If you've been following along this week, you know:
Messaging feels hard when PMF is soft
One headline can't solve five upstream debates
"Supports" language doesn't create urgency
Unaddressed fear keeps customers searching
Today, let's put it all together.
I want you to write one paragraph …
I call it your "message spine."
It's not a tagline. It's not a headline. It's the foundation that makes all your other copy easier to write.
Here's the structure …
This is for [specific person]
Who feels [the pain, not just the problem]
And wants [the outcome they actually care about]
But worries [the fear that almost stops them]
So we built [what you made and why it's different]
That's it.
When you can fill this in clearly ... and when your whole team agrees on it ... messaging stops being a struggle.
Example:
"This is for people with reactive, easily irritated skin who are exhausted from trial-and-error. They want calm, predictable skin they can trust daily. But they're terrified of wasting more money on another product that triggers a flare-up. So we built a line that's specifically formulated for skin that freaks out at everything ... no fragrance, no common irritants, no surprises."
See how that works?
Once you have this spine, everything else becomes translation …
Your headline is the short version
Your ads are the emotional version
Your product page is the detailed version
Your emails are the story version
The constraint is the gift.
When you know exactly who it's for, what they feel, what they want, and what they fear ... the words fall out.
Tomorrow, I'll show you why "creative fatigue" is usually a lie ... and what's actually happening when your ads stop working.
See you tomorrow,
Jeremiah
P.S. Try writing your message spine today. If you get stuck, that's data. The place where you get stuck is probably the upstream decision you haven't made yet.
100% Typo Guarantee … This message was hand-crafted by a human being … me. While I use AI heavily for my research and the work I do, I respect you too much to automate my email content creation.
There was no review queue, no editorial process, no post-facto revisions. I just wrote it and sent it … therefore, I can pretty much guarantee some sort of 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. In order to be able to share my own proprietary intellectual property without violating 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.