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Welcome to this week's issue of Unpacking Meaning. If you received this from a friend and enjoy it, ​subscribe here.

I recently received my voting cards from Italy.

As an Italian living in the UK, this isn't unusual, but what struck me this time was how absurdly hard it was to understand what I was being asked to vote on.

Here’s one of the ballots:

And here’s a literal translation for your eyes to bleed on:

Yes or No?

Honestly... I had no fucking idea what any of this mean, let alone what the consequences of either choice were.

That kind of legalese is clearly meant to be accurate, not helpful. It prioritizes technical completeness over human clarity, which is what most B2B SaaS messaging does. Especially when you’re inside the product, too close to the details. You forget how foreign your language sounds to someone who isn’t paid to care yet.

One caveat: simple isn’t always clearer.

Clarity tshouldn’t s tune the complexity to match where your reader is in their decision journey (apparently too much work for the Italian government). dumb it down,i

If they’re early-stage they need clarity, confidence, and the lay of the land.

If they’re deep in consideration? They might need depth, detail, and differentiation.

In both cases, at the very least, your copy needs to do one thing: remove friction.

Messaging is the decision architecture your buyer has to walk through, and when you add too much complexity too early, the response is delay. Indecision. Or worse: defaulting to status quo.

Not because your product isn’t great. But because it felt like more work to say yes to you than to say nothing at all. You made understanding feel “expensive”.

So if your copy is asking for a decision, but it takes a legal degree, five rereads, and an internal Slack thread to decode... you’ve already lost them.

Now contrast all of this with the UK’s ballot for the Brexit vote:

No matter what you think about the outcome, they got the clarity part right.

Start where they are.

Speak to what they’re solving.

Match their mental model, not yours.

Make your reader feel like saying “yes” is the most obvious next move.

p.s. If you want to see if your current messaging creates motion or stalls decisions—check out the Clarity Sprint or take the Message-Market Fit Scorecard.

DISCOVERY

Stay weird, my friends

Loved this article on how to write better with AI.

The premise: AI doesn’t just assist your writing, it smooths it. It replaces edge with ease, friction with fluidity, specificity with statistical average.

What the writer calls "weirdness" is that very same thing that in our copy helps our prospects self-identify.

That texture is everything. It’s what makes a reader say, “This is for me.” And it’s why real voice-of-customer research matters more than ever when using AI to write. Because without it, you risk sanding off the very signals your ideal customer needs to see themselves in your message.

Don’t default to smooth. Choose your texture.

What actually makes website copy convert, and how can AI actually help you write better?

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In this episode of the Growth Architects podcast, I break down the 3-step process I use at Conversion Alchemy to turn customer insight into messaging that moves. We cover:

• The real job of copywriting (beyond just words)
• Where AI helps—and where it gets in the way
• The subtle mistakes killing your conversion rates
• How to go from “meh” to magnetic messaging

If you’re a founder, marketer, or designer trying to improve your site’s clarity and conversion, this one's for you.

RESONANCE

Tao Te Ching

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.​