2 builders who never spoke to each other

Say plainly who the product is wrong for

Naming the groups you do not serve lets the people with opposite needs disqualify themselves before they cost you a trial, a call or a refund. It also sharpens the message for everyone else, since a claim that excludes nobody describes nothing. Give every channel the same one-line statement of who it is for and who it is not, or search, paid, social and support will each invent their own.

The method

1. 01

   Say out loud who your product is wrong for, and let the people with the opposite needs disqualify themselves.

2. 02

   Give every channel team the same one-sentence statement of who the product is for, and say plainly who it is not for.

3. 03

   Put a short box on every product review naming who should buy it and who should not, instead of only listing what is good about it.

What it returned

• Fathom names two groups it does not serve: businesses that need to mine personal data, and analytics power users who have built complex systems and would find Fathom too thin.

• Rand Fishkin's failure case is search, paid, social and PR each describing the bank differently, and his rule is that trying to be for everyone is how messaging fails.

• Future named these boxes on an earnings call as working well and is rolling them out to more of its sites, having previously run them with more colour.

Sources

• How 16 Companies are Dominating the World's Google Search Results (2024 Edition) - Detailed.comGlen Allsopp · detailed.com · Two Specific Things Future Are Doing To Grow Affiliate Revenue (Both Were Mentioned on A Recent Earnings Call As Working Well) · 2023-03-07
• The 7 Marketing Problems Pinball-Shaped Buyer Journeys Create - SparkToroRand Fishkin · sparktoro.com · Transcript: · undated
• SaaS lessons shared on the Framework podcast - Fathom AnalyticsPaul Jarvis · usefathom.com · The audience for Fathom Analytics isn’t everyone · 2020-07-20