A information architecture + product marketing idea for Obsidian, Craft, etc
How do you introduce a complex product, or one with a wide number of use cases without limiting it with shiny cliche marketing words?
The article is for product designers, product managers, UX writers, and marketers
This article is not only for Obsidian, Craft, and other similar companies. It is for all product designers, product managers, UX writers, and marketers involved in making and selling a complex product or novel, or wide product (a product with so many uses cases).
I have run through the websites of Obsidian and Craft and realized that they each have a powerful product but that power isn’t coming out in their landing or home pages.
Ditch the popular formula
I get it. There is a “set” formula for landing or home pages. Some extolling words to describe the product and how awesome it is.
I also get that the formula is very limiting. Not to mention that professional marketing vocabulary is even more limiting — because you have to try to say the most in the least number of words. It’s a nightmare.
I can imagine product managers and product marketers labouring at every word, constantly worried whether the brief sentences do justice to the product.
It even gets worse for products like Obsidian, Craft, and Notion. How do you describe them succinctly without losing their dynamism? How do you do the perfect introduction?
There is an alternative. Sigh of relief.
Lead with use cases and testimonials.
Early adopters really try out different aspects of the product and different ways to use the product. These, then, are your marketing experts. Lead with them.
Leading with specific use cases looks like Notion’s approach above. Leading with use case also looks like Basecamp’s approach below.
Lead with testimonials
Incentivise your early adopter and enthusiastic users to share how the different ways they are using your product + and how much using your product for each of those ways has changed their work and their lives compared to what they used before.
Use that to introduce and describe your product. It gives prospective users practical ideas immediately. Additionally, users persuade prospective users stronger than brands do, generally.
This is part of HEY’s introduction.
By the way, it is said that within the first week of launch, HEY hit 100,000 user requests.
This sounds like a more intuitive, richer approach, right?
