How to Use a Before and After Grid to Write Effective Copy
By: Dean J Murphy
Tags: Customer Engagement, Copywriting Tips, Customer Journey, Marketing, Copywriting

How to Use a Before and After Grid to Write Effective Copy

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A customer is not going to buy your product or service, just to make you feel happy. So why do we write copy about the product? We need to write copy about the customer. We need to show them what is in it for them. One of the easiest ways to develop effective copy is to use a Before and After Grid.

What is a Before & After Grid

A Before & After Grid is a tool that helps us concentrate on the customer. We want to take the customer from his before state where he has a problem and transitions him to his after state where the world is full of sunshine and singing birds.

Hint: I am going to make you scroll down to the bottom of this article to a link that will allow you to download a Before & After Grid template.

The four parts

The Before and After Grid (BAG) has four main components:

Customer Segments Before State After State Products / Services

I have also listed the four parts, in the order, you should work them. This will also help you in focusing on the customer first and your product or service last. Remember, copywriting is about the customer. Your product is secondary.

Customer Segments

Customer or Marketing segments are exactly that. Who are you trying to persuade with your copy? You should create a BAG for each segment. To help you differentiate between the segments, just ask yourself, “Is the desired after effect different?” If the answer is yes, it is a different customer segment.

The Before State

The Before and After states have five sections -

Have — What do that have or do not have right now? Feel — Which emotions do they have or not have in this state? Average Day — What does their average day look like? Status — What is their social standing right now in the before state as it relates to the problem? Good vs. Evil — Why are they being told they can not be the hero of their story? This one can be hard. If you do not come up with something for this category you can still produce good copy.

The After State

The After State has the same five sections. The difference is you describe the transition that occurs after using your product. This is where they feel like a hero in their lives. Once we go through the example at the end, you will have a clearer picture.

Products or Services

As the section’s title reads, this is for the products or services that you offer for these market segments. This section has an additional function. Once you develop your copy, you may discover a new product or service that could be developed, for the customer segments you came up with earlier.

Who knows, you just might become the new hero for the Product Development section in your company.

The BAG in action

For this example, I will use the Acme Online Education Company, no relation to Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner cartoons.

The Customer Segments

I start listing my customer segments -

40-year-old dads with children Online education publications Brick and mortar universities

You do a BAG for each marketing segment. As I mentioned earlier, if the desired After is different, it is a different segment.

Forty-year-old dads are looking to increase the earning potential through online education. Online education publications are looking for new and interesting content to write about. Universities are looking for alternative education opportunities to offer their student body. You get the idea.

The Before State

Let us take Bob for this example. Who is Bob, you ask? Bob is a 40-year-old dad, married with two children, and making $45,000 a year as a manager at a local retail store. How did I find Bob? He is my customer avatar and the person I am using for our BAG.

Have — Bob is worried about his family’s financial security. He is trying to save for college for his two daughters and does not see how he can do this and still pay for the house and his retirement fund. Simply put, Bob does not know how he can make ends meet.

Feel — Bob feels terrible and like a failure. He knows if he does not come up with something, his daughters will not be attending college. He is also worried about losing the house and having to work in retirement just to get by.

Average Day — Bob gets up early and works around 10 hours a day. Twelve, if you count the commute. He does not see his family enough because he works long hours, including the occasional Saturday, to make a little extra.

Status — Bob feels like a loser. He is not the good father he wants to be, because he spends so much time working and rarely sees his family.

Good vs. Evil — They said if he worked hard and followed the rules, he could have whatever he wanted. His experience says otherwise.

The After State

This is the transition to that hero state we want for Bob. Bob does not want a product or a service or hear about the feature and benefits of what you are offering. Bob wants the transformation from his Before State to his After State.

Have — Financial security through his online business that he learned by taking our online courses.

Feel — Feels like a winner. Bob is financially secure and has the money to send his daughters to college, pay for the home, and retire without worries.

Average Day — Bob enjoys more time with his family. He can schedule his day in the way he wants. His weekends are free, and he has time for all family activities.

Status — Bob feels like a winner. He is the envy of the neighborhood. He is his own boss and determines when and where he works.

Good vs. Evil — Working smart and not hard is the answer. Using his newly learned skills, his dreams have come true. He is not struggling with a 9 to 5 job like everybody else.

Products and Services

Online course on building your own online business. Mastermind courses for advanced learning. One on One mentoring, offering shortcuts to success.

Future Products and services — We can also split some of our courses for those that already have a business and only want to improve their marketing skills. These can be further splintered to offer Master courses on individual online advertising portals like YouTube, Facebook, Bing, Google Ads, etc.

Wrapping it up

The BAG is only the start. It shows you where you the transition you want to make in your customer avatar. Making the copy about the customer instead of your product will give you better results.

Bob does not care about your product. He cares what it will do for him. He wants to know how it will bring him from his before state to his after state.

Of course, you can mention some of the benefits of your product. This should be done for future benefits. Future benefits will create a psychological link between your product, and the fulfillment of his desires.

Future benefits will connect Bob to the transition to the After State.

As promised, here is a link to download the Before and After Grid. Now get to it and write some great copy.

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