Core Principles

  • Position products and services to help people survive, thrive, be accepted, find love, achieve an identity, or bond with a tribe (Maslow’s hierarchy of needs).
  • That’s the only thing people care about.
  • Get to the point.
  • If you confuse, you’ll lose.
  • Customers make buying decisions not based on what we say but on what they hear.

Clarifying Your Message

  1. Identify what the customer wants.
  2. What problem we are helping them solve.
  3. What life will look like after our services.

Customers ask three key questions:

  1. What do you offer?
  2. How will it make my life better?
  3. What do I need to do to buy it?
  • “Alfred Hitchcock described a good story as life with the dull parts taken out.”
  • There needs to be something at stake—show people the cost of not doing business with us.
  • Make sure you tell customers that you care.
  • Can I trust this person?
  • Can I respect this person?

Leadership & Storytelling

  • Always remember, people want to be taken somewhere.
  • Everyone wants a happy ending:
    1. Win some sort of power, position, or status.
    2. Be unified with somebody or something that makes them whole.
    3. Experience some kind of self-realisation.
  • Status, self-realisation, self-acceptance, transcendence are key elements of a compelling brand story.

Implementation

  1. Clearly state what you do above the fold.
  2. Call to action (CTA) – top right in the header and centre above the fold (users first analyse a site in a Z pattern). Add the transitional CTA next to the direct one.
  3. Images of success.
  4. Breakdown of services for different customer segments.
  5. Use few words.

One-Liner Framework

  • What do you do?
    • Character
    • Problem
    • Plan
    • Success

Examples:

  • “I turn confused bass enthusiasts into bass gods through a simple and logical process.”
  • “We help overwhelmed event planners book the perfect entertainment for an event that’s remembered forever.”
  • “We help struggling websites generate more business online by delivering your marketing goals.”
  • “We help websites become more visible online to generate more sales & wealth.”
  • “Fed up with dating apps? Press that like button, let’s chat, meet up, and possibly get a mortgage together.”

How to Get Good Testimonials

  1. What was the problem you were having before you discovered our product?
  2. What did the frustration feel like as you tried to solve that problem?
  3. What was different about our product?
  4. Take us to the moment when you realised our product was actually working to solve your problem.
  5. Tell us what life looks like now that your problem is solved or being solved.

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