How do you measure your messaging to know that it works?

I’ve been through multiple situations where we’ve discovered a breakthrough message that dramatically changes the economics of user acquisition and the trajectory of revenue growth.

The testing/measurement part is straightforward—run creative featuring different messaging on an advertising platform like Meta, and see which performs best in efficiently driving conversions.

Generally, for these creative tests, I prefer to test a number of different static ads with various executions for each of the messaging variants, rather than a more 'scientific' test of constraining the creative and just testing copy. Why? Sometimes you need the creative to amplify your message and drive it home.

That being said, the hard part is developing messaging that works. To do this well, you need a consistent process for gathering user feedback around your product and mining for insights on how users, in their own words, describe the product’s value.

One way we do this at You.com is by cultivating a community of power users we call our Inner Circle and running weekly surveys and 1:1 interviews to get feedback about their needs, our offering, and the competitive landscape. Learning from this audience, who deeply understands the product, has been invaluable in finding our breakthrough messaging.