You Are Using “I” Too Much

Buyers don't care about you. Using “I”, “we”, or “us” might be a trend, a habit, or simply what makes sense to marketers at the time, but buyers simply don't care about you as much as they care about solving their problems.

While looking through various websites in preparation for this post, it became apparent that some companies speak to their customer’s needs and many have no idea this is an issue.

The problem with talking about yourself, especially on the homepage of your website, is you instantly lose your audience when they don’t think you can solve their problem or you make it difficult for them to find out what you do. I have found in my consulting work that this is one of the immediate issues I can target as a marketing mistake that is causing poor bounce rates, poor CTR, and more.

Here are real examples from the homepage of the website that do it wrong:

• “We have the world’s most complete, open, and integrated business software and hardware systems”

• “We are designed to meet the needs of customers around the world. We offer comprehensive solutions that are second to none”

• We delivered a 300% improvement in efficiency for our client. Our solutions are the best in the industry”

These companies fail with their customers because it doesn’t speak directly to their needs and it’s an instant signal that they are going to have to dig for their answer or find a new company for help.

The Importance of Customer-Centric Language

I once heard from a business owner that when he switched the language on his homepage from “we,” “I,” and “us” to “you language,” it led to a 500% increase in sales. 500%! Do you know how impactful that can be to any business? It’s monumental.

But I didn’t want to just take his word for it; I wanted to try it for myself. So I ran several A/B tests on landing pages and ads, and this is what I found.

“You language” outperformed “I language” in click-through rates (CTR), view-through rates (VTR), and most importantly, form fills. For the ads: CTR improved by 132%, VTR by 10%, and on the landing pages form fills doubled.

Clearly, people like to hear how you are going to help them.

How to Shift the Focus to the Customer

For the steps below, I will take on the role of a brand focused on how-to cooking guides.

Step 1: Identify Pain Points

The question I start with is “What does the customer want to become?” This simple question often leads me to the right answer.

For our example, asking myself, “What do they want to become by watching how-to cooking videos?” Maybe they want to be a good host for a party, impress their date, or spend less on takeout and make great food at home.

You can also start with research, do interviews, look online for problems people are talking about, or think about what you would want to become in their shoes.

Step 2: Write “You” sentences or rewrite “I” sentences

If you are already writing “I” sentences in your marketing efforts, a great thing to get you started is everywhere you have a "We…” switch, rewrite the sentence to start with “You will…” and end with their desired status.

For example, “We offer the best how-to recipes online” to “You will learn how to easily make a delicious meal for 30+ people,” or “You will impress your date with these simple recipes,” or “You will spend less on takeout each month and enjoy your meals more.”

Or if you are starting from scratch, here is a simple formula you can use to write ads that convert every time. (See what I did there?)

You get ____ so you can ____ without pain.

For our cooking example, this is how I would write my first version: “You get delicious meals so you can feed a lot of people without the stress of doing it yourself.” From there, I would make revisions until I came up with a version that was around 10 words or less.

Why 10 words or less? Because CTR on ads that are 10 words or less performs 150% better on average, according to 6sense.

Step 3: Highlight Benefits Over Features

Feature= what it is

Benefit = what it does

Highlighting benefits over features is important because remember, we are trying to solve the problem of getting someone to who they want to become. Features talk about what the product is; benefits tell the potential customer how it will get them to their desire. This is usually in a subsection, either in a sub-paragraph on the landing page or other supplemental resources after you have already got them hooked and reading.

For example here are some examples of features and benefits taken from Apple.com on the iPhone 15.

Features: Capacity 128GB, display size 6.1”, and camera 48MP main.

Ugh, I'm already bored and there are a ton more features. (P.S. The tech specs are on a separate page from the product/ main benefits page for their products. That’s because they know only a few of their customers, who are likely in a final decision stage, are actually interested in comparing features to features.)

Benefits: “Titanium. So Strong. So Light. So Pro.”, “All-new action button. What will yours do?”, “A monster win for gaming.”

Sounds better already, right? Well, maybe you’re thinking, yeah but that’s Apple; that won't work for my business. Trust me, it does.

Going back to our now very successful cooking brand, here is a good example and a bad example.

Good example:

Headline: Delight every guest with each meal, regardless of the number.

Benefits: Recipes so good, they will have to know how you did it.

Bad example:

Headline: We provide recipes for people to make for parties of 30+

Features: Watch our videos for step-by-step guides to making food for a lot of people.

Bonus Step: Tell a Customer Success Story

One of the easiest ways to excite customers and drive home your product by using "you language" is to tell a story of a customer’s success with your product or service. This provides social proof AND you get someone else to talk about you instead of you talking about you.

Examples of Brands That Do It Right

Apple:

• “A camera that captures your wildest imagination”

• “You’ll notice the difference the moment you pick one up”

• “If you can dream it, Mac can do it”

Amazon:

• “You can find everything you need quickly and easily on Amazon”

• “Spend less on your medication”

• “There’s more to imagine when you listen”

Nike:

• “Engineered to the exact specifications of champion athletes.”

• “From first-day fits to recess-ready kicks, get everything they need to go back best in class”

• “Easy-wearing, cushioned styles to make your step goal fly by”

Improve Your Copy

Making your copy sing to your audience isn’t always easy, but focusing on them rather than yourself pays off big. This doesn’t mean you should never talk about your company or its achievements, but 95% of your website content should focus on the customer and how you solve their problems.

If you want more advice on this subject, I have a 1-page guide for shifting your focus and writing copy that speaks to your audience. Plus, it includes my favorite headlines for inspiration. It's FREE! All you need to do is fill out the form at the bottom of this page. By signing up for my newsletter, you'll also receive additional insights and tips that aren't shared in the blog or the guide. If you're serious about improving your website language, be sure to fill out the form.