Ekaterina Howard 4/9/25 Ekaterina Howard 4/9/25

[S2E4] How to: message testing on a budget

Alex Atkins, VP of Marketing at Sturdy, walks us through the process of continuously optimizing the homepage variations by combining message testing, reaching out to target ICPs for feedback, and (sometimes) asking for help.

In this episode:

How Sturdy messaging changed with the rise of "AI-powered" messaging everywhere
How Alex combined outreach and running messaging test
His approach to increasing messaging stickiness without sacrificing clarity

Ekaterina Howard 4/24/24 Ekaterina Howard 4/24/24

[S1E5] Diane Wiredu, Lion Words: Not everyone gets to be the Liquid Death of B2B SaaS — and that’s OK.

There can be no converting copy without messaging, and there’s no messaging without figuring out your positioning first. But how do they all work together – and how do storytelling and brand voice fit in?

Ekaterina Howard 4/5/24 Ekaterina Howard 4/5/24

[S1E4] Alan Albert: “We tend to think our first ideas are the best ones, and we run with them. But sometimes they're not the best ideas.”

On confidence, finding the best ideas, and running interviews that dig deep into customers’ “why”

Ekaterina Howard 2/28/24 Ekaterina Howard 2/28/24

[S1E2] Heather Lawver: branding is not what you think it is. Plus: how to create pitch decks that get you funding.

Ekaterina Howard 6/8/23 Ekaterina Howard 6/8/23

Questions you should be asking to write better conversion copy

In this post: 3 sets of questions that would help you solve these 3 common startup challenges:

Coming up with a value prop that would work across ICPs

Uncovering hidden objections that are stopping your prospects from converting
Pre-launch sanity check (obvious, but frequently overlooked)

Ekaterina Howard 5/3/22 Ekaterina Howard 5/3/22

A rocketship launch or a leap of faith?

Trying to speed up your startup growth may be slowing it down. If you’re focusing on quick fixes and not pattern-finding.

When my prospects say: “We have no time for this,” “We already know everything about our customers,” “We’ll just A/B test it,” or “Can you just write it?” — what I hear is: “We’re flying blind and kinda like it that way.”

(I have yet to work on a project where all of the research data lined up neatly with assumptions and guesses about conversion drivers for a specific target audience. Never ever has it happened — which is why we need the research phase in the first place.)