Airbnb is my favourite example of a company that understands users on a deeply psychological level.
Part of that is the simple yet super effective way they communicate the value of Airbnb to users.
They predominantly talk about benefits, not features. But most importantly, the benefits are written in words that travellers use.
For years their main headline has been 'find a place to stay'.
I know this doesn't sound very flash, so here's a counter-example you see all the time with early-stage startups.
Introducing... StartupX which 'Democratizes AI with Easy-to-Use Tools'. I don't know about you but I don't often think about wanting to democratise AI, and I have no idea what this startup does.
There aren't any publicly available A/B tests on Airbnb's headline, but I do have before and after stats on these other headlines thanks to Matt Lerner. He observes that companies with good language/market fit normally get conversion rates from 8% - 40%.
Airbnb is my favourite example of a company that understands users on a deeply psychological level.
Part of that is the simple yet super effective way they communicate the value of Airbnb to users.
They predominantly talk about benefits, not features. But most importantly, the benefits are written in words that travellers use.
For years their main headline has been 'find a place to stay'.
I know this doesn't sound very flash, so here's a counter-example you see all the time with early-stage startups.
Introducing... StartupX which 'Democratizes AI with Easy-to-Use Tools'. I don't know about you but I don't often think about wanting to democratise AI, and I have no idea what this startup does.
There aren't any publicly available A/B tests on Airbnb's headline, but I do have before and after stats on these other headlines thanks to Matt Lerner. He observes that companies with good language/market fit normally get conversion rates from 8% - 40%.
When you use unfamiliar words, only the already convinced will sign up. With slightly more familiar words, you might convert some super desperate users. But when you use a user's exact words it opens up your offer to resonate with everyone else too.
Why is this so important?
When you have a particular outcome in mind and you're looking for help to get to that outcome your brain uses what psychologists call top-down attention (also called goal-directed attention).
When using this kind of attention, the brain is essentially 'information foraging'. It subconsciously pattern matches to determine goal-relevance and familiarity.
So you need to understand the target in your users brain - and essentially read their minds.
The first step is to understand what's going on in your target user's brain. Really get to know their anxieties, fears, doubts, hopes, dreams and struggles.
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Then you can figure out the simplest way to frame your offering in that context. The Jobs-To-Be-Done is a great framework for this.
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Then test it. All it takes is to go up to someone, show them your headline and ask what they think you do.
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You'll know when you're speaking the right language when users go “that is EXACTLY what I’m looking for”.
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