Your message: promise, proof and tone

The message is what a person understands about your brand within seconds. If they need a minute to learn what you sell and for whom, most opportunities are gone. If you wrote a positioning sentence in the first collection course, this is where you turn it into words people actually see.

The message house: three parts

• Promise: One sentence about what you offer and for whom. Example: “Tailored linen shirts for working through a hot summer.”
• Proof: Three facts that support the promise and that you can show: the fabric, the tailoring, how it is made. Do not write what you cannot prove.
• Tone: Three words that describe how you speak, and three you stay away from.

The five second test

Show your home page to five people from your target customer for five seconds only, then hide it and ask: what does this brand sell? And for whom? If their answers differ from your promise, the problem is the message, not the people.

Where the message appears

• The first line of your home page and your Instagram bio.
• The title of a product page and the first two lines of its description.
• The text of an ad and the welcome email.

Exercise

Write the message house for your brand: one promise, three proofs and three tone words. Then run the five second test on five people and record their answers exactly as said.