jtbd copywriting

Sharp Example: applicationemail.com

So here’s a great example of a sharp pitch page: applicationemail.com

Garrett Dimon recently announced this new consultancy. He helps those who are having specific difficulties developers run into with handling email.

What We’re Looking For In a Sharp Page

Before we take it apart and show why it’s a great example, a reminder of what we’re looking for in a sharp page:

1. Evidence that the author understands the hard struggle the service or product is there to solve;
2. In other words, that the author understands the job-to-be-done of the visitor;
3. More specifically, that the author understands the situations that cause someone to seek help, to moving away from the current “good enough” mish-mash of practices that the service is competing with;
4. Also, that the author addresses the Forces of Progress, the back-and-forth the visitor will likely go through when considering going forward;
5. Lastly, that the page is clearly there to help visitors make progress, and not interested in merely capturing sales with slimy tactics.

So let’s pick apart the page.

The Struggle And The Job

At the top (see image above), we get a clear pitch. Garrett helps you fix problems with the email of your application.

For the struggle, there’s this line:

Is the email portion of your application really the best use of your development time?

And the job-to-be-done of the service? It’s right in the title:

So you can focus elsewhere

The visitor comes to the site, and what they’re promised: focus on your job, and I’ll focus on this one thing that I know very well, so you won’t have to focus on it.

Situations When…

Garrett then lists these situations that the visitors might find themselves in…

There are some really juicy situations listed here:

The rest of your application has automated tests and systems in place, but everybody dreads touching the emails for fear of breaking something.

Your support team struggles to investigate reports of missing emails.

Your customers regularly encounter phishing scams created using your domain, but you’re not sure how to mitigate.

This has the effect of not only connecting with the current problem, but it hints at many other problems to come, that Garrett can help avoid.

So here, the job changes a little bit, away from “Garrett can help me focus on my actual strengths in my job” to “Garrett can help us avoid future headaches.”

If you, as a visitor, scrolled all the way down here and you’re still reading, surely Garrett has your attention.

So how can Garrett help you trust him even more?

Describing What Progress Looks Like

Scrolling down a bit more, we see Garrett describing what the future might look like. A different future, where the problem no longer exists…

Garrett here operates on the Attraction to the Solution force, pulling the visitor toward going forward with his services.

By now, you as the visitor are thinking:

• →⚬ I’ll be able to get moving with my problem;
• →⚬ Garrett seems to have the required expertise and knowledge;
• →⚬ There’s proof that he’s done good work in the past for the kinds of problems I’m experiencing.
• →⚬ We’ll be able to protect our application against future problems
• →⚬ We’ll be able to get new knowledge
• →⚬ We’ll finally be able to get confidence regarding our email

The Pitch

Only after having built all of this interest and trust does Garrett present himself:

And then, the pitch:

For those who have scrolled all the way down (which is also a super quick part of the page to get to), Garrett presents a way forward: email or fill this questionnaire. Boom.

And if you’re hesitating (which most visitors probably will be), how about helping out by filling a survey? Brilliant little move to catch non-consumption.

---

This is a really great page. It’s without fluff, it’s confidently in a long format, it shows he understands the struggle really well.

Well done Garrett!

Stay Sharp!

—
Pascal Laliberté
@pascallaliberte

Published on Nov 1, 2019