In this article on ‘How to write website copy’, we’ll be creating website copy for a new MVP. I won’t go into the importance of customer research you can read about it here. As you may already know, great copy comes from research, knowing your customers very well, and positioning yourself to live rent-free in their minds. In order not to waste your time, we’ll dive right in. It’s going to be a long one, so buckle up!
Skim, if you must
Our Very Own MVP
Positioning and Differentiation
Gathering our Research
Engineering the Copy
Writing and Wireframing
Putting it all together.
Our Very Own MVP – Clientastic
We’re starting our own pseudo-company! Our hypothetical SaaS for this ‘Write with me’ article is called Clientastic. Instead of just imagining a SaaS company, I always build a lightweight SaaS to help you visualize the process better and follow along. This is to help others who need some visualization in order to understand.
Clientastic is a B2B SaaS product. It is essentially a Client Workspace. A client workspace houses all team and client communication, documents, etc, in one place. This prevents app-spread over email, instant messenger, and other tools. Instead of building from scratch like I did the last time, I borrowed this template from Harry Roper and made a few changes. I’m genuinely excited about this tool because I think it’s a really useful tool!
I recommend you take a quick look at our MVP before you proceed so you can understand how we break down the positioning and messaging.
Features of our app
| FEATURE | PICTURE OF FEATURE |
| Admin – The team collaboration space (Visible to only you and your team) 1. Enter client details 2. See task status in the tasks master or subtasks master table 3. Send and receive messages 4. See message statuses |    |
| Home (Show the client what’s going on with the project) 1. Add new task 2. See project status. For example, next delivery date, recent messages sent, last reported hotfixSee the number of tasks left 3. See the status of each task (In progress, not started, review, launching, done, blocked) 4. Prompt team member of review status |  |
| Onboarding (Tell client about details of the project and how project is going to be, henceforth). For example, you can say hello, ask the client to fill a form, tell the client about yourself, and tell the client how to communicate with you. |    |
| Messages 1. Send messages to clients 2. Clients can ask for questions or ask for an update 3. See the latest message |  |
| Hot fixes You or the client can fix any pending issues with deliverable |  |
| Ideas Share any ideas you have with clientsUpsell clients here |  |
| Library House all documents, presentations, and tutorials you’ve made for clients. |  |
Positioning and Differentiation
If you’ve read my previous article where I positioned, Flexibble, a Dribbble clone for developers, you’ll know the drill by now.
We’re going to find a problem for Clientastic. Ideally, people create products to solve a problem. They may start with a hypothesis and then do the research to validate or invalidate the hypothesis. Either way, the market need, and the audience must be validated. A product usually needs to achieve product-market fit in order to scale.
“You can build a product that you think your audience will want but end up finding out after launching that your customers don’t care for your product because it doesn’t solve their problem”.
I genuinely believe there’s a market for Clientastic, although thorough market research could prove me wrong. Either way, we’re going to create positioning and messaging for Clientastic to make this process worth it.
Let’s say from the idea behind a ‘client workspace’ we came up with this hypothesis.
Small business owners need a place to house all client communications, activities, and documents because they are scattered across too many apps.
And let’s say we did our market research, talked to ideal personas, stalked them on social media and in forums like Quora and Reddit, and realized that this is a real problem that our target audience faces.
Problem Statement
Many businesses and professionals often rely on a variety of tools, such as emails, instant messengers, shared drives, and more, to manage team and client interactions, project details, and documentation. This fragmented approach can lead to confusion, inefficiencies, and even misunderstandings. There is the need to create a centralized platform where teams and their clients can collaboratively manage projects, communicate effectively, and access all relevant information in one place.
Clientastic aims to solve the problem of scattered communication and information in client-based projects.
Target Audience
CEOs, Team Leads, and Project Managers of small to medium-sized businesses that engage in client-based projects
From the looks of things, Clientastic can cater to many teams. So, I created a list of audiences that would benefit from using Clientastic:
- Freelancers and Small Agencies: Independent professionals and small agencies that work with multiple clients on various projects can use Clientastic to keep all project-related information organized and enhance client communication.
- Software Development Teams: Development teams collaborating with clients can use Clientastic to manage tasks, share progress, and address issues within a single platform.
- Design and Creative Studios: Graphic designers, UX/UI designers, and creative agencies can utilize Clientastic to showcase designs, collect feedback, and manage design projects efficiently.
- Consulting Firms: Consulting firms can use Clientastic to maintain clear communication with clients, share reports, and manage ongoing strategic initiatives.
- Marketing and PR Agencies: Marketing teams can collaborate with clients, share campaign materials, and track project status in one place using Clientastic.
- Real Estate Professionals: Real estate agents can use Clientastic to provide clients with updates on property searches, viewing schedules, and transaction progress.
- Project Managers: Professionals responsible for overseeing various client projects can benefit from the centralized workspace that Clientastic offers.
- Educational Institutions: Educational organizations working with corporate clients for training programs or custom solutions can use Clientastic to manage project details and communicate effectively.
Competitive Analysis
Let’s see potential competitors for Clientastic.
Let’s delve into how Clientastic can differentiate itself from the list of competitors and identify its unique value proposition:
| Competitor Differentiation | Clientastic Differentiation | |
| ClickUp | Client Onboarding:-Lacks a specialized onboarding area with a focus on client interactions. Client-Facing View:-Offers sharing options but might require more customization to provide a dedicated client-facing view like Clientastic. Client Communication:-Offers communication features but lacks a dedicated client-centric communication space. Client-Centric Approach:-Focuses on a broad spectrum of audiences. | – Offers a dedicated Onboarding Workspace to guide clients through project details and expectations. – Provides a Home Workspace that offers clients a snapshot of project status, task progress, and recent updates. – Clientastic: The Messages Workspace streamlines team-client communication, eliminating scattered emails. – Focuses on client collaboration -Focuses on B2B client engagements |
| Asana | – Lacks a specialized onboarding area focused on client interactions. -Offers versatile project management tools but may require more customization to achieve a dedicated client workspace | Offers a dedicated Onboarding Workspace for clients, ensuring a smooth project initiation process. –Provides tailored workspaces for B2B client engagements, enhancing transparency and interaction. |
| Trello | Trello is more task-oriented Document Library:– Offers document management features, but Clientastic’s Library is tailored to project-related resources | Offers a comprehensive workspace for client collaboration. – Includes a Library Workspace for centralized storage of project documents, presentations, and tutorials accessible to teams and clients. |
| Wrike | General project management tool | Focuses on the unique needs of B2B client engagements. |
| Monday.com | General project management and collaboration, while Clientastic is client-centric. | Offers a comprehensive workspace for client collaboration. |
| Notion | Versatile, all-in-one workspace | Focuses on client interactions |
From the comparison, it seems Clientastic is in an untapped market. It may be the main competitor in the ‘Dedicated Client Workspace’ niche under the project management niche. It’s a good thing to see where you stand so you can make use of your uniqueness to create strong positioning and live rent-free in your customer’s mind
Positioning Statement
Now that we know our place in the market and how we want to show up, we can craft our positioning statement using this formula.
For {target audience}, {name of your product/service} is a {product category} that solves {solution/problem your product solves for your customer} or offers {differentiator}, so they can {benefit your product brings to your customer}
Certainly, here’s the positioning statement for Clientastic:
“For B2B companies/project leads seeking to enhance client collaboration and transparency, Clientastic is a specialized client workspace solution that centralizes communication, streamlines project management, and fosters collaboration, allowing them to optimize client interactions and cultivate stronger business relationships.”
When B2B project leads think of us, they should think, ”Client Workspace and collaboration tool for teams that care about transparency and building deeper connections with clients.”.
Features and Benefits
We previously listed our features without benefits because we hadn’t properly established how they’ll benefit our customers while making us stand out. Now, we can add the benefits to the features we previously listed.
| FEATURE | BENEFITS |
| Admin – The team collaboration space (Visible to only you and your team) 1. Enter client details 2. See task status in the tasks master or subtasks master table 3. Send and receive messages 4. See message statuses | Efficiently manage client details, task statuses, and communication in one dedicated workspace, reducing the need for scattered tools and platforms. |
| Home -Show the client what’s going on with the project 1. Add new task 2. See project status. For example, next delivery date, recent messages sent, last reported hotfixSee the number of tasks left 3. See the status of each task (In progress, not started, review, launching, done, blocked) 4. Prompt team member of review status | Clients can easily stay informed about project progress, key updates, and upcoming milestones in a single, accessible view. |
| Onboarding -Tell client about details of the project and expectations. | Ensure a smooth and clear onboarding process for clients, setting proper expectations and reducing confusion from the start. |
| Messages 1. Send messages to clients. Clients can ask for questions or ask for an update 2. See the latest message | Streamline communication with clients, preventing email clutter and enabling organized discussions about project matters. This distinguishes Clientastic from competitors that lack a direct mechanism for addressing pretending concerns |
| Hotfixes You or the client can fix any pending issues with deliverables | Quickly address and resolve any pending issues or concerns, leading to improved client satisfaction and project efficiency, thus maintaining project momentum and client satisfaction. |
| Ideas Share any ideas you have with clients | Foster a collaborative environment where both clients and your team can share creative ideas, potentially leading to new opportunities (upsell clients here) and improved project outcomes. |
| Library House all documents, presentations, and tutorials you’ve made for clients. | Store and share project-related documents, presentations, and resources with ease, ensuring clients have access to essential information. |
Strong positioning and differentiation strengthen your copy. If you know your target audience, the problems they’re looking for, and how you’re uniquely suited to solve those painful problems, your copy is a million times easier to write. Oh, and it converts easier and faster.
Engineering the copy
Since we hypothesized a problem, it is assumed that we conducted all the necessary research. We won’t actually conduct the various types of research like we’re supposed to. I’ll reiterate our customer painpoints, desires, reasons for switching, and we’ll go on from there.
| Customer painpoints | “Managing client communications scattered across emails and messages is overwhelming and leads to missed updates.” “It’s challenging to onboard clients smoothly and ensure they understand project details from the beginning.” “I struggle to keep clients updated on project progress and milestones in a way that’s easy for them to follow.” “Coordinating tasks and resolving issues with clients quickly is difficult, causing delays and frustrations.” “Sharing and discussing ideas with clients feels disorganized and lacks a dedicated platform.” “Finding project-related documents quickly for clients is a hassle, leading to confusion and time wastage.” |
| Customer Desires | “I wish there was a way to keep all our client communications organized and in one place. It’s overwhelming to juggle emails and messages.” “I really hope to find a tool that helps us onboard clients smoothly and ensures everyone is on the same page right from the start.” “I want a simple way to show my clients our project progress without bombarding them with information. It’s tough to keep them in the loop.” “It’s frustrating when issues with clients linger due to lack of coordination. I need a solution that helps us resolve these quickly.” “I’ve always wanted a platform where I can share our ideas with clients and get their input. Collaborating creatively is important.” “Finding project documents is like searching for a needle in a haystack. I need a central place where clients and my team can access them.” “I’m tired of using multiple tools and not having a clear view of our projects. Transparency is key, and I need a tool that supports that.” |
| Customer objections | “I’m worried that shifting to a new platform will take time, and my team and clients might find it hard to adapt.” “Change can be tough, and convincing my team and clients to switch from what we’re used to might be a challenge.” “Integrating Clientastic with our existing workflow and tools could be complicated and cause disruptions.” “I don’t want a tool that overwhelms us with features we won’t use. It needs to be practical and relevant.” “My clients might not be comfortable with a new communication platform, and that could cause resistance.” “I need to be sure that Clientastic’s features align with what I truly need, and it’s not just another solution with a different name.” |
| Reasons for the switch | “I believe using Clientastic will help us engage with clients on a whole new level, fostering stronger relationships.” “We were intrigued by Clientastic’s unique features, like the Onboarding Workspace and Idea Sharing. Competitors don’t offer that.” “We could see how Clientastic’s structured communication could eliminate the chaos of email and lead to more productive discussions.” “Having a clear project overview through Clientastic’s Home Workspace was just what we needed better transparency.” “The Hot Fixes feature in Clientastic seemed like it could address client issues faster, boosting their satisfaction.” |
This is the VoC we’ll be drawing from to write our copy.
Creating our outline
We’ve finally gotten to the juicy part, the writing. After laying all the necessary groundwork, it should be easier to assemble high-converting copy. Let’s create our outline. One important thing to note is the stage of awareness of our prospects. How ready or eager are they to buy when they come across the product? Stage or awareness tells us how long our copy should be.
| Unaware | Problem Aware | Solution Aware | Product Aware | Most Aware |
In our case, our audience is solution-aware.
Our audience is aware that there are client interaction tools. They’ve heard of so many tools. They are unaware of Clientastic. They don’t know that there’s a dedicated Client Workspace tool.
| Goal of the site: Start a free trial |
| Hero section |
| Navigation: Product > Solutions > Pricing> Enterprise> Resources Headline: VP and positioning Subhead: Expatiate who we are, what we do, and how we’re different. Make sure target audience can self-identify when they read the headline |
| CTA: Try for free |
| Social proof |
| Logos of companies Clientastic has worked with. Other social proof we’ll be adding to our site 1. Testimonials generated by our assistant, ChatGPT 2. 100,000 teams 3. Awards and recognitions (G2 and Capterra) |
| Brief Problem/Solution (because new market) |
| Tap into client painpoints and desires Draw from how you’re uniquely positioned to solve their problem 1. Different tools for different purposes of a project can be very overwhelming – Emails, onboarding software, project management software, and communication tools. If you find yourself saying, “I wish there was a way to keep all our client communications organized and in one place”, you’ve come to the right place. Clientastic helps you manage all your client interactions with ease. 2. Finding project documents no longer feels like searching for a needle in a haystack. Now you can eliminate the chaos of email and structure more productive discussions |
| CTA: Get your free trial |
| Features and benefits section |
| See features and benefits section |
| CTA: Try for free |
| Differentiator (Why us) |
| Refer to the section on Clientastic’s differentiators |
| Join us because section |
| 1. Manage your clients better. 2. Impress clients with organized communication. 3. Form deeper connections with clients What are you waiting for? You’ve got absolutely nothing to lose |
| Final CTA: Show your work |
Writing and Wireframing the copy
Now, let’s neatly tie everything together with frameworks and persuasion techniques. We’ll write and wireframe the homepage with some templates from Relume library
Hero section
The hero section contains the main headline, subhead, hero image, and the CTA/ click trigger. Headlines are extremely important. They tell your visitor whether or not to take you seriously when they land on your page.
Headlines are a work in progress. Finding a killer headline takes a lot of iterations. Let’s create some headlines for our website.
Headline suggestions
- Manage your clients more effectively
- Manage your clients better
- Form deeper relationships with your best clients
- House all team and client interactions in one place
- One app to replace all client interactions
- Do your client work without a million apps in the way
- Put the T back in Transparent with an app that let’s you show your clients what you’re doing at each point in the project.
- Never miss a client update again
- Never miss a client deadline again
- Stay updated on team and client interactions without a million apps in the way
- Manage all team and client interactions without a million apps in the way
- Manage all team and client interactions in one single place
- One app to replace all client-facing apps
- Collaborate with your team and client at the same time, in one place
Now, here’s the homepage copy.
I hope this ‘tutorial’ gave you a more in-depth understanding of how to write website copy from scratch. If you have any thoughts on this article, let me know.