Imagine your communications as the powerhouse driving your business forward. Sure, sales are vital, but beneath the surface lie treasures that money can't buy: reputation, repeat customers, and unwavering loyalty. In this powerpack session, Daphne Tideman, a seasoned growth leader, will be delving into the artistry of elevating your conversion rates through straightforward copy tests, even if crafting compelling prose isn't your forte. Together, you'll unravel the intricacies of forging deep connections with your audience, testing casual clicks and turning them into loyal customers.

1. Improve your Conversions by
Finding Message-Market Fit
VWO Webinar

2. Newsletter: growthwaves.substack.com
Website: daphnetideman.com
Who am I?

3. What are we going to cover
1. Why message-market fit is imperative for your business
2. How to know if you have a messaging problem
3. High level step-by-step process to finding
message-market fit

4. Why message-market fit is
imperative for your business

5. Example
Heights’ initial journey to improving
their messaging

6. We were talking all about the brain 🧠

7. But first we had to understand:
what do people actually care about?
I started taking Heights 5 months ago and at first I only noticed very minor differences
(slightly more alert and less brain fog). Now in month 5 I am truly noticing the
benefits, I am sleeping better, my mood has stabilised and I don’t get as stressed
over small things. I once saw a customer review stating ‘now if I feel like doing
something I just do it’ and I totally get this! I feel much more motivated with life in
general and getting the stuff done that needs to be done, done!

8. We spent 6+ hours as a whole Growth team working
on our messaging and value proposition (54 hours)

9. Our first round of research into messaging resulted
in two potential angles
0. Control
1. ‘Gains’
focused
2. ‘Convenience’
focused

10. ‘Gains’ focused
proposition
-9.11%
(Not significant)
‘Convenience’
proposition
-9.39%
(Not significant)
But, after a week, the first experiment was
tracking terribly…

11. With further research, and our second message
testing on the homepage & product page, we saw
increased lifts in CVR
+22% increase
across the two
experiments

12. We tested further, running multiple ad variants to
learn faster

13. We analysed the differences in performance for the
same broad audience

14. We kept taking the winner, iterating it and testing it
further

15. New Results
25.0% lift
95% sig.
Improved Product
Page pains further
27.6% lift
95% sig.
Improved Homepage
pains further
29.7% lift
95% sig.
Updated both the
Homepage &
Product Page
Round 3 Round 4 Round 5

16. The Difference:
Imagine we started with 500 customers a week
1,022
customers a
week
After experiments
3-5
610
customers a
week
After experiment 2
500
customers a
week
Original messaging
+22%
+104.3%

17. It took a huge team effort, but it was worth it
Not only was our website performing 2x better than
before, but, as mentioned, we also saw:
● 2-3x improvement in email conversion rate
● At least a 60% increase in click-through rate
across Meta Ads (our main marketing channel)

18. We can have the best product, but if we don’t communicate it to
our market effectively…
● We won’t resonate
● We will try to speak to everyone instead of a
specific few
● We won’t convert users

19. The harsh reality
● There is more competition than ever before
● Attention spans are continuously decreasing
● Price and/or quality isn’t enough to differentiate you in the long run
● It is getting easier to build a high quality website
You need to become clearer on who your target audience is and why they
should choose you. That is where message-market fit comes in.

20. Why you as a CRO specialist should focus on this?
1. Your natural data-driven and skill for research will help
you support in improving the messaging
2. Too often when it is written just by a copywriter or brand
marketer it is too far removed from the customer
3. If you struggle with design or development resources
these are easier tests to implement
4. So few brands focus on this and get it right

21. B2B example of vague messaging

22. Ecommerce Example - Ceramic brand’s homepage

23. App Example - Birth Control app’s homepage

24. How to know if you have a
messaging problem

25. What is message-market fit?

26. What does finding message-market fit come down to?
Message-market fit is more than just your positioning—it is combining
that with the right language, for the right audience, for the right
awareness level.

27. At the end of the day it is what
your customer is trying to
achieve—their Jobs to be Done.

28. Understanding JTBD
When trying to understand customers’ JTBD, I look at this in
three parts:
1. Pains — What does your customer struggle with (problems
and obstacles)?
2. Gains — Benefits your customer expects; how does your
product improve their experience?
3. Jobs to be done — What is your customer trying to
achieve?

29. The quickest test to know if messaging is your challenge
If this is you:
We know that people love the product, we know there is a
market, but we struggle to convert them. We struggle to
explain what it is we do in just one sentence.
Usually we also see a low conversion rate and low CTR from
ads / emails as a result.

30. Join at slido.com
#4116561
ⓘ
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instructions for participants while presenting.

31. Common signs of poor
message-market fit - which
of these do you notice?
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poll while presenting.

32. How to find message-market fit

33. Process of finding message-market fit
1 Review mining
2 Competitor analysis
3 Surveying your customers
4 Conducting user interviews
with existing customers
5 Defining and testing your messaging
6 User test your messaging further
7 Increasing the ROI of your new
messaging further

34. Step 1: Review Mining

35. Goals of review mining
● Review mining is going through your all of your existing
reviews to pull out golden nuggets about your customers.
● This gets added to a swipe file.
● You can also look at competitor reviews and other data
sources to complete your swipe file.

36. Why is review mining impactful
Analysing reviews will help you:
✓ Identify trends around what your customers’ pains, gains and potential
JTBD are
✓ Understand the exact language your customers use
Added bonus: This will help inform what to include when you’re writing copy
for message testing.

37. Example of end result - Overview of all the insights

38. We can start to understand trends in what is being said

39. Step 2: Competitor Analysis

40. Goals of conducting a competitor analysis
Looking at competitors will help you:
✓ Understand how they are positioning themselves
✓ What copy they use
✓ Inspire different ways to communicate with your target
audience
✓ Uncover how you can stand out from the crowd

41. How to conduct a competitor analysis
1. Make a list of direct and indirect competitors.
2. Create an overview of the relevant information to gather
per competitor.
3. Walk through each competitor and fill in the overview.

42. Example - End result of a competitor analysis
By the end you’ll have a better understand product names, forms of the product, their
messaging, features, benefits and more.

43. Step 3: Surveying your
customers (Optional)

44. Goal of the survey
✓ Confirm whether you have Product-Market Fit and
understand why have it
✓ Start to understand your product’s potential JTBD, e.g.
asking “what is the main benefit you get from [XYZ]
✓ Identify who to interview

45. What is Product-Market Fit?
● According to Sean Ellis (who created the term),
Product-Market Fit is defined as 40% of your
customers answering “Very Disappointed” to the
following question:
○ “How disappointed would you be if you could no
longer use the product/service?”
● Product-Market Fit (PMF) comes first, and is followed
by Message-Market Fit as a means of strengthening it.

46. Step 4: Interviewing your
customers

47. Goal of the user interviews
✓ Dive deep into the JTBD of your ‘raving fan’ customers
✓ Understand what they believe differentiates you from
competitors
✓ Compare JTBD of ‘raving fans’ to churned customers (by
interviewing both)

48. Step 5: Defining and testing
your messaging

49. Bringing the research together
● You’ll have learnt a lot about your customers and competitors
throughout this process, but it will be in several places:
interview notes, swipe file of reviews, competitor overview,
survey analysis.
● It’s now time to bring it all together and establish the JTBD.

50. Mapping out your positioning
● Whilst your customers may have multiple JTBD
and various benefits they value as a result, that
doesn’t mean you are the best solution for all of
them, or that your product has a unique enough
positioning to stand out.
● Mapping yourself out vs. your competitors can
help you identify potential opportunity areas →
What do you do exceptionally well in that your
customers value, and your competitors don’t.

51. Working out your JTBD and your relevant persona

52. Once you’ve narrowed this down to a few options
● Sometimes people strongly lean towards one JTBD and
are tempted to implement that everywhere on their
website.
● However, even with research you can’t be sure which one
resonates the most and how to best explain it.
● This is where testing comes in!

53. How to test
There are several different ways to test
depending on volume and what you
want to learn:
1. Website
2. Meta ads
3. Email
4. 5 second / preference tests
Ideally test through 2-3 methods

54. After testing
● Once you’ve found the winning JTBD you want to narrow
down the language further and keep improving it before
implementing it
● Then you can test and implement improving the
messaging across your website

55. Step 6: User test your
messaging further

56. Goal of user testing
✓ Uncover where there are still challenges in your customer
journey in conveying that messaging
✓ Test the new messaging on your website to see if it resonates
✓ Continue to better understand how someone unfamiliar with
your brand experiences your website

57. Example

58. Step 7: Increasing the ROI of
your new messaging further

59. Don’t stop at one test
● With Heights much of the gains came from test 3/4/5.
● Even now, Heights is still working on that messaging to
improve it even further with market conditions
continuously evolving, and having launched a new product.

60. Suggested testing structure
● Start with your high level JTBD
○ Ideally testing through 2-3 methods to increase
certainty
● Test different angles—leading with pains / gains /
JTBD
● Test different phrases—different ways to resonate
● Test creative formats to support your messaging (if
relevant for your channel)—images, video, carousel

61. When to stop testing?
● Truthfully, you are always learning and improving your
messaging.
● However, when you stop seeing substantial differences in your
tests, it may be worth evaluating whether to continue focusing
on messaging or move on to another area of impact.

62. Remember to implement your messaging consistently
Ensure your messaging is consistent, but appropriate for the
phase of your customer journey and their awareness level at
that phase:
● Website
● Emails
● Ads
● Organic social
● Etc.

63. Thank you!

64. How to take action (if you haven’t already)
1. Already have a lot of research?
● Double check you have all of the recommended
insights (steps 1 - 4).
● Skip to the creation of your messaging, as well as
testing it out phase.
2. Have experience in user research and messaging?
● Use these steps as a guidance to conduct your own
research.
3. Want more in-depth guidance?
● Check out the full message-market fit course.

65. Full Message-Market Fit Programme
● Walks through all 7 steps in depth
(150+ video lessons) with 10+
templates and clear action points
● Price: £595 £495 (Code: VWO, valid
until 10th April)
● Access is for your full team (just
email the other email addresses once
purchased)