Nobody sits down and decides to write weak copy.
It happens slowly. And it usually happens for reasons that feel completely reasonable at the time.
Here's the most common version I see ...
A founder starts out close to the customer. They know the pain. They've lived it, or they've talked to enough people who have. So the early message is sharp. Specific. It resonates.
Then the brand starts growing.
New people join the team. Legal gets involved. Someone says, "we can't claim that." Someone else says, "we should sound more premium." Another person says, "what if we broadened it a little so we could reach more people?"
And slowly, the message softens.
Strong claims become gentle suggestions. Specific outcomes become category language. "Stop the crash" becomes "supports daily energy."
Nothing looks obviously broken. But something is.
And you start to feel it in the numbers before you can name it.
Creative starts fatiguing faster. CAC gets choppier. Customers arrive with more questions. Conversion gets softer. You start wondering if you need a new offer, a new angle, a new agency.
But the first break happened way upstream.
The message drifted. And when the message drifts, everything downstream gets harder.
I call this "message drift." And it's one of the most common and most invisible problems I see in brands doing $1M to $30M.
The fix isn't complicated. But it does require honesty.
You have to be willing to ask: what did we used to say that was truer than what we're saying now?
Sometimes the answer is uncomfortable. Because it means admitting that "sounding more premium" actually just meant "saying less."
Tomorrow I'll show you the specific symptoms to watch for ... because message drift has a very predictable fingerprint in your data and in your support inbox.
See you tomorrow,
Jeremiah
P.S. If your team has ever said "let's soften that a little" ... this series is for you.
100% Typo Guarantee … This message was hand-crafted by a human being … me.
There was no review queue, no editorial process, no post-facto revisions. I just wrote it and sent it … so I can pretty much guarantee some typo or grammatical error that would make all my past English teachers cringe.
Anonymous Data Disclaimer … Most of my clients prefer that I not share the inner workings of their businesses or the exact details of the marketing strategies we develop. To share my proprietary intellectual property without compromising the sensitive nature of my relationship with them, I often anonymize what I share with you. This may include changing the specifics of their industry, what actually happened, or what we developed together. When I make these changes, I work to preserve the success principle I want to convey to you while obscuring sensitive data. This is necessary.