nowadays, there are tools that can help you discover who visited your site.

The messaging here can be more direct with discounts, special offers, additional bonuses, etc.

Now unto the next concept, Sophistication.

Sophistication is about the market you are entering and its maturity. 

How many offers like yours has this niche seen, and how bold or specific do you need to be to stand out.

Here Eugene also introduced five levels.

Level 1, there is no competition for that one problem, simple claims will often do.

Level 2, competition has shown up. Typically your claim needs to be bigger than the competition. 

Level 3, prospects heard all types of claims. Skepticism is rising. 

Level 4, the market is crowded. The prospect has heard all typical mechanisms. 

Lastly, level 5. Here we have a very crowded market. Emotions and brand name drive demand.

Okay let’s cover some concrete examples.

If you have a level 1 niche something like “can you handle 10 more clients”, may work.

There was a phase in 2020 to 2022 where such emails were quite successful.

Back then they were sent to niches like doctor practices or beauty clinics.

For that niche, 10 new clients was a good offer. 

And they didn’t know much about cold emailing.

As the market matured and that niche got more offers, this stopped working well.

At level 2 you may need to have a bigger claim and be more specific.

For instance your offer may be, getting 15 more clients in a month.

Or you need to narrow down the type of client you deliver and be more specific.

Then comes level 3. 

Since the prospect heard a lot of claims you need to explain why your approach works.

Typically, you would introduce a unique mechanism for how you achieve said outcome.

This mechanism can be a new device, process, strategy, invention, etc. 

So for instance:

Provide 15 clients a month through follow-up automation and simple personalization.

The mechanism you mention has to make sense logically and support your claim.

Onto level 4. Here we need to be even more specific and targeted.

If you have quotes on what language the prospect uses, use it heavily here.

You want to show the prospect you fully understand their specific needs.

For this niche you need to provide an improved mechanism. 

Everyone heard about follow-up automation and simple personalization.

You may need to say something like:

Provide 15 clients via 1:1 personalized emails that look like written by a human without the manual work.

We do this by using, and then you insert “your unique improved mechanism”.

Additionally, you may consider adding things that lower the risk for the prospect to try.

Of course social proof and testimonials are important at this stage as well.

Lastly we have level 5.

This is often not a case for your typical cold outreach but rather industries like the beverage industry.

Industries where the brand and emotions around the product matter. Think Coca-Cola.

You would leverage multiple channels to build your brand. 

And convey the emotions people feel using your product.

Remember, if your message is at level 2 but your market is at level 4, you won’t get past the noise.

Okay so now you know the two concepts.

Here is why this matters for cold email.

Awareness tells you what to say first.

Sophistication tells you how you must say it to be different.

Match both, and your openers feel natural, your claims feel believable, 

and your calls to action feel like a no-brainer.

Let us tag our two example niches.

Seed to Series A SaaS first.

From our research inbox we saw many SaaS founders complain about pipeline and outbound not working. 

This sounds solution aware. 

They know their problem, missing pipeline, and tried outbound, the solution.

Market sophistication for sequencers and outbound tools is high. 

There are many vendors and many claims. 

To stand out, we must show a clear mechanism, proof, and focus on a narrow target.

Next are digital agencies that offer SEO.

They talk about rising ad costs and search changes due to AI.

Some are looking into new channels for acquisition.

This is problem aware some may have tried outbound hence being solution aware.

You could try both approaches and see which one resonates with that niche.

The outbound tool market is crowded for agencies as well. Sophistication is high. 

We must be specific about why we are the right tool and solution.

For example list validation built in, easier multi client control, and hands on guidance.

Okay let’s cover some homework for you.

Open your workbook.

In the Niche sheet use the two dropdowns next to your chosen niche and all backup niches.

First, Awareness. So, Unaware, Problem aware, Solution aware, Product aware, and Most aware.

Then, Sophistication, Level 1 to 5.

Pick one for each based on your evidence. 

Add one short comment in the sheet with links to your strongest sources.

Let’s just quickly refresh on what to do with these tags in practice.

Your subject lines change. 

For problem aware, lead with the pain, for product aware, lead with the outcome or the update.

Your first sentence changes. 

For high sophistication, name your mechanism or process early, avoid simple and generic claims.

Your calls to action change. 

For lower awareness offer a resource or quick audit, for higher awareness focus on differentiation. 

Two small traps to avoid.

Do not over teach in the first email. One point, one next step.

Do not make giant claims in a high sophistication market. 

Specific beats loud. Say one clear thing and prove it.

Alright, in the next lesson we will build your voice of customer bank and ICP sheet.

See you there.