Hey — it’s Nico.

This is Behind Tactics 🧠, the Failory newsletter where I share the strategies behind the best startups.

In this issue:

• Milanote is using a persona-based strategy to personalize their website copy.

• This approach directs users to specific landing pages tailored to their needs and roles.

• By guiding visitors to segment themselves, Milanote improves user engagement and conversion rates.

• The strategy provides valuable insights into customer behavior, helping refine both marketing and product development.

Let’s get into it!

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The Strategy

Choose Your Own Adventure

When you're marketing a product that appeals to a wide range of customers, it can be tricky to craft a website copy that speaks to everyone. A one-size-fits-all approach often falls short because different types of customers care about different things. 

This is especially true for companies like Milanote, a visual tool used for organizing ideas and projects into boards. Milanote’s user base is incredibly diverse: everyone from filmmakers to game designers to photographers use the platform for their own unique reasons. 

So, how does Milanote manage to speak directly to each type of user without overwhelming their website with too much information?

The answer lies in their smart approach to website copy. Milanote doesn’t just create one homepage that tries to cover everything. Instead, they offer a “choose your own adventure” experience, where users can select the persona that best matches their needs. 

This way, when a visitor lands on their site, they’re not given a generic sales pitch. Instead, they're prompted to find out how people like them use Milanote, and from there, they’re taken to a sales page that’s tailor-made for their specific role or industry.

Milanote’s 20 Homepages

At the heart of this strategy is Milanote’s clever use of their navigation bar. Right on their homepage, you’ll see a button that says "How People Use Milanote." When you click on it, a dropdown menu with over 20 different options appears.

Whether you’re a filmmaker, a graphic designer, or a photographer, there’s a page specifically designed for you. Each page features its own layout, images, and copy that highlights how Milanote can solve problems unique to that profession.

For example, filmmakers are shown how they can use Milanote for storyboarding, pre-production planning, and visual brainstorming. The images and examples are all tailored to filmmaking, making the pitch feel personalized and relevant. For a photographer, the messaging shifts to focus on mood boards and visual project planning, showing how Milanote can help them pull together a cohesive aesthetic for a photoshoot.

By offering specific pages for each persona, Milanote ensures that their product feels custom-made for whoever is visiting. Instead of drowning users in a sea of features, they guide them toward the ones that matter most for their profession.

Milanote’s strategy works because it helps convert more visitors into paying customers. When users can see exactly how a product fits into their specific workflow, they’re more likely to see its value and, ultimately, make a purchase. It’s much easier to convince a filmmaker to sign up for Milanote when they’re shown a pre-production storyboard than when they’re bombarded with features that might only apply to a graphic designer.

It’s also a powerful tool for understanding their audience better. As more users select their persona and explore the tailored pages, Milanote can gather valuable insights into how different groups are using their product. This helps them not only market more effectively but also refine their product to better suit the needs of their core customers.

Should I?

Why This Works

• Converts better: Personalized experiences resonate more with users because they see how the product fits their specific needs. When potential customers feel like a solution is tailored for them, they are more likely to engage, leading to higher conversion rates.

• Builds a better understanding of your audience: As users select their personas, Milanote gains valuable insights into their customer base. This data can help refine marketing strategies and even influence product development to better address the needs and pain points of different user segments.

• Enhances user experience: By offering relevant, targeted content, Milanote simplifies the decision-making process for visitors. Users don’t have to sift through irrelevant information—they’re immediately shown how Milanote can solve their unique challenges, which improves overall satisfaction and engagement.

• Minimizes information overload: Trying to appeal to everyone on a single homepage can lead to clutter and confusion. By segmenting users and providing persona-specific content, Milanote avoids overwhelming visitors with too many features, instead focusing on what's most important to each type of customer.

How to Apply It

• Don’t make it optional: Make sure users are guided to select the persona that matches their needs early in their visit. Use clear, engaging prompts that encourage visitors to self-segment. This helps ensure they immediately find the most relevant content, improving their experience and your chances of conversion.

• Use data from your personas to shape your product: As customers self-segment, collect data on how different personas interact with your site. Use this information to understand which features are most important to each group and prioritize product development based on those insights. This will help you build a product that truly fits the needs of your audience.

• Test different messaging and visuals for each persona: Don’t just change the words—tailor the entire experience, from the visuals to the tone of your copy. A filmmaker and a graphic designer might both use your tool, but they will resonate with different imagery and messaging. A/B test different versions of these persona-specific pages to see what drives the most engagement and conversions.

• Avoid spreading yourself too thin: While it’s tempting to create a page for every possible user type, start with your core personas. Focus on refining the copy and design for a few key segments before expanding. This ensures that each page delivers high-quality content that truly speaks to its intended audience.

• Leverage persona-specific pages for marketing campaigns: Use these tailored landing pages as destinations for targeted marketing efforts. For example, if you're running ads aimed at filmmakers, send them directly to the filmmaker-specific page on your site. This ensures your ad clicks lead to a more relevant and personalized experience, improving the chances of conversion.

Yes, But

• Time-consuming to set up: Creating tailored landing pages for each persona takes time and effort. You’ll need to design unique layouts, craft specific messaging, and choose relevant visuals for each user type, which can be a resource-heavy process—especially for smaller teams or startups with limited capacity.

• Risk of overwhelming your audience: While personalization is great, too many options can confuse or overwhelm visitors. If users have to sift through a long list of personas to find their match, they may get frustrated and leave. Keeping the process simple and intuitive is crucial to avoid losing potential customers.

• Maintaining and updating multiple pages: As your product evolves, you’ll need to update each persona-specific page regularly to ensure the information stays accurate and relevant. This can create ongoing maintenance challenges, especially as your product grows and you add new personas to the mix.

• Not all users fit neatly into a persona: Some customers may not see themselves fully represented in the personas you’ve created, which could make them feel alienated. If users can’t identify with any of the options, they might disengage or feel that your product isn’t for them.

Keep Learning

Others Playing It

This choose-your-own-adventure style of website navigation isn’t unique to Milanote. Other companies, like Clipt, are adopting similar strategies.

As soon as you enter Clipt’s homepage, you're greeted with illustrations representing all of Clipt’s personas, allowing you to choose the one that best matches your needs.

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That’s all for this edition.

Cheers,

Nico