Defining a proposition in the world of SaaS isn’t easy. The product you’ve created could change lives. You don’t want to sell yourself short.
But honestly, nobody cares about your quantum-level AI augmentation, dynamic hyper-personalization, and self-optimizing auto-responders. They just want to know how it impacts their life. In this article, I’ll be breaking down 3 easy steps you can follow to supercharge your messaging.
Does your brand message sound something a little bit like this?
Yeah, it shouldn’t.
We need to turn it in to something like this:
Ok, that example is a little bit of an exaggeration. But there really are brands out there suffering because of their confusing and unnecessarily complex messaging. Your audience care about 3 things, and 3 things only:
Pain
“Does this answer my prayers? Will this product solve my problem, or at least enable me to solve it myself? How can I be rid of this feeling that I don’t want to be feeling?”
When people make purchases, they’re exchanging their hard earned cash in the hopes that they’ll either escape the pain they’re currently feeling, avoid future imagined pain, or be rewarded with pleasurable feelings.
Product
“In its simplest form, what is the product? How does it work? And who is it made for? Is it for me or someone else?”
Solution
“If I invest my money in this, what will happen? How am I going to benefit from using this?”
This is where the storytelling element comes into play with your overall messaging… The benefit of using a product could be that you spend less time at work, but the benefit of that benefit is that you get to spend more time with your family, and the benefit of that benefit is that you get to live a more fulfilling life. We could go on!
Get out of your head and into your customers’
As we’ve established, your audience pretty much only care about themselves - not you. Which is why you need to try walking in their shoes for a bit. You can do this by asking yourself some questions and let the answers help you build out your audience persona(s). For example:
Where, on their life journey, is your ideal customer when they first encounter your brand?
How old are they? What experiences are they yet to have?
What doesn’t your ideal customer dislike about the industry you/they are operating in? Are there any misinformed beliefs they hold that need to be debunked?
What does your ideal customer value most in life?
What are your ideal customer’s biggest fears?
It might feel a bit weird and existential to ask these questions. Like you’re digging too deep. But really great messaging comes from asking these really big questions.
PPS Framework
After you’ve spent some time getting to grips with who your ideal customer is, this template can be used as an exercise to practise creating simplified messaging that sells.
