MESSAGE MINING – LET YOUR CUSTOMERS WRITE YOUR COPY

There’s rarely a project I start that doesn’t use message mining in some way. It’s such a multi-purpose tactic that I use it in strategy building, positioning research, landing page copywriting, advertising copy…

It produces similar results to in-depth one to one Jobs-to-be-done interviews, but can be done quicker and works great if you can’t or don’t have clients you could interview.

Message mining is a research tactic based on data that’s freely available online and that can help you understand your target audience better.

TL;DR: Message Mining quick guide

The way it works is simple:

1. You think about the main pain point or customer job your target audience has.
2. You figure out what types of solutions exist out there to work for that pain point or satisfy the need.
3. You look for online reviews of all/some of these solutions and take note of what people are saying in a voice-of-customer (VOC) file.
4. You use the same or similar copy on your next landing page or ad copy.

It’s a beautifully simple system that helps you understand what your target market wants and how they talk about their pains, needs, and the situation they are in.

You can use that information to inform your actual copy. But you’ll also use it to understand what attributes and product benefits you need to focus on.

Where to Find Messages/Reviews to Mine

Ask yourself following questions, in the below order, to reveal the reviews and other content (e.g. comments in a FB group) you should go in search of, and where to look:

1. Who is my target audience? (e.g. women, who want to loose weight after they had a baby)
2. What solutions do I believe they want from us? What are their goals? (e.g. They want a quick and easy exercise routine with easy meal plans. All needs to work around a baby. They want to get to their pre-pregnancy size in the next 6 months)
3. What solutions might they be using today to achieve those goals? (going to a gym, taking online class, “mums and bubs” exercise group in a local park)
4. If those solutions are online, where are they? Online challenges for mums = reviews on Google My Business and FB; new mums local FB groups = following fitness and healthy meals topics; healthy eating books on Amazon = book reviews)

Look at social media groups your target customer is likely to be in. Pay attention to the questions people ask – these are often rich in insights about the pain points people experience and their particular use case. On Facebook, you can use the search bar to look for relevant key phrases and find older relevant posts.

It’s a beautifully simple system that helps you understand what your target market wants and how they talk about their pains, needs, and the situation they are in. You can use that information to inform your actual copy.

What to Look Out For When Mining

First off, I’m trying to understand the user’s situation and desires. When you reading through reviews make notes every time you come across:

1. Memorable phrases
2. What people want
3. What they emotionally react to

This is the content layer of your research. It is not so focused on the words themselves but on the facts they depict.

Then you go into the messaging/copywriting layer of the research. This bit is all about what words people use to talk about their situation, their pains, and their desires. Here, you’ll be paying close attention to language and you’ll note down specific phrases.

So if we stick with our fitness challenge and healthy eating example this is what you might be looking for when mining an Amazon book review.

At the end of it all, message mining will tell you what features and benefits of your solution are most important to people. You can basically create the structure of your sales page according to it. And you’ll also get ideas about the words you can put in your headlines, crossheads, and page copy.

What can you use your message mining findings for?

Here are a few suggestions that I personally find myself using the finds from the message mining research I do for most of my clients.

General Messaging

Create a file that you always use when describing your brand as a whole and its key attributes and benefits. I usually do this at the start of my work for a client and it saves us a ton of time later.

Landing Page Copy

I almost always rely on message mining to set my page copy. And yes, I use words taken out from the messaging file exactly as users wrote them.

The more voice-of-customer data you can use in your copy, the more seen, heard and understood your average reader will be. They might feel like you’re reading their mind – but not in a creepy way.

Ads Copy

Ads are another great place where you can use your message mining findings. Here, it’ll often be short phrases that you add to your copy. The main benefit you focus on in your ads can be derived from VOC data.