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How I diagnose and plan messaging with 3 questions

On a recent podcast, someone asked me this question.

My answer is, it depends.

To determine whether clarity, emotion, or differentiation matters most in messaging, we first need to understand their linked aspects.

The core components of any messaging are: benefits, features, and differentiators.

• Benefits are the outcomes and the value (often emotional) your customers get from your product.
• Features are the capabilities (often technical) that allow your product to deliver value.
• Differentiators are the methodologies or approaches (often opinionated) you use to deliver those features and benefits.

This frame effectively maps these 3 components to our initial question.

Which is more important: clarity, emotion, or differentiation?

If we see these through our frame, we get:

• Clarity= features
• Emotion= benefits
• Differentiation= differentiators (duh)

This leads us to the 3 “playing fields” that will dictate the importance and interaction of our elements.

Solution, Category, and Market.

• Solution: your product or service
• Category: the mental bucket your customers put you in
• Market: your industry and competition

Spoiler alert, there’s no single element that makes messaging more effective. It’s the right balance of the 3 that makes messaging effective for your specific case in your playing field.

For every client, we plan ahead for how we’ll deal with these in our messaging. That’s why our messaging framework document includes a section to help us through this.

Here’s an example for Conversion Alchemy:

Solution maturity:

• Our core offers (messaging systems, audits, Clarity Sprint, etc.) aren’t brand-new experiments. We’ve delivered case studies, built repeatable processes, and proven outcomes. ✅ We offer an established solution.

Category maturity:

• “Conversion copywriting” and “messaging strategy” are known categories.
• But our angle — Message–Market Fit, the UX of copy, empathy engineering, and systems — reframes the work from copywriters, consultants, and agencies. ✅ We’re creating a new category framing.

Market maturity:

• In B2B SaaS, our ICP already knows they need copywriters, messaging help, or agencies. The market is crowded and well established. ✅ We operate in an established market.

We fall squarely into the Reframer bucket. Our solution is proven, our market is mature, but our job is to reframe how SaaS teams think about messaging, not as words on a page, but as “infrastructure”. That means our split leans heavier on benefits (50%) and differentiators (30%), with just enough features (20%) to make it concrete.

In practice, we spend less time convincing people what copy is and more time showing why our approach to it changes the game.

To make this real, think about a few examples.

ChatGPT Enterprise launched as a true Pioneer, everything was new, so the job was to evangelize the problem and category.

Notion came in as a Challenger, entering the already-crowded project management space but proving it was faster and more flexible than incumbents.

Drift played the Reframer role, taking an established tool (chat) and recasting it as “conversational marketing.”

And today, Mailchimp is the classic Defender — in a saturated email market, it wins through preference, brand, and proof.

Here’s how to find out where you fit, to make your messaging more impactful and effective for your ICPs.

How to determine your fit

Ask yourself three quick questions:

1. Is your solution new or established? New = you’re still proving it in market. Established = you’ve got traction, case studies, repeat customers.
2. Is your category new or established? New = buyers don’t have a mental “box” for you yet. Established = they already know this category and compare options.
3. Is your market new or established? New = your audience hasn’t really adopted solutions like this before. Established = they already buy in this space, but might not buy from you yet.

Now look at your answers:

• If two or more are “new” → Pioneers (educate + evangelize).
• If solution is new but category/market are established → Challengers (differentiate vs. incumbents).
• If solution is established but category is new (and market is mature enough to get it) → Reframers (contrast old vs. new lens).
• If solution + category + market are all established → Defenders (prove preference and credibility).

So, to wrap up,what makes a piece of SaaS messaging effective, is striking the right balance between clarity, emotion, and differentiation. And you do it by evaluating where your solution, category, and market fit on the "Pioneer, Challenger, Reframer, Defender" spectrum.

Go through these steps and let me know where you fit. I’d love to know and help you figure out how to address it in your messaging.

DISCOVERY

The best SaaS homepage copy I've stumbled on recently and what you can learn from it:

Chris Silvestri @SilvestriChris Most homepages look great. Few actually sell. Here are 5 that nail it — and the copy principles behind them. 10:23 AM • Sep 12, 2025 0 Retweets 0 Likes Read 1 replies

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RESONANCE

Seneca, Letters From a Stoic

Have a great weekend!

Cheers,

Chris

Chris Silvestri Founder & conversion alchemist

🙌🏻 Let’s be friends (unless you’re a stalker)​

When you're ready, here's a few ways I can help

Not sure where to start? Take our free message-market fit scorecard.​