Welcome to TouchPoints, the newsletter that breaks down marketing collateral from top SAAS brands for inspiration and analysis.

This week we’re looking at Directus’s Homepage, plus Linkedin Ads by Mutiny and Aircall.

Directus

Full Homepage

Homepage Hero

Mutiny

Linkedin Ad

Aircall

Linkedin Ad

Observations

Don’t Be “Anything”. Don’t Be Everything.

Here’s Why

Your "all-in-one" product pitch is driving customers away.

Directus’s homepage hero has a lot going for it, but I don’t see how the headline performs it’s very crucial duty.

Think about what they are saying. It’s a backend for anything and everything. If you’re looking for a specific use case, how does this help?

When it comes to specialization, I often think of doctor metaphors. If you need knee surgery, do you want a general practitioner, who can do “anything and everything”?

Someone who has maybe done 2 knee surgeries? Or would you prefer a specialist who has spent years only doing knee surgery.

Broad sweeping statements like this are rarely true, and even more rarely useful to the reader.

Build the Perfect Value Statement

If you want to write a great value prop, take a page out of Mutiny’s book.

Their Linkedin ad has a headline that manages to combine social proof with capabilities and outcomes.

It’s no surprise Mutiny would have their messaging dialed in. Their service helps users test and optimize their websites.

This headline can be templatifyed (if thats a word?). Here are the steps:

1. Find a case-study-worthy customer
2. Describe in their words what they were able to do with your product
3. Tie that activity to an outcome.

In short:

See how [customer] was able to [capability] and see [outcome].

This combines our classic capability + outcome with the social proof strengthening the claim.

Say Goodbye to [Pain Point]

How many times have you seen an ad that says “Say Goodbye to [Pain Point]” ?

It has to be one of the most common ways of initiating ad Pain Point → Capability statement.

Is it cliche? Sure.

Personally I think it’s probably a cliche because it gets the point across.

Make sure you use an appropriate pain point like Aircall does in their ad.

With the right pain point, this can be a effective little piece of copy.

If you find yourself wanting to change it up, here are a few (similalry cliche) phrases you can switch out with “Say goodbye…”:

Wave farewell to [pain point]

• Leave [pain point] in the dust

• Break free from [pain point]

• Eliminate [pain point] for good

• Put an end to [pain point]

• Overcome [pain point] effortlessly

• Conquer [pain point] once and for all

• Liberate yourself from [pain point]

Alternatively, you can build more of a value prop with something like this:

Eliminate [pain point] for good with [capability] so you can [outcome].

Any Questions?

Looking for more explanation about the elements of messaging that I highlight? Check out my guide here.

Anything further? I'm happy to take a break from exploring the wider world of marketing & eating chocolate chip cookies to address your questions.

Email me here.

Acknowledgements

I would like to extend our thanks to the following companies for providing examples and insights that made this edition of TouchPoints possible:

• Adfolio - For their awesome repository of B2B ads, with excellent commentary.

• Founderway.AI - An awesome resource that helped me better figure out how to run this newsletter, and forever friends of TouchPoints.

• Concise Copy - Pavlo is an absolute expert at homepage copy. Check out his value prop canvas for a super useful resource.

• Growth Therapy - Amanda is more B2C than me, but her insights about paid media and growth marketing are always welcome.

I sincerely appreciate these folks for providing great content and inspiration. It's great thinkers like these that allow me to deliver the best of modern SaaS marketing to you, our subscribers, every week in TouchPoints.