5 Whys ⋅ EV #008

Ask a good copywriter or marketer how to write copy that persuades — or, converts on your website — and they’ll tell you that effective copy should be based on the user research interview data. They are 200% right.

But what if you don’t have time for research interviews? And what if the only thing you need is a strong tagline for your pitch deck that will wake up everyone in the room?

Let me teach you the hack.

This exercise is called the 5 Whys. For my brand lab workshops, I cut it to three questions. For a reason (which we'll unpack some other day).

You can do it alone or with your team.

When doing it alone:

1. Write down what your product does. Your answer is THING1.
2. Ask yourself: Why does THING1 matter? Your answer is THING2.
3. Ask yourself: Why does THING2 matter? Your answer is THING3.
4. Ask yourself: Why does THING3 matter? Your answer is FINAL_THING.

Use this FINAL_THING as the foundation for your tagline — in a pitch deck or website.

The only difference when doing it with the team is asking questions in turns:

1. Mary says what your product does. And asks Rob why it matters.
2. Rob says why it matters (THING1) and asks Lia why it matters.
3. Lia says why THING1 matters (THING2) and asks Ryan…

You got it.

Good luck crafting emotionally charged brand taglines,
Ira

P.S. If, after doing this exercise, you feel stuck on turning the results into a tagline, share the results with me by replying to this email. We'll nail it together.