One-liner template for your landing page ⋅ EV #015

Two days ago, we talked about how market category sets expectations about your product in the eyes of your prospective customers. Today, let's put it into action on your website.

The most important part of your website is the first fold — everything on your homepage that fits in the device screen before you start scrolling.

You may be tempted to add UI fireworks, like rotating 3D or fancy WebGL animations, to wow your visitors from the start. Resist this temptation. Use the first fold strategically and keep it simple.

Consider these three incremental sets to communicate the value of your product:

The second set requires more time than the first one, and the third set requires not only more time but also existing presence on the market since you need the traction numbers. If you are launching, the first set will work well for you.

Did you notice that every set starts with a one-liner?

What is a one-liner?

One-liner merges answers to three core questions about your product in one sentence:

1. WHAT — What is your product? It is your market category.
2. PROBLEM — What problem do you solve?
3. WHO — Who is your target audience?

You don't need to include HOW (How do you do it? or features) here. It will overload your one-liner. Save it for the landing page copy.

Depending on the context and purpose, there are a few ways to arrange these three parts. Some work better for investors, some are better for customer communication.

My bullet-proof always-performing version for customer communication is:

Three things to keep in mind

1. Specify your niche audience if you are building a niche product. You can do it by mentioning their area of work, or personality attributes.
   For example: Not "groupware for teams" but "groupware for small and privacy-minded teams". Just "team" covers also those who are fine using Notion or Google.
2. Validate the relevance of the problem you solve by interviewing 2-3 people representing your ideal audience. First, because you’ll need this info for the second part of one-liner. Secondly, because it's much harder to sell vitamins than it is to sell painkillers.

3. If your product is a painkiller, focus your one-liner on removing pains and addressing fears. For example: Encrypted messaging dapp for protest organizers and demonstrators who can't risk the wellbeing of their beloved ones.
   If your product is a vitamin, focus your one-liner on user gains and aspirations. For example: The full-stack platform for builders of SocialFi revolution who want to bring their users onchain without hassle.

You are all set now.

Use your new one-liner on your landing page, social account descriptions, and everywhere where potential early adopters will see it.

What combination is better for fundraising? Stay with me — we will cover it later this summer. If you need to know it sooner, reply to this email and I'll prioritize the promised issue for you.

Yours,
Ira