Marketing Baby

Evolving website copy: From technical specifics to high-level messaging

A lot of companies that start out serving a very narrow niche gain their passionate initial traction by zeroing in on the language. They really speak the language of the core audience they’re serving.

Here are two great examples:

Stripe

They’re initial homepage was very technical and spoke directly to developers:

stripe-homepage-technical-messaging

The current version addresses the overall business needs on a much higher level, and speaks to a very different audience:

stripe-homepage-non-technical-messaging

This reflects how the business evolved. They have a much larger customer base now. There are more stakeholders involved in the deals, not just their initial developer audience.

But do keep in mind that they still cater to that audience: Developers know that all they need to do is to check out the API documentation, which they can find by clicking on the Developers main navigation link.

Clearbit

Clearbit is another company whose homepage messaging has evolved. Initially, they were displaying source code on their site.

clearbit

Compare this to their current website:

clearbitcomnow

The messaging here is very different, the way they convey value is much higher level.

Does that mean that their initial websites were worse?

Probably not. When they started, it might have been just the right approach to geek out and speak to the most passionate audience, the kind of persona that they could relate to the most.

But it would definitely been worse if they’d keep it at that as their company, product, market and customers evolved.

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