Product Messaging for Horizontal Startups

Messaging
Mistakes
Product-Led Growth

We've worked with over 50 horizontal startups


💀 And many of them make this mistake with their marketing.

What’s the mistake?

❌ They market the new technology

↳ “It’s a whole new way to X”

Instead of
.

✅ Marketing the new capability.

↳ “Here is the new thing it lets you do”

Why doesn’t this work?

đŸ”„đŸ”„ Because customers primarily care about what product lets them do.

And don’t get me wrong, they do eventually need to understand how the product works


But this is AFTER they buy in to your offer.

____

Here is what this looks like in their messaging — using Uber as an example.

đŸ«± Uber selling “the new technology”

“Imagine if you could combine smart phones with cellular networks in order to connect drivers to people who need a ride”.

This message only works for 2 audiences:

→ Investors evaluating your potential impact

→ Employees buying into your vision💱 

It does NOT help a prospect understand or evaluate your new product.

đŸ«± Here is Uber selling “the new capability”

“Imagine if you could press a button on your phone and a car picked you up almost instantly”.

In this message, the prospects hear’s what’s in it for her


đŸ€‘ And can start to evaluate where it fits into her world.

____

There are 2 reasons why founders fall into the trap of marketing the new technology:

1ïžâƒŁ Desire to explain their hard work

Founding teams spend thousands of hours figuring out how to make “the new technology” actually work.
Who wouldn’t want to tell people about it?

It can be easy to forget that the customer ONLY cares about the capability.

2ïžâƒŁ “the new technology” message worked with VCs

You just raised 5-15 million dollars by explaining “the new technology”.

VCs love new technology that might replace old technology. 

This can trick founders into thinking that the same message is going to work in market.

____

Check out the additional examples shown for Loom and Stripe.

And ask yourself


đŸ’Ș Are you messaging on your capabilities?

📟 Or trying to explain the new technology you’re building?

FletchPMM
Best Practices

Get access to all of our Figma templates and LinkedIn posts in a Notion database organized by theme (go-to-market strategy, website messaging, etc.)

"The database has been truly invaluable to me as I build out my product marketing messaging for pre-selling a landing page for the SaaS app I'm building. Thank you so much for making this knowledge accessible for early-stage founders!"

Ben Wilentz

Founder, Stealth Startup