Hello! I hope you had a lovely Easter and that you didn’t have to work over the long weekend on your company’s April Fool’s campaign. And if you did, I hope it was a good one...
I’m just back from Japan and it was absolutely incredible. I’m now full of tips and recommendations so if you’re going there anytime soon, please get in touch!
But back to the blogging…
Don't forget to say what you do
Messaging is a balancing act. You’ve got to make sure you cover the benefits and broader product narrative, not just the features. You’ve got to avoid getting too literal about your capabilities. But you also have to make it really clear - really quickly - what your company does, so that potential customers can buy your product.
I spend a lot of time looking at homepages and marketing collateral for inspiration. And there’s a trend I’ve noticed, where the copywriter has likely tried to make all stakeholders happy and ended up with a sentence that could be about any company.
‘Where everybody in your company wins’ or ‘Fast-track your revenue’ or ‘Introduce AI to your business’. I’m paraphrasing here, as it feels a tad mean to call out specific work, but it’s happening across almost every category in tech and it makes it much harder for customers to buy your product.
These almost abstract taglines create extra work for your prospects, as they then have to go search around on your website, or even further afield on the actual internet, to decipher what it is you’re really selling.
Regardless of whether you’re product-led or sales-led, inbound or outbound driven, your customers are heading to your website at some point to better understand your business. Don’t make it hard for them.
Who’s getting it right?
I personally like this example from Deel’s inbound landing page. It tells me the broader benefit I’m going to get straight away, but it is specific enough for me to quickly understand who it’s for and what problem(s) it solves.
Similarly, Equals’ homepage spells it out clearly for the customer, with a nice emphasis on the end user, and some personality in the supporting copy too.
(Side note: is lilac the new blue for SaaS companies??)
If you spot any brilliant examples of above-the-fold homepage copy, I’m always on the lookout, so feel free to send my way!
Taking ownership of the message
The danger of ‘messaging by committee’ and trying to cover every base is that by trying to please everyone, you end up with messaging that is for no one.
So it’s important for product marketers to drive this conversation. You should, of course, factor in the needs of everyone who has skin in the game, but ultimately Product Marketing should be on the hook for your company’s core messaging, to ensure it doesn’t end up diluted, unclear or devoid of personality.
Please feel free to use this post as a reason to revisit your website copy or sales collateral and ask the question: If I were a potential new customer, would I understand what this company does, based on this message?
If the answer’s no, then it’s a great excuse to kick off an internal exercise to refresh your core messaging. The job is never finished when it comes to this stuff - there’s always room for improvement and iteration. Best of luck!