Voice-of-customer research in three days

Copy that converts is rarely invented; it is assembled from what customers already say about the problem, the alternatives and the result. Spend three days collecting before writing a word. Sources, in order of value: recorded sales and support calls, customer interviews, reviews of your product and of competitors, support tickets and chat logs, survey responses, and public discussions in forums and communities where your buyers gather. As a rule of thumb, aim for 300 to 500 quotable sentences. Much below 200 the patterns tend to be unreliable; well above 600 the sorting can take longer than the writing.

Collect into a spreadsheet with one sentence per row and six columns: the quote, the source, the stage of awareness it reflects, from unaware of the problem through to ready to buy, the emotion expressed, the topic such as price, trust, speed or results, and a flag for sentences that are unusually vivid. Vivid sentences are the ones that make you wince or nod: “I spent two Sundays on a spreadsheet that was wrong anyway.” These become headlines and leads almost unchanged, because specificity is what makes copy believable.

Interview five to eight recent customers if you can, with a short script: what was going on when you started looking, what else you considered, what nearly stopped you, what has changed since. Record and transcribe. One hour of interviews often yields more usable language than a day of review mining, because customers explain their reasoning, not just their verdict. Add the transcripts to the same spreadsheet. By the end of day three you should be able to describe your customer’s situation, fears and desired outcome in their words rather than yours.