Academy / Find your customer and your message

Lesson 4 of 5 · 6 min

Proof and the doubts people have

The kinds of proof a small business already has, the five doubts that stop people from booking, and a post that answers one of them.

Your message says what you promise. Proof says why anyone should believe it. The doubts are the questions people ask themselves and never ask you, right before they close the app.

Proof you already have

Most small businesses sit on proof and never post it:

• A number that is yours. "412 people took their first class with us this year." "We have cut hair on this corner since 2011."
• A customer in their own words. A review, a DM or something they said at the counter. Ask before you post it, and use their first name only if they say yes.
• Before and after. A haircut, a clean dog, a client's price list last year and this year. Photos only with permission.
• The work itself. How you pour a candle, how a class starts, what the first session with a coach looks like. Showing the work is proof that you know it.
• Who you are. Your face, your training, why you started. People buy from people.

Write down three pieces of proof you could post this week. One of each kind is plenty.

The five doubts

Almost every doubt a customer has is one of these:

1. "It is not for someone like me." Too old, too inflexible, too much of a beginner.
2. "It costs too much." Or: "I do not know what it costs, so it must be a lot."
3. "I do not have the time."
4. "What if it does not work for me?"
5. "I do not know what happens when I get there." Where to park, what to wear, who to ask.

Go back to your doubt phrases from lesson 2. Match each one to a number above. The number with the most phrases is the post to write first.

Answer the doubt in a post

A post that answers a doubt has three parts:

1. The doubt, in the customer's words, as the first line. "Too stiff for yoga?"
2. An answer with proof. "Most people in our Saturday beginner class could not touch their toes in week one. Here is Ana, eight weeks in."
3. One next step. "Book a first class through the link in bio."

The fifth doubt is the easiest to answer and the one most businesses forget. A post that shows the door, the changing room and the first five minutes of a class removes a reason not to come that nobody says out loud.

Try it now

Pick the doubt with the most phrases and one piece of proof that answers it. The button opens the composer with a brief for that post. Replace the example details with yours and press Generate draft.

In this course

• 1Who you sell toWhy "everyone" is the hardest customer to write for, how to pick one real person, and the five things to know about them. · 5 min
• 2What they want, in their wordsWhere to find the words your customers use, the difference between what you sell and what they buy, and a list of phrases to reuse. · 5 min
• 3Your message in one sentenceA simple pattern for the sentence that says who you help, with what and why you, five worked examples, and a test to know it works. · 5 min
• 4Proof and the doubts people haveThe kinds of proof a small business already has, the five doubts that stop people from booking, and a post that answers one of them. · 6 min
• 5A voice that sounds like youDescribe how you sound in a few words and a few rules, then put the whole course into the brand voice in Postfjord so every draft starts from it. · 6 min