Ever look at a landing page for an app and think ‘but what does this actually
do for me?’ Below we’ll apply the jobs to be done (JTBD) framework to a list
of third party integration apps for LiveChatinc and see the difference it
makes to their product descriptions.
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First
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models
We're there to do a job
I’ve seen many product pages yet I couldn’t figure out what they did.
I then thought ‘is that how people feel about
Upscope'?
It's not easy to anchor ourselves on why we built a product when there's so
much to do.
We’re there to do a job for someone.
What is the jobs to be done framework?
The jobs to be done framework is supposed to help decide what product and
features to build.
Why is it so useful?
Here’s an example.
People would say they buy a lawnmower to “cut the grass,” and this is true.
But if a lawnmower company examines the higher purpose of cutting the grass,
say, “keep the grass low and beautiful at all times, then it might forgo some
efforts to make better lawnmowers in lieu of developing a genetically
engineered grass seed that never needs to be cut.” Read
more.
Use the jobs to be done sentence structure to start
This is a simple and effective way to figure out your JTBD.
We’ll use this to describe the apps further below.
Why apply this framework to live chat integrations?
They’re the perfect set of jobs to be done.
You have a core platform that has 3rd party integrations that do the jobs it
does not.
Jobs to be done examples
Autopilot
What do Autopilot currently say?
What is the jobs to be done statement for autopilot?
When someone comes to the website but isn’t sure and does not buy, I want
some way of automatically sending them educational material over many weeks
until they understand the product and eventually buy.
What would the shorter marketing message be?
Automatically convert those who chatted but did not buy through email, SMS
and Facebook ads.
This is fun to do. It’s a little arrogant to be rewriting other people’s ad
copy but it’s an interesting learning process.
Why was this especially useful?
This was a tough one. I clicked through to the site, I read the details, I
looked at the demo and I was still a little lost.
I think this is the ‘onboarding emails’ add-on to LiveChat which is similar to
Intercom’s emails module.
In short, when a user signs up or has an enquiry, send them a series of emails
to keep their attention and convert them into a customer or they’ll forget
you.
BotEngine
BotEngine current message says:
It helps that we all generally know what bots are but I feel there’s that
emotional edge missing from this ad.
The jobs to be done statement
When people ask simple questions repeatedly, I want them all answered
automatically, so I don’t waste time and go crazy time writing the same thing
again and again.
What would the shorter marketing message be?
Answer repeated questions automatically and don't go crazy typing the same
thing
Bots are not difficult to figure out, they’re just tricky to get going. We
tested out BotEngine for LiveChat, see how to set up a bot to answer common
questions.
Upscope
Jobs to be done message
When a user needs help, I want to see their screen instantly, so I can show
them where to click without typing a long list of instructions.
Marketing message
See and draw on your customer's screen to guide them, rather than typing out
long boring lists of instructions
This is our product.
I thought we did an ok job with the original ad but now I’m starting to
wonder.
Sometimes it’s important to give them enough intriguing information to click
to to the next step and read more. That said, is it enough information?
Is it better using jobs to be done?
We need to refine the emotional keywords but this jobs to be done thing works.
Now I just have to argue with my teammates again. I’m not sure I can go
through with that.
Google Analytics
Jobs to be done message
When customers chat to us, I want to see how many then go on to buy the
product, so I can see if our chat is effective
Marketing message
Analytics to see how effective your chat is by seeing who goes on to buy
Note, this is specific to Google Analytics for Live chat. The first part of
the Google's original copy is good as it talks about the impact of chat on
sales but I don’t know what job the ‘gather valuable marketing data’ does.
Stratifyd
It’s hard to know the result this app gets you from this copy but if we click
through to the details and to their site, we see.
‘Capture all customer interactions and turn them into actionable business
intelligence.’
‘Check out what are the most popular topics among your customers’
‘See what are the main areas of interest among your customers!’
‘Understand what led your visitor to chat and what happens after.’
Their Etsy use case brought up very specific points:
“Vendor feedback within forums was increasing; however, they had no way to
analyze it”
“They conducted monthly surveys for consumers and vendors and had no way to
detect key topics and trends — their data was expiring”
Jobs to be done message
When we’ve gathered too much feedback to easily analyse, I want you to paint
me a picture of what they’re saying, so I have a simple list of what to fix
Marketing message
Automatically analyse your feedback to get a list of what to fix
Full contact
I know this company. I use their extension in Gmail sometimes. They’ll show me
the job title or twitter account of someone who emailed me.
I think ‘Get additional information’ is ok but does not specify a job it does
for you. On the details for that app they mention ‘use that data to provide
more personalised support.’
However, it’s talking about data it gets you rather than a result or a job to
be done.
Of course, it’s hard to summarise everything it does in one sentence.
Jobs to be done message
When someone chats with me, I want to know who they are so I can spend more
time with serious buyers and talk about the right problems depending on their
job title.
Marketing message
Instantly see who is important so you don't miss out on the largest clients
KnowledgeBase
We all roughly know what a knowledge base is I believe and here it’s nice to
have a specific idea of what this does. Managing knowledge is a feature rather
than a benefit. Also, saying ‘help’ can be vague.
The knowledge base JTBD is similar to BotEngine.
Jobs to be done message
When someone asks a question, I want the system to automatically send them
answers, so I only write them once and never waste time repeating myself.
Marketing message
In one click, send answers to questions that would take hours to answer
Combine the brilliant and simple APP formula with jobs to be done for better
copy
I found writing JTBD statements for the above to be an interesting and
rewarding process and it refocuses my brain on the original problem.
There’s an overlap between JTBD and another brilliant and simple copywriting
process called APP.
What is the APP formula?
It’s a structure for writing article introductions made of ‘Agree, Promise,
Preview’.
Make a statement they’ll agree with. Promise a result. Show them a rapid
preview of that result.
This blog post began with an ‘Agree’ statement:
“Ever look at a landing page for an app and think ‘but what does this
actually do for me?’
The full APP statement would be something like:
Ever look at a landing page and think ‘but what does this actually do for
me?’ You can nail every landing page and write it 10X faster by following a
simple sentence structure. The jobs to be done framework has changed both the
building and marketing of some of the fastest growing companies in the world,
below are examples and how to get started in minutes.
I didn’t follow this at the top because we’re talking about jobs to be done,
which is not strictly for ad copy, so I didn’t want to exaggerate. Also, I
kinda forgot and now don’t want to change it.
APP and JTBD have something in common. They both start with a problem
statement and that’s generally the point of most apps, to fix a problem.
Read more on APP and some other copywriting secrets
here.
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