Crafting engaging and compelling messaging is a critical aspect of capturing your target audience's attention and resonating with their needs.

When people visit your website or app store profile they’re scanning to see if any of the information aligns with their specific goals. At this stage in the funnel, capturing attention is a big challenge, so it’s important to use language that customers can quickly resonate and connect with.  

Customers aren’t thinking of a list of features and services, they’re thinking about their own anxieties, doubts, goals and needs. And this is what you need to address.

This is where testing language comes in…

In our last three blogs, we’ve walked you through how to conduct competitor research, interviews and surveys to pull out what exactly your customers’ goals, pains and anxieties and desires are.

And now it’s time to test what language is most effective to a larger audience.

The right words can make all the difference between capturing your audience's attention and losing them in the noise.

Let’s have a look at some examples of companies that have nailed their headings

Wix: “ Create a website without limits”

• They use headings that successfully promise the user freedom to build their websites without constraints, tapping into their desire for creative control and flexibility.

Calm: “Find your calm. Sleep more. Stress less. Feel better.”

• This concise statement addresses various customers' needs – mindfulness, improved sleep and stress reduction - while offering a transformative journey towards overall wellbeing.

Instead of writing a copy like ‘Our product is…’.

Follow the formula: “When _____, I want to be able to _____, so I can _____”

How can you test your messaging?

There are a few ways you can test your messaging to ensure optimal resonance, so let’s run through them now:

Meta ads (Instagram and Facebook)

1. Create a simple ad creative that works with all the headings you want to test. Remember we’re testing language, not design.
2. Set up a campaign aiming for around 5 headings, the more headings you want to test, the more budget you’ll need to have.
3. Change the copy on both the image and the headings starting with the jobs-to-be-done at the start of the heading.
4. Send your traffic to your landing page or app store listing.
5. Keep the audience the same.
6. You’ll want to keep the campaign running for a maximum of one month to see which headline performs best with your audience.

In the examples below, Wix showcases language testing while keeping all other elements consistent – retaining uniform CTA buttons, CTA headings and images – varying solely the copy in the headings and on the image.

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User testing calls

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We know that direct engagement with your target audience and customers is invaluable.

While this next process of user testing through video interviews may be time-consuming, the insights make it worthwhile. By having personal conversations, you can dig deep into their thoughts, opinions and reactions, helping you refine and boost your messaging strategy.  

When you set up your interviews, it’s important to create an atmosphere of openness and ease. Make it clear to participants there are no right or wrong answers – you want their genuine thoughts and perspectives.

1. Have a list of different headlines ready and present them to your participants for a maximum of 5 seconds (remember people scan websites for specific information)
2. Next, dive into their perception of each headline's value proposition. Ask them how they interpret the headline’s promise and ask about the impact they think it could have on their lives.
3. By asking what each headline means to them you can uncover potential misinterpretations or nuances that could affect the message’s effectiveness.

The time invested into these personalised interactions can translate into messaging that truly resonates and engages your audience.

Email testing

Email A/B testing is a great way to test your language at no cost.

1. Simply set up 2 emails that are exactly the same except for 1 variable, such as a different subject line.
2. You then send the 2 emails to two small random samples of your subscribers to determine which email is more effective and which has a higher open rate, click-through rate, and if suitable conversion rate.

There’s a lot you can measure with an email A/B test. Some common tests are:

• Different subject lines
• Emojis in subject lines
• Different text for CTA buttons
• Personalisation of content
• Copy length

The list goes on but these are the main language tests you can perform with email.

It’s really important to know what you want to be testing to be able to know what metrics you want to track. For example, open rates don’t measure the content within the body of an email, it just measures the subject line. Only test one variable at a time.

In conclusion, message testing is the final stage of finding your language market fit. The process is ongoing, as customer needs and expectations continue to change and evolve. The lessons learnt from these tests form the foundation for continued growth and engagement.

Key takeaways

👉 Craft messaging that addresses customer needs, anxieties, doubts and goals directly.

👉 Use language that quickly connects with customers and stands out while they’re scanning your content.

👉 Use Meta ads, email A/B tests and user testing calls for language validations.

👉 Constantly adapt and refine messaging to align with the evolving customer’s needs and desires.

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