Your message, with a website on the side

You don't need the most technically advanced website in the world. You need something that explains who you are and why anybody should care about you.

It has to look good. It has to speak in a language that actually connects with your audience. It has to persuade.

That's the kind of project we work on. We design message-first websites.

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What's a message-first website?

Anybody can build a website. It's really never been easier to get something up online. If you just need something, anything, up, go to Squarespace or Wix or wherever and you'll get a site together before lunch.

But that's not why you're here. You want a site that makes you look like the big deal that you are. You want something that's so compelling that visitors just can't help themselves from getting whatever it is that you're selling.

You want a site that says what it is that you want to say. That has that phrasing that's in your head but just out of reach of your tongue. You want a site that brings the blurry vision you have into crisp, pixel-perfect reality.

That's hard. That's what we do – websites that are messages first, technical bits second.

Some street cred

For a long, long time, our team has done award-winning, needle-moving work for some of the biggest brands in the world. Are you going to be next?

How does this all work?

The first thing we have to do is really figure out what makes you matter. Who is your audience? What problem do they have, that you solve? Why are you the best way to solve it?

This starts us on the path to designing everything else. What do these people need to know? How can we make the best argument? Can we answer all their questions before they even have them? We think about user journeys, social proof, and how people actually behave.

You can't strip out all of this stuff from your website and expect to get anything good. If you want proof, just imagine what this site would be like if you removed all the words. Your message is the important part, the website just happens to be the the biggest way in which you share it.

But, we do make sure you that the site is great in all the ways a site needs to be great. It will be attractive and fast, it will look good on all sorts of devices, and it will have all the modern bells and whistles a site needs. But, again, those are all table stakes. For what you need, the technical part is the easy part – you don't need to get caught in the weeds here.

Throughout all of this, we move quickly. Long, drawn-out schedules produce worse work than projects where we keep our shared foot on the gas.

Who should work with us?

If your site is about your business, not your business itself

We're talking marketing websites, baby. Professional service firms, nonprofits, thought leaders, political causes, B2B and corporate, real estate, tourist destinations, and government agencies are just a few of the types of organizations we've done work for.

If you're stumped about how to describe why your stuff matters

Do you struggle to talk about your work in a way that people get? Does your current website mention anything about "dynamic solutions," "shifted paradigms," or some other meaningless jargon? Then we're going to do wonders for you.

If your current site drives you bananas

So many sites are broken, and its often because they try to do too much. Most of the time, we find ourselves dialing back the scale of the site to focus more on quality. Less, but better. Every pixel, every word, has to be carrying its weight.

Who should find somebody else?

If you want to build a giant ecommerce shop

Though we're all about linking out to separate a Shopify or other similar storefront. Between you and us, that's probably the best solution for like 90% of use cases.

If you need to integrate complex user accounts, memberships, APIs, or other tools

There are a ton of great platforms we can embed or drop a link to for those things, but we're not here to reinvent the wheel. Sell a course or embed a calendar? That's cool. Build a custom social network? Nope.

If you aren't ready for this

Again, if you just need a business card in a browser, you can get a website up for less money. We know we're not the cheapest option on the market, but you get what you pay for. This work is a strategy and messaging intensive, with a website as the output.

“...an invaluable source of experienced design perspectives, technical knowledge, and communications focus from planning through implementation”
Client J.A.
“This looks so good!! I know we’ve expressed our appreciation for you before, but seriously. THANK YOU”
Client T.S.

A boutique practice led by a guy who quite literally wrote the book on communicating clearly

Ben Guttmann spent ten years running a big-shot full-service marketing agency, and he's written an award-winning book on how brands and leaders can become better communicators. He's been trusted by some of the best clients in the game – including the NFL, Comcast, and I Love NY – and he's led messaging-first website projects that have been seen by tens of millions of users.

Through Fluency Shop, we bring the science-backed design lessons of Simply Put to your brand.

Beneficial

What's in for the the receiver?
How does this all matter to them?

Focused

Are you saying one thing, or is this three ideas in a trenchcoat?

Salient

Does your message stand out from the noise? Is it noticable?

Empathetic

Are you speaking in language that the audience understands?

Minimal

Have you stripped away all the friction from your message?

Ok, let's get this started

Projects can take a few weeks or a few months, but result is always the same: a website that makes your brain tingle – and makes everything else you do easier. If this sounds like something you need, drop a note and we'd love to talk about teaming up.

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