“We just launched the new version.” “Your favorite is back.” “Now for teams, too.” For people who already know the business, these messages may be enough. Someone seeing them for the first time may have other questions: which product are we talking about, what does it do and why would it matter to them?
Inside the company, the context seems obvious. The team knows the offer, helped develop it and has discussed the same differences dozens of times. The visitor was not part of those conversations.
The first encounter with a brand should give people a starting point, without making them piece the story together on their own.
Familiarity and interest are different things
Someone may know the category very well and discover your company for the first time. Someone else may have followed the brand for months without understanding a new service. An existing customer may be buying for a different situation than last time.
Labels such as “cold audience” and “warm audience” are useful for planning, but they do not fully describe what each person knows. A visit or an interaction does not automatically confirm that someone understands the offer or is ready to buy.
For communication, the questions become more precise: what does the person know about the problem, what do they know about the solutions and what are they missing to evaluate this offer? We do not have direct access to every visitor’s answers. We investigate them through research, conversations and observable behavior, while leaving room for uncertainty.
A message can be clear to the team and incomplete for the audience
Take a fictional example: an app that centralizes maintenance requests for buildings. The team announces “The Teams module is here.” For users who asked for the feature, the message may make sense. For a property manager discovering the app, the module’s name does not explain what it is for.
A more explicit version could be: “Keep all of a building’s requests in one place and see who is handling each job. Now you can assign responsibilities to team members.” This wording can be used only if the product actually offers these features.
| Illustrative context | The question we keep in mind | What we could explain |
|---|---|---|
| The person is looking for a way to handle scattered requests | “Will it help me get this organized?” | The main use and a concrete example |
| The person is comparing apps | “Does it fit the way we work?” | Features, limits, a demonstration and terms |
| The customer already uses the product | “What changes for my team?” | The new feature, availability and how to access it |
These are possible situations, not fixed categories of people or a required sequence. The same person can return to basic questions when their needs or the team involved change.
Every entry point needs the right context
A visitor may arrive on the homepage, a product page, an article or directly on a form. An ad can be shared in a conversation, and a clip from a video can be seen on its own.
We cannot assume that people have gone through every step we prepared. That is why we review each piece together with where it leads. The page people land on has to continue the promise they encountered and provide the information they need for the next step.
If the ad invites people to a demonstration of the app, the page has to clarify what they will see and how the request works. If the message talks about a specific use, sending people to a general page that does not explain it can leave the question unanswered.
This connection is also discussed in “The campaign does not end at the click.” Here we look at it through the information available at the first encounter.
Enough context does not mean every detail at once
A banner has a different amount of space and a different role than a service page. We do not try to squeeze the entire offer into every piece. We choose the information that lets people identify the subject and continue naturally.
A useful structure can start with what the offer is and which situation it helps with. Next, readers find an example, the conditions and the option to learn more. The order depends on what we know about the audience and the purpose of the page.
For example, on a page for a technical solution, a specialist may look for compatibility, while the person approving the purchase may need costs and responsibilities. We can organize the information so that each of them reaches the relevant details, while keeping the same accurate description of the product.
The headline has to be explained by the content
A question or a surprising phrase can draw people in. What follows has to deliver the promised answer. If the headline says “See where your requests get lost,” the content should show which problem we are analyzing and what can be checked.
A deliberately vague message can also attract people who expect something else. If we measure only the initial reaction, we can misread the result. More clicks do not explain, on their own, whether the audience understood the offer or whether the inquiries are a good fit.
A clear headline can also include a relevant limit: what kind of team the solution is for, what it requires or which problem it addresses. That precision also helps people for whom the offer is not a fit decide more quickly.
Consistency makes adaptation possible
A brand can keep the same promise, the same visual cues and the same voice while using different explanations. A product demonstration, an article and a message to existing customers do not have to start the same way.
For people already familiar with the offer, we can get to the point faster. For distribution where new people may see the piece, we add the necessary context. Sometimes one sentence is enough. Other times, the structure of the whole piece has to change.
Adaptation also depends on the platform and format, but choosing them does not solve a communication problem on its own. A video can stay unclear even if it meets every technical specification. A short post can be enough when it precisely identifies the situation and what comes next.
How we check what people understood
We can show the piece to people who are relevant to the offer and were not involved in creating it. Before explaining what we intended, we ask them to describe what they understood: what is being offered, who it suits, which conditions they noticed and what they would do next.
We avoid putting the answer in the question. “Did you understand that the app saves time?” checks less than “What do you think you can do with this app?” If the person attributes a feature to the product that it does not have, we have found an ambiguity worth fixing.
A check with a few people can reveal comprehension problems, but it does not estimate how many customers we will win. For a commercial evaluation, we also need relevant data, a suitable time frame and a comparison designed for the question at hand.
In day-to-day work, we also track recurring questions, poor-fit inquiries and the places where people ask for clarification. These clues can show where the content needs more. Interpretation stays tied to context: a poor-fit inquiry can come from the distribution, not only from the wording.
What we change before producing more
We start with the pieces that play an important role in how people discover and evaluate the offer. We check whether a product’s internal name is standing in for an explanation, whether the images show the product in use and whether the page delivers on the ad’s promise.
We keep the information and materials that work. We may need a more explicit headline, an example, a demonstration or a reorganized page. Other times, the problem is in the offer itself and has to be clarified before the next production round.
This way of working connects communication to the funnel. Each piece has a contribution, and the journey offers enough points of orientation for people who come in at different moments. It does not follow that every business has to produce every format or run every type of campaign.
How we work at NOT MORE.
We look at the objective, the offer and what already exists: materials, pages, campaigns and questions from sales conversations. We identify where context is missing and which intervention is proportionate to the need and the resources available.
We can take on the analysis and recommendations, communication strategy, copywriting, design, production or implementation of the agreed pages and campaigns. We also work with the internal team or the agencies already involved. Monitoring and later adjustments are included depending on the services contracted.
What does someone discovering you today see?
Choose one piece through which people find your business. We review it together with the page or conversation that follows and see what information would make the offer easier to understand.
References and further reading
Sun Yi: The Three Audiences Most Content Creators Ignore is an author’s perspective on audience familiarity. It is not a universal segmentation rule.
GOV.UK: Identify user needs describes grounding content in users’ needs and tasks. The application to commercial contexts and the examples above are NOT MORE. editorial developments.