From Insight to Impact: Turning Pain Points into Messaging That Resonates
So you’ve completed your interviews, synthesized your insights, and built a list of high-priority pain points and aspirations. Now it’s time to do something with it. Welcome to one of the most rewarding phases of the validation process: turning what you’ve learned into messaging that moves people.
Whether you’re testing Meta ads, LinkedIn outreach, or email subject lines, this step helps you validate not your product, but your positioning. We’re here to find out which messages trigger a click, a pause, a moment of recognition.
And we’ll start with the deceptively simple but incredibly powerful tool we call the Colour Block.
Introduction to Colour Blocks
Colour Blocks are tools to validate that your messaging is connecting with your audience. They are intentionally simple and consistent, allowing us to isolate variables in each test. The break in colour is just enough to disrupt someone’s scroll and get them to read.
This method seems basic, but it’s grounded in research and practice. It was developed by data scientists, engineers, and marketers working to solve messaging challenges for companies like Netflix and Microsoft.
The simplicity of this method is its strength. We test one thing at a time to validate whether that part of your message works.
If they read it and click, your message is resonating.
If they don’t, they scroll. That’s the feedback.
DO NOT:
- Change font size
- Use multiple fonts
- Use excessive bolding or italics
- Include images (yet)
- Use more than two colours
- “Design” them
- Try to make them “pretty”
- Use complementary colour schemes as a last-ditch effort
Seriously—don’t try to make it pretty. We’re not trying to win a design award. We’re trying to isolate user needs.
Creating Colour Blocks
Each Colour Block should be:
- 1080×1080 pixels
- Use two contrasting colours
- Set text in Biryani or Arial at 57 pt
- Created in Canva or any tool you’re comfortable with
Stick to one colour scheme for all of your tests. Don’t vary colours across tests—it introduces noise into your data. You want to isolate one variable: the message.
Adjust text placement for legibility, but don’t waste time polishing. These are throwaway assets. We care about clicks, not aesthetics.
Turning Pain Points Into Messaging
You’ll begin by selecting your top-scoring pain points and aspirations from your synthesis document. Then you’ll write emotional, first-person statements that feel like something your audience would actually say.
Example:
❌ “Our solution improves trailer energy efficiency.”
✅ “I’m tired of worrying about whether my EV can make it to the next stop.”
The more raw and honest the better. You can also combine multiple pain points if they share a common theme.
Using AI To Help Get Over Writers Block
If you’re stuck, you can use generative AI (like ChatGPT) to create variations. We’ve even built a prompting guide that shows you how to feed in your product, audience, and insights for strong first drafts.
You can also ask the AI to rewrite your statements in the voice of popular marketing writers like Frank Kern or Seth Godin—or even in your own tone of voice.
Just remember: always edit AI outputs. Use them as a starting point, not a final draft.
Testing Formats
We like to test messages in three formats:
1. Plain Statements
The basic Colour Block. Strong, emotional messaging presented simply.
“I don’t need a new trailer—I need smarter tech for the one I already own.”
2. True/False Statements
Trigger curiosity by framing your pain point as a statement to evaluate.
True or False: You shouldn’t have to worry about battery range on vacation.
3. Check, Check, Nope
Great for identifying common user experiences.
✅ You planned the trip
✅ You packed the car
❌ You didn’t check the range map
Testing Your Messaging
Once your blocks are ready, it’s time to put them into the world. Here’s where you can deploy them:
- Meta ads (fast, cheap, data-rich)
- Google search ads (especially B2B or solution-aware audiences)
- LinkedIn posts and cold messages
- Email subject lines and intros
- Landing pages with tracking
You can adapt messaging from first-person to second-person as needed. For example:
“I’m nervous about towing with an EV.”
Becomes:
“Worried about towing with your EV?”
One Variable at a Time
This is critical to getting clean data: test one thing at a time.
Don’t change colours, fonts, or layouts between variations. Don’t test five messages at once in one block. Each test should validate a single message against your audience.
If you’re getting engagement, great—it’s clicking.
If not, scrap it and test the next one.
That’s the power of this system.
What Comes Next
Once you’ve identified messaging that resonates, you can start applying that language across your brand—from your website to sales emails to product copy.
And in the next lesson, we’ll show you how to run these tests using the Meta platform—including how to set up campaigns and what metrics to watch.
Until then, pick your top messages, keep your tests clean, and see what clicks.find that isolating and testing one variable at a time is the power of this system.
Examples
We’re only giving a few examples because… well, you can see why. The important thing is that the messaging and communication method are catching the eye of your audience.
