Company messaging is important to get your meaning across, especially when your product is more complicated than baskets or Uber for basketweavers. But for many B2B companies, the problem is speaking to many audiences at once. When messaging tries to serve everyone, it often ends up resonating with no one.
To identify your primary audience, look at the data that supports your business objectives so you can make a clear case to leadership. Your target audience may be different from who you and leadership think it is. Ask your data who’s purchasing your products most often and spending the most money.
You may have a single enterprise client that brings in $10,000 a month, but if you also have 100 SMBs that each bring in $1,000 a month, your audience is SMBs. If, on top of that, you have one million individual creators on a free plan, your target audience is still SMBs. The right audience isn’t always the most fun or the biggest. Focus on the one that drives your revenue.
How Squarespace focuses on its primary audience
Squarespace centers its messaging on the audience that drives its revenue.
What they do right:
- Narrow messaging.
- Concrete words.
- Fast CTA to try the product.
The message “A website makes it real” squarely targets entrepreneurs, small businesses and solopreneurs who are looking to build a website. Their take is that having a website will make the venture feel real and make it available to anyone on the web.
Squarespace doesn’t only sell websites to entrepreneurs. It has a robust enterprise offering as well, but the same messaging that’s targeted at very small businesses will resonate with enterprises, especially those who have yet to invest in a modern, well-designed website.
As of its IPO in 2021, Squarespace made 94% of its revenue through subscription products, and much of that revenue comes from very small business subscriptions costing $16-$99 per month.
The home page is a sleek, modern design to attract non-technical entrepreneurs who want well-designed sites for a low price. While the page provides FAQs, feature lists and social proof, it also drives potential customers to start building their free website now. It knows its audience wants to try before they buy to see just how easy it is and that those who begin to build in Squarespace are more likely to purchase.
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Write messaging to your primary audience
When you write messaging to a primary audience, you have to make your value proposition clear and in words they understand in their own context. Companies often have a really hard time with clarity, especially as they grow, because they think they sound smarter or more sophisticated with bigger words. They don’t.
Keep these rules in mind when you write above-the-fold messaging:
- No jargon.
- Concrete nouns and verbs.
- Tailored to primary audience.
Look at your home page and pretend you know nothing about your company. Does your home page tell people what you do in concrete terms? Check your copy against the examples below:
| Concrete messaging | Jargon-filled messaging |
| HVAC maintenance and repair | Environmental comfort professionals |
| Shipping and warehousing for cattle industry supplies | Logistical support for bovine enterprise |
Follow your concrete description with the explanation of what sets your company apart — again written to the primary audience. Let’s look at the Mindbody home page for an example.
How Mindbody targets its revenue-driving audience
Mindbody focuses its messaging on small businesses, the audience that drives its revenue.
What they do right:
- Identified and focused on their target — fitness small businesses.
- Clear, high-impact messaging above the fold.
- Easy access for the secondary audience.
Based on the size of the text, when you get to mindbodyonline.com, your eyes go to the main headline: “More revenue. More clients. More growth.” The next place your eyes go is the line “Run your business with confidence,” followed by the “Get a demo” CTA button.
In quick succession, you get:
- What their product can get them.
- How it helps do that.
- Where to go to get it now.
Of course, there are other, smaller texts on the page that elaborate on the message, but those three lines make a powerful statement.
MindBody made a clear decision to speak to the audience that actually makes it money: small businesses. I bet that if MindBody looked at its audience, it would probably have more individual consumers visit its website — but that’s not who it wants to do business with. Its revenue comes from helping small businesses run their fitness business with confidence.
MindBody doesn’t ignore consumers completely, however. There’s a clear call to action for consumers to navigate to the pages built for them in the main menu area. It’s an elegant solution to direct everyone to the exact place they want to be.
Turn your message into action
All the examples we’ve discussed so far have clear, targeted messages. That’s not enough to close deals if the messaging is buried down the page. These examples all:
- Put the message above the fold in the hero section.
- Include a direct CTA to what their primary audience wants.
When you tailor your message to the primary audience, put it first thing on the page, use font hierarchy to catch the reader’s eye (make it bigger than anything else in that section) and add the right CTA, you’ve built an audience-friendly hero section.
Most people during the research phase expect to have to dig around a bit to find pricing, products or feature lists. But when you prioritize the right message and the next right action, they feel that ease and it can often feel like customer service magic. We attribute the sense of ease a simple sign up or initial navigation gives us to the product itself.
How Adobe connects messaging directly to action
Adobe connects its messaging directly to the next step users want to take: understanding pricing and plans.
What they do right:
- Shortened journey to pricing page.
- Addressing creators as individuals and business departments.
Adobe’s hero line on adobe.com, “Everything you need to make anything,” speaks directly to creators, as individuals in all fields purchase and influence decisions to purchase the Adobe suite. The messaging connects with both artists and businesspeople who consider themselves artists.
This broad messaging almost feels like cheating — are they actually telling us what they do in real terms? I would argue that yes, they do, and part of Adobe’s advantage is that everyone already knows what it does.
Even more interesting? The main CTA on the home page takes you directly to the “pricing and plans” page. That shows that Adobe knows two things:
- People already know who they are and what they do. They don’t have to sell themselves.
- People are looking to understand what the services will cost them.
Once on the pricing page, buyers can self-select into the vertical they need. Adobe has reduced the buying journey on adobe.com to two clicks and has likely experienced greater sales because it makes it so easy to find and purchase the products buyers want.
Manage your chaos with a clear message
A clear message to the right audience with the right call to action makes the audience feel seen, understood and, to some extent, smart. Those feelings of ease, simplicity, understanding and intelligence make people feel good and build positive associations with your brand. Those good feelings can go a long way toward building brand allegiance and revenue.
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