ach month I host mentor office hours at Station Houston, and most of my sessions begin with startup founders coming to me with the same concern: is my messaging right? While some hope they can flash a quick tagline and get a “Yes” or “No”, the true essence of strong messaging goes much deeper than what meets the eye.
Brand messaging starts off the screen, with human-to-human contact.
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It starts with people.
Not the ones on your team. But the customers. Who are the people you are trying to change? What do they believe? How do they talk? What do they fear, care about, and desire?
Communication is a two-way street, and when we are so focused on building our vision, we sometimes forget to look both ways — in our hearts and minds AND into the hearts and minds of our customers.

As Alan Alda, actor and founder of the Stony Brook Center for Communicating Science, says:
If you are thinking only about communication as having the perfect message regardless of how it lands on your audience, then you’re likely just to be spraying information at them and not really saying something to them that sticks.

In his book, If I Understood You, Would I have this Look on My Face? Alda dives deep into the art and science of communicating. He applies the improvisational techniques he learned in acting to help scientists communicate their research.
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As it turns out, basic communication exercises can help even the most technically minded researchers learn how to share their work in an intuitive way that resonates with people outside their field.

The Key to Communication is Contact
No matter what kind of startup you have, there will be times when you need to stand up, talk about your company and get people on board with your mission.

You need to be comfortable looking people in the eyes and seeing them as fellow humans. The more you notice about them and their body language, the more easily you can see if they are following along or very, very lost.
If you want to avoid spraying information and find what sticks, shift your focus to your audience.

Make Contact and Find the Sparkle

​When you are talking to someone about something novel, note their facial expression. Once they understand what you are saying, you will notice. They may say, “Ohhh!” and you will see a sparkle. A glimmer of comprehension. Take note of exactly what you said right before the sparkle.

The key to strong communication is finding the words, examples, and analogies that lead to sparkles. Identify these moments and lead with them. Eliminate everything else. Seriously.

But! I need to give people some context and this information is important…Anything that comes before a sparkle moment is typically confusing and goes in one ear and out the other. That’s why people say, “start with a story” or “start with a hook,” because everything before that moment of connection will be lost on people.
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Action Item: Carry a notebook with you always. When you are talking about your startup to someone, take note of a sparkle moment. Write down everything about it— the exact wording you used, how they reacted, what they said next. 

(^I learned this technique in The Comedy Bible — to connect with people on stage, you must notice how you connect with people offstage. If you can isolate sparkle moments and then string them together, you will be a star!)

​Choose Hats Over Stats, Guys
The other thing that my tech friends love are statistics. Statistics can be powerful, hard hitters when you want to quantify your value. But sometimes, they can fall short and leave people wondering what that value even means for them. Let’s take a look two copy examples I pulled from sites on the Internet:

Option A: On average, custom software projects built using our software are at least 50% less expensive and are done in 50% less time.

Option B: Build enterprise-grade apps fast. How about a native mobile app in 4 weeks?

Which one do you think has stronger messaging? While they both talk about time frames, the first one leaves me wondering what “50% less time” even means. Four weeks on the other hand, I get that. I know I need an app ready next month, and the second company is going to help me meet my deadline.

When talking about your company’s value, you can use a statistic, or you can put on your customer’s hat, see the world through their eyes, and talk like they talk. If you want your messaging to resonate, always choose hats over stats.

The only way to get better at empathizing with others is through practice. Think about your team, your customers, your partners, and the humans that matter most in your world and business.

The more you can focus on psychographics over demographics — what people are like on the inside versus what they look like on the outside — the more effective your messaging will be.

Analyze Your Customers As Humans
Who are the people your company is setting out to help? Think beyond job titles — what do they believe, who do they trust, what do they fear? What’s their sense of humor like? How do they react when they’re starving and stumble upon free breakfast burritos?

The more in tune you are with your customers, the more in sync your marketing will be. And the best way to get to know these people doesn’t start online.
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It starts offline, with casual conversations and human-to-human contact.

Building a successful business is a voyage, and you are Amelia Earhart. You want to do something; build something, see something, sell something...so you do it. After all, “The only way to do it, is to do it,” as Amelia once said.

If you want your idea to take flight, you must pay attention to the elements around you. Like the stars and the wind and the rain. Everything is a clue. Every interaction. Every book. Every business that has come before you.

Your goal, my dear Amelia Bedelia, is to find these clues and figure out how they fit together. What’s the bigger picture, the other side of your world that you cannot yet see? 

You can read books on Richard Branson, Sheryl Sandberg, or Tina Fey. They’ll sprinkle fairy dusts of inspiration to help you move along on your way. But the true nuggets of knowledge, the brightest stars in your sky, sit closest to home in a human nearby.

It’s the people in your circle--your family, your customers, and the ones on your team--that are the true co-pilots on your voyage to reaching your dream.

If you can figure out what pains them, moves them, or fills them with glee, it will reveal a small piece of the sky you hadn’t yet seen. The more you listen to people, the more stars you’ll collect. And the real magic happens when you see how they connect.

Are you looking around and mapping your plans in the sky? Or stuck with a keyboard sewn to your hands, and a screen glued to your eyes? Reading blogs, crunching data, and trying to figure out what it all means?

Get up, sweet Amelia.  

Swivel out of your chair and hop onto your feet. There are tons of important people you absolutely must meet. Come listen to their stories. Collect every clue. Explore the curiosities, may each one bring something new.

A new star to add to your sky.  A friend to take along for the ride. A wind of an insight that changes your direction. A dose of humanity, belonging, and connection. 

People are people are humans at heart.

Tune in, Amelia, and I swear you'll go far. 

XOX

Michelle

Your website is an online version of your pitch. It’s the perfect–and sometimes the only–opportunity to wow potential customers and investors. The catch is that you only have seconds to captivate and inspire them to take action. How do you do that?
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You need killer web copy. Clear messaging that draws people in, resonates on a human level, and makes it easy for them to sign up, learn more, or buy. Ready to turn casual website visitors into paying customers, intrigued followers, and dedicated fans? Here are 5 tips to help you write great web copy. 

1. Trim the fat. 
   Less it more. But less is hard. Write with precision and trim the fatty extras if you want people to listen.
   Quick tip: Write the first draft. Then do a round of edits, cutting it down by 20%. Then do another round of edits, cutting another 20%. Leave only the essential. 
   
   
2. Use a fishing pole, not a net. 
   Entrepreneurs and startup companies often try to cast a wide net. We can throw this net and catch these guys as clients, or those guys, or that group...really anyone. We will take anyone that wants to pay us! But what if you used a fishing pole instead and dangled something your ideal client wants? Give out something valuable, and your ideal clients will come to you.
   Quick tip: Who is your ideal target customer? Are you trying to catch mahi-mahi or bottom feeders? Decide. Write for them. 
   
   
3. Speak with gumption.
   WHAT do you do, and WHO do you do it for? Finding the right words here is critical. Don’t say bad when you can say horrible. It’s okay to drive yourself crazy finding the right words. Your value proposition matters.
   Quick tip: Grab your business partner and brainstorm until your brain runs dry. The words are all there. You must do the work and start digging to find them.
   
   
4. Bring your wingmen along. 
   Listen, being a smooth talker and having charisma is great, but your web copy alone is not going to carry the team. Images are the perfect wingman for great copy. Every image is an opportunity to highlight something great about you, like your brand personality, intelligence or product functionality.
   Quick Tip: What images can you add on your homepage to convey your value and work? Browse a site like unsplash.com to find awesome, free stock photos. 
   
   
5. Buttons are everything. 
   When people land on your site, what do you want them to do? Read an article, sign up, subscribe to your email list, donate money, try your app? Decide, and build a button for that. What can you do to convince them to follow you to the next step, to click?
   Quick Tip: Browse some of your favorite sites and check out their buttons. What does the button say? How does the wording before it help persuade you to click? Analyzing other buttons will help you create great buttons for your site. 

Interested in learning more about the copywriting and the heart of marketing? Join the Humans at Heart mailing list. ❤

​Occasionally, an entrepreneur will come to me with an idea and ask if I can build the story around it.

If you are in the idea stage, don’t invest in your website. Focus instead on hashing out your idea. Put your head down, develop a great product or company or at the very least, prototype, then worry about marketing it. You can’t invent a great story and hope it builds the business. Make the idea come alive, and the story will follow suit. 

Got a Business You Want to Grow? Invest in Your Website 
​If you have a revenue-generating business, it’s absolutely worth it to keep your website updated. To help you determine what an "updated website" means, the simplest analogy is a glass elevator.

​When you step into a glass elevator, do you look at the doors where you came from, or turn around to face the outside world? 

Many companies will write their websites looking at the doors--fixated on what they know best, themselves. 

"We've been around for 30 years...we do X, Y, and Z and we're the best in town. Here are some of the clients we've worked with before." 

Forward thinking companies turn around to face the outside world--their customers. They recognize the environment as constantly changing, and stay vigilant and proactive. They observe how their customers' needs evolve and are continually focused on re-positioning their company to solve these problems. 

"Did you forget your sunglasses on a sunshiny day? Don't let your eyeballs suffer any longer.
​Get a spare pair that fits in your wallet→"

What sounds more compelling? A company biography or a novel solution to one of your current problems? 

It's Time to Turn Around and Face the World
Connecting with your customers on a human level is essential to achieving your business and revenue goals. To determine if your website is outdated, ask yourself:

• Are we facing the elevator doors or the outside world?
• Is our company still solving the same problem we set out to solve?
• How are people using our products and services?
• What is the real value we add to their lives? 

​If it's been awhile (3-6 months) since you've checked in with your customers, now is the time to look. Only by listening to your customers can you uncover the most efficient way to market your value online, and marketing is integral to success. 

As Bob Fifer, author of Double Your Profits in 6 Months or Less (a 90’s classic that still rings true today) says, "Most truly successful companies outspend their competition in marketing, either in absolute dollars or as a percentage of sales ." 

When it comes to business expenditures, investing in your marketing is a strategic cost, which Fifer defines as follows: