Are you putting too much pressure on your homepage headline?

Show me a marketer—any marketer—and I’ll show you a person who loathes writing homepage headlines.

Seriously.

After nearly a decade in the game, I think I’ve met only 2 to 3 other marketers who light up at the thought of writing a homepage.

The rest?

They bury themselves in other marketing work.

They whine.

They cry.

(I’m just kidding about that last one. I haven’t seen someone openly cry about homepage headlines. But given the whining, I bet homepage headlines have brought many marketers to tears.)

Here’s the thing:

We put too much pressure on homepage headlines.

Yes, your homepage hero should be badass.

It’s just that sometimes “badass” is easier than you think.

In today’s issue, we’ll look at a homepage hero that, IMO, is badass. Not because it’s wildly clever or creative. But because it’s crystal clear about what the solution is and who it’s for.

In this issue you’ll see:

• Beehiiv’s homepage hero—what’s working (plus, one flag)

• The psychological theory that makes one word in this hero particularly powerful

• How you can use this insight to write a badass homepage hero

Let’s dig in.

THE BREAKDOWN

Beehiiv’s homepage hero headline.

For your consideration, here’s Beehiiv’s homepage hero:

Here’s what’s working:

1) The product category is clear.

This seems obvious, but it’s worth calling out because too many brands miss this:

Your hero is THE PLACE to identify what your product is (at least at a high level).

Remember, your hero helps your reader self-orient on the page—they want to feel confident that they’re in the right place and not wasting time looking at your product.

A clear product category?

It can really help with this self-orientation process.

2) It’s focused on one core benefit.

As important as your hero is to your reader’s self-orientation process, it can’t do everything. Nor should it.

Of course, the challenge is that deciding what you won’t say takes more time than saying all the things you could say. (Just ask me what my editing process looks like. 😉)

Here’s the problem with saying all the things:

When you try to make your headline say all the things, you introduce interference in the message. And interference is muchos bad for memorability.

Consider the following:

Compare Beehiiv’s current hero (above) to what they could’ve written if they hadn’t done the work to focus their message:

Look away for 5 seconds. Then, try to recall each headline.

See what I mean?

Focus your message. Your reader’s memory will thank you.

Pro Tip: When in doubt, cut “and,” “but,” “or” and commas out. These are all signals that you’re using complex sentence structures.

It’s worth flagging that the leading homepage messages for Beehiiv and their competitive alternative, ConvertKit, are somewhat similar:

Visually, these heroes are quite different. But the similarities in the messaging make these heroes… not awesome for differentiation.

Generally speaking, differention helps a prospect in the decision-making process decide which platform is the right platform for them. Because of this, differentiation missteps can hurt conversions.

The good news for Beehiiv is that there are a couple of things (mentioned in this issue) that make their leading message clear and unique.

Note: Differentiation is hard freakin’ work. One of the biggest challenges is knowing what to say and how not to say it. The “what to say” should come from (or at the very least, be informed by) the words of your best-fit customers. But the buck doesn’t stop there. Voice of Customer doesn’t always equate to sticky, differentiated messaging—and the Beehiiv and ConvertKit heroes above are a great example of this. The “how not to say it” bit is equally important, yet often overlooked. You determine “how not to say it” by understanding what your competition and competitive alternatives are saying.

THE PSYCHOLOGY

I become more of what I’m told I am…

(Also known as the labeling theory or the deviance amplification hypothesis.)

Labeling theory comes from the world of criminology. It’s been studied in various ways since the late 1930s.

No matter what you call it, this theory/hypothesis proposes that once you are labeled as a criminal, you are more likely to engage in criminal behavior.

In other words, your label becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

While the jury still seems to be out on whether labeling theory can truly amplify deviant behavior, the heart of this theory can—and has been—extrapolated into arenas beyond criminology. For example:

• Researchers studied if being labeled as an alcoholic increases the likelihood of ongoing struggles with alcoholism. (Thankfully it doesn’t).

• Smart folks considered how customer labeling (for example, client vs. partner vs. member vs. user, etc.) may shape the consumer and organizational attitudes, and impact the success of a firm’s customer relationship management efforts.

• There’s even been a recent study that showed how positive labels (like cheerful, reliable or successful) can improve brand loyalty.

So, despite the conflicting research on deviant and undesirable behavior, it seems to reason that positive labeling can move the needle in your marketing results.

Now, back to Beehiiv’s hero:

The magic happens in the subhead “For Creators, By Creators.”

Here’s what’s so clever about this labeling:

• Not only is “Creator” a positive label that a right-fit prospect will want to identify with, the phrase in which “creator” appears nods to the bigger in-group you join when you choose Beehiiv—it extends right to the very tippity top of the organization you’re buying from. (You can read more on why in groups are important here.)

• Additionally, when we think about what makes a good (i.e. profitable) customer for Beehiiv, I bet regular content creation is critical to reducing churn.

So, when a Beehiiv user fully embodies the label of the “creator,” they’re using Beehiiv regularly to create.

Regular use helps the creator-user build their “creation habit” and embody the in group they’ve joined—creators. This makes the product more sticky in the creator's life, which drives product loyalty. Product loyalty powers the retention engine. All from one seemingly simple label that’s teased in a hero subhead.

(See what I mean about hero badassery being more straightforward than we think?)

THE ACTIONABLE TIP

Name it to help your right-fit buyer claim it.

Here’s the key strategy you should swipe and embed across your marketing ecosystem:

Assign a positive (or emotionally neutral) label to your right-fit buyers. Then, weave it into your messaging, so that right-fit readers can self-qualify.

Start the process with your homepage hero. 😉