The secret key method

As previously mentioned, the “secret key” is an incredibly powerful and helpful tool for helping people understand the effectiveness of your One Thing.

The “secret key” is way more than a USP (unique selling proposition), which is merely a marketer’s attempt to distinguish a product in the marketplace, because the secret key provides a complete story that sets your solution apart as the only viable option.

Photo by Bjorn Pierre on Unsplash

Let’s go over the secret key approach in more detail. I will give an example to show you how this works in practice.

This example is from the website snoreraser.com. I worked on an earlier version of this website several years ago with the founder, Brian McKenna, and the site has continued to evolve since then.

The SnorEraser site offers a solution to help people who are trying to sleep next to someone who snores, and the home page does a great job of pitching its unique solution and explaining why alternative “solutions” cannot provide the same relief.

Let’s work through the steps of the secret key method in turn.

First, we illustrate the problem. We get that in the headline at the top of the page:

“Got the best snore cancelling headphones but still can’t sleep?”

That headline focuses on the main pain point (“can’t sleep”) and adding the word “still” reinforces the frustration that the visitor must be experiencing.

The prefixed wording, “Got the best snore cancelling headphones…” implies that we know the visitor has already tried to find solutions to this problem and that they have so far been met with disappointment. See how much can be achieved in a single carefully-crafted headline!