Writing a short elevator pitch—why you need to go big to go small

I recently helped the brand team at a big Australian government agency write their agency’s ‘positioning statement’—which is fancy industry jargon for a simple, single-line statement that describes what they do, who they do it for and why they do it.

If you’ve never tried to do something like this before you’d be forgiven for thinking that a single-line statement should be a quick and easy writing job. I see this a lot with small business folk who’ve attempted to write a short elevator pitch, one-line unique value proposition, website headline or even Instagram bio. They get frustrated and overwhelmed at how hopeless they are at it. Because they don’t realise it’s not hard because they’re hopeless it’s hard because it’s hard.

The joy and challenge of copywriting work is that it requires serious strategy. And when you have just one line to play with every single decision and word counts. The difference between using a word like ‘empowering’ vs a word like ‘supporting’, for example, is immense.

I don’t know how other writers tackle this task but there’s only one way I know how—and that’s by starting big, throwing absolutely everything at the page and whittling it down from there. To give you a sense of the scope and difficulty here’s my rough process—

First, I work out what the one-liner needs to achieve.

Does it need to create an emotional reaction or connection with the reader? Does it need to clearly explain the brand or organisation to the reader? Does it need to stand out from a bunch of generic one-liners that all sound the same? Where will it be used? Who is the reader? If there are multiple or conflicting goals what is most important and what is least important?

Second, I write as if the reader has infinite time and attention.

Every single thing I want or need the statement to say goes on the page.

Third, I find where I’ve repeated myself and organise the writing into categories, themes and ideas.

I always have to remind myself to trust in the process at this point because it will look like a hot mess and I will begin to doubt that I could ever write a single clear point.

Fourth, I start the time-consuming work of choosing a single word or phrase that best summarises each category.

Having a large vocabulary helps. So does powerthesaurus.org or ChatGPT.

Finally, it’s time to write the actual one-liner. 

When I feel I’ve chosen the best words and phrases for each category I move on to attempting to make them fit and flow together as a single statement. This bit feels like what I imagine rock tumbling to be. It’s a constant process of turning a collection of words and phrases over and over in different combinations until something shines.

I’m constantly referring to the questions I asked at the beginning of the project to guide what I write. At all times I’m aware of why I’ve chosen the words and phrases I’ve chosen, why they’re the best fit, why I’ve written them in a particular order or flow, and what I’ve compromised by not choosing alternative options. So that I can be confident in the end product AND so that I can explain it all to clients and stakeholders (especially when they really really wanted me to use the “empower” but I’ve used “support” instead).

The one-line positioning statement I wrote for my government client came with 12 pages of explanatory notes and a 60-minute video call to strategise how to pitch it to senior stakeholders. Stakeholders who all had ideas about what it needed to say and how to say it.

So, next time you’re banging your head on your keyboard, frustrated by the ‘simple’ task of writing a one-line bio, USP, positioning statement or headline remember this—it’s not hard because you’re hopeless—it’s hard because it’s hard.