Writing is Design: How to Speak Your User's Language and Boost Conversion
A Guide to Finding Words That Connect and Convert
Hey everyone, welcome to Designing Futures. I’m Josh and every week I simplify and share practical design and UX advice for Indie hackers, founders and product teams on taking ideas from zero to one.
Recent posts:
🗞️ The Roundup: Issue #1, August 2023
🗞️ How to Stand Out: Simple Design Tips for Early-Stage Founders
Matt Lerner, co-founder and CEO at Startup Core Strengths, recently wrote an article for FirstRound titled “Finding Language/Market Fit: How to Make Customers Feel Like You’ve Read Their Minds“. Not only do I love this piece, but I recommend you go ahead and read it as soon as you can.
Why? Matt breaks down: why finding language/market fit is critical for founders, how to draft impactful language, validate user comprehension, and test your results.
This week, I’ve written a complementary article that further re-iterates some of the key points highlighted by Matt, with my added perspective, experiences from previous projects, and practical tips and tricks from my journey in user research.
“Writing is easy, all you have to do is cross out the wrong words” - Mark Twain
Writing is everywhere, from titles, descriptions, buttons, popups and emails, to websites.
It’s the interconnected foundations of the entire user experience that guides, educates and instructs people on how to use your product. Every sentence, call to action, and guiding label should be thoughtfully designed to cater to the specific audience that's engaging with your product to solve their challenges.
Language that resonates with your users is language they're already familiar with and actively seeking on web pages and apps. Familiar language allows them to cut through the noise – with a clear path for them to discover your solution, to fix problems for their unmet needs.
This can boost conversion by:
Increasing chances of making a good first Impression
Reducing time for users to learn what your product does
Lowering barrier to entry for users to try your product
Increasing ease-of-use and ability to use your product
I’ve seen companies with language/market fit normally get conversion rates from 8% - 40%, which results in much stronger unit economics. Why the sudden jump? Visitors to your site or app store listing bring different levels of intent. It’s easy to convert high-intent users. But if you’re an unfamiliar startup, most of your visitors will have low intent, more curious than desperate. As you tighten up your language, you’ll be able to cut through to that massive pool of low-intent traffic. - Matt Lerner
Here’s an example of tailored language
Casual
B2B platform for Business Planning
Casual's understanding of their user is clear - they intentionally use terms that minimise the learning curve for users when navigating their platform. This approach enhances usability by:
✅ Emphasising the primary task for their customers – crafting business data models. The 'New Model' call to action is both clear and actionable.
✅ Familiarity is fostered through terms such as 'P&L', 'Cash balance', 'Forecast burn' and 'Runway'. These terms steer users towards recurring tasks they commonly engage in, whether they utilise Casual's solution or not.
✅ Catering to its B2B context, where users expect 'Documentation' to seek comprehensive support or troubleshooting assistance.
Four key insights
Let's dive into four key insights you aim to grasp about your users, to effectively communicate in their language. Achieving this can be done through a variation of listening methods.
👂 Pay close attention to the words and ways users describe the following aspects (don’t worry we’ll walk through them):
Their Mental models
Their Jobs To Be Done
Their Core Motivations or ‘Why’
Their Experience
✍️ Aquire these insights by:
Conducting one-on-one conversations or interviews with existing or potential users.
Observing the language they use on social media, forums, or online communities.
Exploring interviews featuring your target audience, such as podcasts.
Stage 1 - Listening and Observing
Mental Models
A mental model is what the user believes about a system and how it works.
Imagine yourself buying new clothes online - the mental image you create, the steps you think through – that's your mental model of the process.
“Users spend most of their time on websites other than yours. Thus a big part of customers' mental models of your site will be influenced by information gleaned from other sites. People expect websites to act alike.” - Jakob's Law of the Internet User Experience
To truly understand your user's mental model, my favourite method is to simply have a conversation.
Regularly set aside time for one-on-one chats with users, to talk about their problems and everyday challenges, not necessarily just your product. For instance, if you're working on a better booking system for spa treatments, ask customers to walk you through their usual routine – how often they do it, when, and what the experience is like.
Your goal is to catch the words they use and how they describe their experience.
Often, you'll pick up on terms they naturally use, ones you might not have thought about. These insights can shape your entire service or experience.
Casual conversations help build rapport. If they're new or haven't used your product, ask them about their experiences with your competitors.
It's all about getting into their mindset and seeing how they view things.
Jobs To Be Done
Bob Moesta introduced the “Jobs To Be Done.” (JTBD) framework – a concept I highly recommend exploring, especially through Lenny's recent episode with him, for an easy introduction.
Jobs To Be Done is a concept that helps you understand why people buy or use your product. Imagine your product as a "tool" people "hire" to get a specific "job" done in their life. Understanding this "job" helps you make a product that's useful.
Thinking in terms of the users job is a great way to focus on when they need to do their task. This will help you understand so much more than you would have initially thought, including their environment - whether it's an office, a street, or their home sofa.
Speak to users about the task they’re trying to complete. Ask them to walk through when it happens, and describe what their environment looks like. As mentioned before, pay close attention to the way they describe completing that task and the terms they use.
Core Motivations
Beyond comprehending the Jobs or tasks that your users are trying to complete, I also think there’s another angle which is possibly the most important, their motivations, or the “why” behind their actions.
Years ago, I worked on a nutrition-based consumer app in a startup called OME Health, that helped people do a range of things, such as losing weight, to improving their energy. After interviewing users to improve our onboarding, I noticed that there was a hidden motivation behind their intention.
Yes, they want to lose weight, but there’s a deeper meaning to it. A core ‘why’. Users told us that “I want to be healthy for my family“, or “I want to feel like myself again“.
Understanding the core motivations of your users, will help light the creative spark that ignites inspiration, and allow you to leap past what you imagined a good solution, or experience could look like.
Find out the reasons underlying their intentions. Ask them what using your product or your competitor's product signifies for them – how it enhances their lives.
Experience
Another powerful way to truly understand your users, beyond exploring their mental models and Jobs To Be Done, is by discussing their experience.
How familiar are they with the domain you’re working on? Are you selling to experts? Or introducing them to something new?
When I worked at Checkout.com (a stripe competitor in the payments space), I became familiar with technical payments language that other enterprise merchants, which we sell our solution to, are already experts in.
This awareness was important. For instance, while designing the user experiences for Checkout.com's payments dashboard, I knew it was essential to use terms that these users were familiar with and expect to see. Terms like Reporting, Acceptance Rate, Declines, and Issuing were part of their everyday vocabulary.
Recognising this, and understanding that users might commonly utilise both Checkout.com and Stripe simultaneously, equipped me with the knowledge to craft designs that resonate with their familiarity. Additionally, I had a better grasp of their literacy level with these technical terms.
Ask about their experience in the area you’re solving for.
Stage 2 - Apply your insights
How do you describe the problem you’re solving it?
Now that you've gathered valuable insights from users, the next step is to infuse or adapt these insights into how you articulate the problem your product addresses.
Your solution statement, which communicates the precise problem your product solves, forms the foundation of your communication and writing.
From landing pages and blogs, to LinkedIn bios, features, and business sales calls, everything should echo your researched and tailored approach to your solution. This approach significantly heightens the probability of your solution resonating and aligning with what users need and expect.
Is your language tailored?
Consider whether your language caters to a specific audience. Are you addressing problems in the B2B space, B2C, or both? Let's look at examples of how you can precisely choose the words for two distinct user bases:
For B2B:
Your language should encapsulate business challenges and opportunities.
Use concise and authoritative terms that directly align with the goals and concerns of enterprises (if that’s your target audience).
Craft your writing to be impactful, driving action and offering tangible solutions.
For B2C:
Tailor your language to resonate with individual consumers' needs and aspirations.
Use accessible language that is common to a wider audience of users.
Overall, any writing should be concise, actionable and present.
Is your end-to-end experience using this tailored language?
As re-iterated through the article, understanding the overall tasks that users intend to complete, will unlock the insights you need, in order to use specific language that greets their expectation when they are looking to complete it.
It will help them feel confident through the experience that it’s the right solution for their job, and that you’ve done the hard work to understand them.
In the example above, the user experience remains consistent with terms and expressions relevant to nutrition-based weight loss solutions. Language such as 'Guide,' 'Support,' 'Programme,' and 'I’m ready! Let’s get started' are mostly consistent.
Closing thoughts
Every label, word or description is something for users to read. This helps them to understand what your product does and how to use it.
By listening to the way users talk, learning their tasks, and their experience, you can create something which not only boosts conversion, but connects to their core motivations.
You’ll create an experience that matches their “Why“.
Key takeaways
Learn their mental models: Learn how they view things from their perspective.
Learn their jobs: Your language should explain how your solution fits into their lives.
Learn their motivations: What’s the reason behind their intent with your solution?
Learn their experience: What is their literacy? What experience do they have?
Make it familiar: Use words they know and use themselves.
Write clearly: Writing should be actionable, present and concise.
See you next week,
Josh (@joshuanewton1) 🔮