What to read next

Faq's and Misconceptions about Conversion optimization for SaaS

Your One Liner. Create The Foundation Of Your SaaS Messaging In 5 min

I can show you a million ways to come up with conversion-driven SaaS Landing pages but there's no need to get that complex or overwhelming...

There's a simple 5 min exercise that I do with my clients before hand that is the foundation for great messaging.

I'll show exactly how to do it and explain why it's helping soo many of my clients get clarity on what their ideal messaging should be.

Free Templates Available

To follow along with this guide you can get some templates to make everything easier.

Here's one for this 5 min exercise. No email opt-ins ;)

I'll also give you templates to turn this exercise into an entire landing page using a cheatsheet/formula I've created and also a Lean Landing page canvas to help you write all of the copy/content of the page.

There's a catch... I'll share those near the end of the article (so you do this exercise first)

Step #1 - Write Down Your One Liner

This is pretty simple as is going to sound easy but I can assure you won't come out of your head easily, that's a sign you need more clarity and your messaging needs some work.

Here’s how to do it: Explain what the product does in one short paragraph.

Why is this important?

It will force you to focus on the most important stuff as you simply don’t have space to come up with anything else.

It will also make your messaging more memorable and the more memorable it is the easier it is to get referrals (since people will find more opportunities to do so) and it’s easier to connect with your potential customers EVERYWHERE.

Remember, this one liner could be used and reused in endless situations:

  • Whenever you meet a potential customer (even at cocktail parties!)
  • In emails (cold emails or onboarding sequences)
  • In your website
  • In your ads
  • And a million other places…

My point is: Get it RIGHT this time.

Step #2 - Don't Do It By Yourself

You guessed it! You’re not the only one that should be doing this simple exercise of explaining the product in one paragraph, here are 2 BIG reasons:

#1- If you do this with more people you’ll get more ideas and iterate faster until you get a really clean phrase.

#2 - Different people will have different views on how the product should be explained, it’s important that you spot these differences.

The second reason is 10x more important.

Why? Because those differences aren’t good!

Those differences create massive inconsistencies in messaging of the entire company which leads to lower conversion rates than what you should be getting.

Not only that but if these issues go unnoticed, you’ll get feedback that might “guide you” in the wrong direction or, at the very least, cause a big round of iterations that will only waste your time and not get you great results...  

Step #3 - Use A Template And Write It Down

[write it down, Gdoc template]

Use this template and follow the steps below.

Here are the steps to developing a good one liner:

  1. Create a document where you’ll write the ideas.
  2. Ask your team members to write some ideas on that document (at least the ones involved in the website work and the marketing side).
  3. Make the value prop clear within the one liner

Only after you write your ideas, use the examples below for reference on how to narrow it down.

Step #4 - Narrow It Down With These Formulas

Obviously, you may need to rephrase/adapt some of these so they make grammatical sense but most of the times you can use them "out of the box".

Here Are The Formulas

We help [target] fix [big problem] by [explain the solution] without [objection/problem]

Or We help [target] get [desired result] without [big problem]

Or We are the [another well-known tool (i.e. Stripe, Airbnb, Slack)] for [target/problem]

Or Who else wants [desired result]?

Or Who else wants [desired results] without [big problem]?

Or What if you could [desired result] without [main problem]?

Or any similar format.

Notice that most of these are questions! The only reason why I do that is because when they are asked a question the brain is forced to answer it so it’s an easy way to grab their attention.

One Liner Examples

Here are some examples of the formulas above in action.

"SaaS Analytics For Stripe"

This is what Baremetrics was using a few years ago to take advantage of Stripe's growth and a user base with their ideal customers.

"Who Else Wants To Recover 21% of Abandoned Carts?"

I wrote this one for a client of mine. Once we've identified that this resonated well with their audience we wrote an entire landing page around this concept...

The result? They went from wasting money on ads to getting more demo requests (with lead qualification!) than they could handle!

"What if you could have communications, HR management and project management in one tool?"

Just a quick example of what an all-in-one tool could have as their headline if their main benefit is being a unified solution.

"What If Your App Could Send Mass Emails Without The Delivery Issues?"

This could be a good headline for a company that lets other apps send emails using their technology but without the delivery issues they might be having from competitors.

For context, tools like MailChimp don’t deliver 100% of their emails and that is directly relate to lost profits.

There's a company doing a similar thing int the examples below.

Step #5- Turn It Into The Top Of Your Landing Page

How I turned my one liner into the top of my homepage

Now that you've narrowed down your one liner you can easily turn into a clear headline and some body copy below the headline (example above).

Guess what? You've just turned your one-liner into the entire top of your Landing page(aka your header)!

Check some examples of other companies that did the same thing 👇

Good Examples Of Headers (The Top Of The Page)

To get this right they needed to have a lot of clarity in their messaging so it's likely they've done a similar exercise.

Baremetrics (Old)

Baremetrics in 2015

This is what Baremetrics was using a few years ago to take advantage of Stripe's growth and a user base with their ideal customers.

There's no way you won't understand what it does just from the title.

Drift

Drift's homepage

Drift's homepage is pretty good at explaining how easily your visitors can interact with your team.

They make the connection of using a simple "Plugin" and make it get more leads with your website.

Basecamp

Basecamp current homepage

It provides social proof plus context it's a project management tool. Keep in mind they have more brand awareness than what you might have so their explanation of the product doesn't have to be so literal.

Know Your Team

Know your team

Know your team is simply an example of great copy.

They position themselves as the go to place if you want to become a better boss/manager and making their tool seem like the perfect way to get there (to their desired result).

Postmark

Postmark's homepage

Postmark is very clear with what they offer. They must be able to provide the fastest email delivery speeds and they are not being shy about showing that is that case.

If that's what their potential customers are looking for (probably is) then they did a great job of grabbing their attention... It's exactly what they need!

MeetEdgar

MeetEdgar's Homepage

MeetEdgar immediately let's you know you can use their tool to put social media on autopilot.

Guess what? That makes their potential customers think "I can save 3 hours a week on this" which makes the pricing a no-brainer with the time they will be saving.

Step #6 - Turn This Into An Entire Landing Page (Easy With These Templates)

Since this is the foundation for all of your messaging it is not that hard to turn it into an entire page.

Template To Get The Structure/Formula

The SaaS Landing page cheatsheet (get it here, free)

This is a formula I've spent years perfecting. I've used it with all my clients project and with great results.

When you used a formula like this you can make your landing page process predictable and fast so you can test and optimize anytime you want.

Template To Write The Copy

Lean landing page canvas - Get it here for free (no email opt-ins!)

Here's my Lean Landing page Canvas, if you answer to the questions asked in that canvas it will give you the content for your entire page.

You just have to use it with the cheatsheet, filling in the copy and add some images and you'll have a conversion-driven landing page.

Want me to coach your team to follow this process? Schedule a free strategy session here to discuss that.

Liked this exercise? There's More...

This is just a simple exercise that you could do within a few minutes...

Guess what? I have more... MANY more...

I have templates and exercises that I can coach you and/or your team to find clarity and message that converts.

I can guide you through the process that has worked EXTREMELY well with my clients so  you can save time, get better results and better yet have your team get the knowledge they need to follow it time and time again.

See if you're a fit in this quick discovery call (no strings attached).

Here's How To Get It

Let's book a ~30 min discovery call to find out if I can help with your messaging and positioning.

The reality is: If people don't FULLY understand your product or they don't see the value, why should they convert?

Trust me, they won't :(

In this free strategy session we will find out:

  • What's keeping you from getting great conversions (or how to make them even better)
  • What is the "low hanging fruit" that can get you the best results in the shortest amount of time
  • If there's a fit to work together ( in terms of stage, availability, easy ROI ...)
Want some fresh eyes on your business? Book a free strategy session here.

Want My Help To Do It?

Some of my clients. Want to become one of them?

Like I said, I can coach your team (or occasionally, do it for you).

You can save time, get better results and get a process that you reuse internally even when I'm not around.

How much is saving months of useless iterations worth you?

And a fresh perspective?

How much is following a proven process worth to you?

If this sounds like you, book your free strategy session.

And If You Don't? Someone Else Will...

Who knows!?

Maybe your competitor will call me and he hires me to help them stand out from your product and win your potential customers ;)

It's simple: Life rewards the ones that take ACTION, more specifically, the ones that take action NOW.

Do you take take massive action or not? And guess what? If you don't, we shouldn't chat anyways ;)

I get an average of four people calling me a week wanting to hire me but I can't handle all of them.

Will you be one of them? Let's find out.
What to read next:

Faq's and Misconceptions about Conversion optimization for SaaS

Read article
What to read next:

How the find what to put on your Landing page (and convert the most)

Read article
What to read next:

Breaking down a SaaS Landing page step-by-step

Read article
What to read next:

The Formula/cheatsheet for the perfect SaaS Landing Page

Read article

Want To See How You Can Get More Demos?

Stop guessing why you are not getting a ton of customers with your website and let's see what's really going on.
Schedule your free consultation
What to read next:

How to Make a Conversion-driven Landing page in 2018

Read article
What to read next:

Landing Page Strategies To Get More (Qualified) Demos

Read article
What to read next:

Why you are missing out on 70% of conversions (+ how to fix it)

Read article
Marketing + Design Consultant helping SaaS companies explain and position their product so well that their website will sell it for them.
Book free strategy session
What to read next

Breaking down a SaaS Landing page step-by-step

What to read next

How to Make a Conversion-driven Landing page in 2018

What to read next

Why you are missing out on 70% of conversions (+ how to fix it)