#230: Messaging | In this episode, Matt sits down with Talia Wolf, founder and CEO of GetUplift, to unpack what’s really wrong with most B2B websites – and how to fix it. After reviewing 100+ member-submitted sites from the Exit Five community, Talia shares what she sees over and over again: messaging that’s too focused on the product, poor design flow, and a lack of real customer understanding.
Matt and Talia cover:
- Why most B2B sites focus too much on features and not enough on buyer emotion
- How to use emotional targeting and customer research to write copy that converts
- The biggest design mistakes B2B marketers are making (and how to fix them)
- How to get stakeholder buy-in for website changes
- Why great websites start with strong product marketing
Timestamps
- (00:00) - – Intro to Talia
- (03:52) - – Why most B2B websites fail to convert
- (06:18) - – The common thread across 100+ website reviews from Exit Five members
- (09:03) - – Why focusing on features instead of emotion kills conversions
- (11:51) - – What is emotional targeting (and how to actually use it)?
- (15:06) - – The power of customer research in website optimization
- (18:28) - – How to apply emotional triggers to your homepage copy
- (21:57) - – Mistakes B2B companies make with above-the-fold content
- (24:59) - – Why you should write copy before designing the site
- (29:51) - – Structuring your site around buyer intent and behavior
- (33:08) - – How to get internal buy-in for messaging and UX changes
- (36:25) - – The difference between product marketing and “just copywriting”
- (39:41) - – The role of hierarchy, visual flow, and CTA placement
- (43:07) - – When to simplify and when to educate on B2B websites
- (46:29) - – Final takeaways and practical steps to start improving your site
Send guest pitches and ideas to hi@exitfive.com
Join the Exit Five Newsletter here: https://www.exitfive.com/newsletter
Check out the Exit Five job board: https://jobs.exitfive.com/
Become an Exit Five member: https://community.exitfive.com/checkout/exit-five-membership
***
Today’s episode is brought to you by Walnut.
Why are we pouring all this effort into marketing just to push buyers to a “request a demo” or “contact sales” button?
Come on, today’s buyers don’t want to talk to sales right away. They want to explore your product themselves, see how it works, and understand its value before booking a meeting.
That’s where Walnut comes in.
Walnut empowers marketers and GTM teams to create interactive, self-guided product experiences in minutes. Embed these experiences on your site, in emails, or anywhere in your funnel to let buyers engage on their terms, from awareness to close and beyond.
That's the beauty of Walnut - you're getting a platform that your sales and CS colleagues can use to showcase the product too.
And the best part? You get real intent data—see which features prospects love, where they drop off, and what’s actually driving pipeline. Demo Qualified Leads are the new MQL.
Over 500 companies, like Adobe and NetApp, use Walnut to drive 2-3x higher website conversion rates and 7 figures in pipeline on a yearly basis. So do you want to drive more leads, shorten sales cycles, and actually show your product instead of hiding it behind another typical B2B CTA?
Go check out Walnut.io. And if you tell them Dave from Exit 5 sent you, they'll build out your first demo for free!
The Exit Five CMO Podcast (Hosted by Dave Gerhardt) 