Let me be blunt: if you can’t explain what you do in 10 seconds to a 12-year-old, your messaging is garbage.
Most entrepreneurs believe their ads don’t work because they’re not spending enough. Wrong. Your ads, websites, and emails all fail for the same reason: your message isn’t landing.
Until you fix your messaging, every marketing dollar you spend is like pouring water into a leaky bucket.
Here’s what business looks like when your messaging misses the mark:
Sound familiar? That’s messaging madness. And it’s why you need a systematic framework to fix it.
I call this the Message-to-Money Multiplier.
The truth is, when you get your message right, everything else in your business multiplies. Ads work better. Sales get easier. Referrals increase.
It’s not the only framework we teach, either. If you want a deeper dive into how world-class businesses attract attention, you should check out my breakdown of the 7-Step Messaging Framework. It complements the 9-step process beautifully, giving you even more tools to structure your message and stand out.
Your best copy isn’t created in a brainstorming session. It’s pulled directly from your customers’ mouths. They’re already telling you what matters through reviews, testimonials, support emails, and sales calls. All you need to do is pay attention.
For example, take Cloud Trailz, a customer of ours. They were struggling to attract any customers, and much of this was a result of poor messaging. But not anymore.
After working with Lean Marketing, they went from zero leads in their pipeline to 12 with two closing, simply by revising their messaging. Those customer experience interviews that we conducted were instrumental in refining and refocusing their messaging.
Marcus from Cloud Trailz said, “Messaging has made so many other aspects of our marketing efforts easy. Even when thinking of what to focus on saying for Google Ads, I can now easily revert to our core messaging.”
When you borrow your ideal customer’s exact language, you’re not just writing—you’re reflecting their thoughts back to them. That builds instant trust.
Stop guessing what your customers want to hear. Start speaking their language, word for word.
Once you’ve collected enough raw feedback, don’t treat it as random noise. Look for the threads that keep repeating. These are the phrases, frustrations, and emotions you see over and over.
They’re your gold.
They reveal the pain points and desires that matter most to your market. Those recurring themes become the pillars of your message.
You can do this manually. Alternatively, use ChatGPT to analyze your customer testimonials or reviews and identify recurring themes. Then look critically at your current messaging.
Does it touch on your customers’ pain points?
I’ll give you an example.
Our client, Tonic Living, constantly spoke about helping their customers craft cozy homes. We wanted to confirm whether their customers felt the same. So we sent a survey, and the results were enlightening. Not one of their customers used the word cozy.
Instead, they used words and phrases like “beautiful fabric, quality pillows, and Canadian-made.” This is why they bought from Tonic Living. Armed with this newfound knowledge, they updated their emails, website copy, and social media pages, and they’re seeing consistent growth.
If you want to go deeper, I’ve unpacked the essential elements of magnetic messaging, where I show you exactly how to turn these patterns into words that attract, not just inform.
Here’s a mistake most entrepreneurs make: they treat every prospect like they’re ready to buy today. But not everyone is at the same stage. Some don’t even know they have a problem yet.
Others are searching for solutions but don’t know you exist.
That’s why you need to map the Awareness Journey—from Unaware → Problem Aware → Solution Aware → Product Aware → Most Aware.
Take Mari from Fly Home Dragonfly Realtors.
”I was working on my copy and redid some of my pieces based on my client avatar that I developed through the interviews that my assistant did with my clients. It’s made my organic messaging really effective, and I’ve had a lot of organic new business. As a matter of fact, I have five houses closing between September 2 and September 23! All of these just came up within the last month, so it’s just been overwhelmingly busy. Definitely a result of better messaging.”
Tailor your message to where your customer is, not where you wish they were. If you skip this step, you risk sounding tone-deaf or irrelevant.
Let’s be blunt, nobody cares about your product. What they care about is relief.
They’re walking around with frustrations, fears, and challenges. Your job is to show them how you’ll take that pain away.
I’ll give you an example. When you have a severe headache, you don’t care about how much the medicine costs, right? You just want to know if it works and how quickly it’ll alleviate your pain.
The same goes for your customers.
You might not be the most affordable solution. But if you can surprise your prospects, set their minds at ease, demonstrate you understand their pain and can solve it easily, whilst delivering a superior experience, they’ll choose you, even if you cost more.
Don’t just describe your offer. Paint the “before and after” picture: here’s your struggle now, and here’s how life looks once we fix it. When you frame your message around the pain you solve, prospects lean in because they finally feel understood.
Most entrepreneurs fall into the trap of selling features. When in reality, your customers buy feelings.
No one buys “cloud storage with 1TB capacity.” They buy peace of mind that their files are safe. No one buys “faster shipping.” They buy status by showing up first with the latest gadget.
Under every purchase is a deeper motivator: time, money, status, security, or confidence. If you don’t uncover that, you’ll get beaten by a competitor who does.
Stop selling the thing. Start selling the transformation.
What are your customers really buying?
Messaging isn’t just about what you say. It’s about how you say it. What values guide your business?
An exercise I like to do with my clients is to ask them, “If your brand were a person, how would it talk?”
Defining your brand voice makes your messaging feel consistent and authentic across every channel, whether it’s your homepage, a social ad, or an email campaign. When customers recognize your “voice,” they start to trust you like a familiar friend.
And trust, more than clever words, is what drives buying decisions.
But identifying your brand messaging isn’t just for the benefit of getting customers. Having an airtight brand voice will serve you as your business grows. Because at some point, you’ll need to expand your team. And being able to give a new copywriter or social media manager your brand guide ensures they deliver a consistent experience.
Think of your homepage as your storefront. When someone lands on it, they should know in seconds:
That’s your hero message. It’s short, sharp, and simple.
Unfortunately, so many businesses get this wrong.
Forget clever slogans that confuse people. Clarity beats cleverness every time. A great hero message doesn’t make people think—it makes them say, “That’s exactly what I need.”
Here are a few examples to inspire you.
Your hero message sets the tone, but your supporting messages do the heavy lifting. Each sales or landing page needs its own focused hero statement.
Ask yourself: what’s the deliverable? What’s the transformation? What action should the visitor take right now?
Supporting messages keep your message tight and relevant so people don’t drift away, wondering what you actually do. Each page should feel like a conversation that leads naturally to the next step.
Before you call your messaging “done,” run it through a simple filter:
Whatever you do, don’t skip this step. It’s the difference between messaging that falls flat and messaging that makes customers move.
Let me give you a story.
Darla joined her husband’s used car dealership, and their website wasn’t converting. Their messaging was bland, just another car lot in a sea of car lots.
Through the 9-Step Messaging Framework, we uncovered the truth: their customers weren’t buying cars. They were buying trust and peace of mind.
So we rewrote their hero message to:
“Top quality cars backed by a team that treats you like family.”
That one shift reframed their brand. Instead of fighting the sleazy car salesman stereotype, they positioned themselves as the dealership families could trust. The result? More leads, more conversions, and a brand that finally stood out.
Most businesses don’t fail because of bad products. They fail because of bad messaging.
When you master your message:
Your message is your market. Get it right, and everything else becomes easier.
🎧 Want to go deeper?
This framework is just one part of what we implement with our Accelerator clients to break through growth plateaus. Get your messaging right first, and watch the rest of your marketing multiply.
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