Crafting your message

In the next chapter I will walk you through a great workshop for crafting your product messaging. But before that happens, let’s get into the right headspace for crafting compelling messaging.

Create the right message for the right job at the right time 

Creating the right message at the right time for the right user is key to success. To help you get in the right mindset, let’s do a fun little exercise that I learned while attending Andy Raskin’s Storytelling for Success Workshop at General Assembly. 

Close your eyes and imagine you’re Cinderella. Going to the ball is all you’ve been living for and you’ve spent weeks finding spare moments to make your dress. When you go downstairs to join your family, they trash your dress and leave for the ball without you. You can’t call an Uber (we’ll get to that later) and it’s way too far to walk. You run into the garden ugly crying about how unfair life is.

Then, a strange woman appears claiming to be your fairy godmother. This isn’t Disney, it’s real life, so you either don’t know what a fairy godmother is or you don’t believe she has magical powers.

So here’s the million dollar question: What should she tell you she will provide to convince you to use her services?

1. New dress and a ride to the ball

2. Meet the prince

3. Live happily ever after

No cheating!

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When I lead this as an in-person workshop, almost everyone gets it wrong. In this Cinderella scenario, the right answer is a) new dress and ride to the ball.

Here’s why: Cinderella has had her heart set on going to the ball. She hasn’t been thinking about meeting the prince or living happily ever after. She just wants to take part in the ball, and the only way she can see that happening is if she has something suitable to wear and a way to get there. Even if she believed she could meet the prince, she would be mortified to meet him looking like this. She can’t imagine living happily ever after, because all she can think about is surviving each day without losing what makes her Cinderella.

Her job to be done is to get to the ball looking decent, not live happily ever after.

Often times, I see newer companies looking to mature, successful companies as the guide post for their messaging. The trouble is, those companies have a very different messaging strategy now then they did when they first started out. Your product messaging really depends on the market’s familiarity with your product.

Let’s look at Uber as an example.

Uber’s first homepage

Uber’s first homepage according to Wayback Machine

Surprisingly basic and ugly, isn't it? But it's incredibly clear. They opted for clarity over cleverness, which is critical when you're introducing something completely new. The only way they could have made this clearer is if they showed a hand holding a smartphone with a finger pushing the button "request ride".

A recent Uber homepage

• Uber’s launch messaging in 2011: Everyone’s private driver

• The company’s messaging in December 2013: Moving people

• In 2017: Get there. Your day belongs to you.

• Other current messages: 

  • Recent billboard: Move the way you want

  • Homepage now targeting drivers: Get in the driver's seat and get paid

  • About page: We ignite opportunity by setting the world in motion

Can you imagine if in 2011, at the dawn of mobile apps, Uber had explained their product by saying “Get there”? Get there? Get where? Get to work? Get to Bali? Get to retirement?

We wouldn’t have Uber because no one would know what the hell it was.

So when you're developing messaging for your startup, look at what successful companies did when they started, not what they are doing now.

Cheat sheet for crafting your message

Keep these things in mind when you’re crafting your message:

• Speak to the buyer, not the user or end user

• Focus on buyer intent 

• Explain benefits

• List key features that are on their mental shopping list

Avoid these messaging pitfalls:

1. Generic messaging. Your message should only apply to you. If other companies who aren’t competitors could use your message, you’re not there yet. So many times someone uses a message that could be for Asana when they aren’t even remotely a project management tool.

2. Too long; didn’t read. If you don’t know what you’re saying, your message will get long, unwieldy, and confusing. Long is easy, short is hard.

3. Emphasizing product differentiators without actually explaining what your product does.

4. Focus solely on personas rather than Jobs-to-be-Done.

5. Target your messaging to users, not buyers. Be clear about buyers versus users versus end users.

6. Not addressing buyer intent. Buyers come to you with a mental checklist of what they need. Check the boxes for them quickly then move on to the product results they didn’t know they needed.

7. Don’t confuse messaging with copywriting. 

   1. Messaging is determining WHAT you will talk about.

   2. Copy is determining HOW you’ll say it.

   3. Don’t try to sound clever when you’re creating your message. Be clear. Once you know exactly what you’re saying, you can figure out how to say it in a catchy way.

Ok, now that you’re in the right headspace for crafting compelling product messaging, let’s dive into the Build A Box Workshop in the next chapter.