I am sure you’ve seen them. Those obnoxious screenshots that pop up in your social feeds: “Made $100K today at 10 ROAS!” with zero context about what happened before or after.
Here’s what they don’t show you: the 29 days of losses before that one winning day. The months where they were still net negative for the entire quarter. The part where most of these “overnight successes” quietly disappear when the lucky streak ends.
I’ve watched too many operators get deflated by this garbage. They see these out-of-context wins and think something’s wrong with their approach when they don’t hit those numbers immediately. So they lose confidence in their approach and start chasing whatever trendy strategy promises quick results.
Don’t fall for it. Those screenshots are the same as someone posting their one-rep max at the gym without showing you the months and years of daily work that made it possible.
The rep system that actually works
I go to the gym six days a week. Not because I love it (though I’ve learned to), but because I’ve learned that half the battle is just showing up. The results come from making repetition count, knowing the results will come in time and NOT expecting overnight transformation.
Here’s what would be ridiculous: walking into the gym, doing one bicep curl, and expecting bulging arms tomorrow. Or worse, pedaling away on the bike for an hour, then hitting the drive-thru for a Belt Buster Burger combo on the way home and wondering why the scale isn’t budging.
Yet that’s exactly how most operators approach their marketing systems. They create one campaign expecting massive results. When it doesn’t immediately crush it, they overcorrect and start over instead of diagnosing what part needs adjustment.
The real question isn’t whether you should trust “the process”: it’s whether you have a process worth trusting.
Building marketing systems you can actually trust
Most agencies will tell you to “trust the process” while throwing spaghetti at the wall and hoping something sticks. That’s not a system: that’s expensive guesswork.
A trustworthy system does two things: it tells you where your customers are in their decision process, and it tells you what conversion messaging resonates at each stage.
In our first conversation about customer journey tracking, we covered the TEEP framework for locating customers: Trigger → Explore → Evaluate → Purchase. That’s your “sonar” for knowing where people are when your message hits them.
But knowing where they are is only half the equation. The other half is knowing what to say when you find them there.
Here’s how we learned this lesson the expensive way. We had a client selling low-carb pasta. High add-to-cart rates, terrible conversion. Same story you’ve probably lived: people were interested enough to take action, but something was killing the sale at the last minute.
The problem wasn’t the product. It was the messaging mismatch. We were using trigger-stage language (“Tired of pasta guilt?”) for customers who’d moved into the evaluation stage. They already knew they wanted low-carb options. Now they needed proof this specific pasta wouldn’t taste gross and make their families gag.
Once we diagnosed the stage mismatch, the solution became obvious. Different customer psychology, different message approach.
The TEEP conversion messaging system
Here’s how to match your message to their mindset at each stage:
Trigger Stage: Name the Pain
These customers just realized they have a problem. They need emotional connection and hope that a solution exists.
Message focus: Problem recognition + possibility
Example: “Tired of pasta guilt?” (acknowledges the pain, hints at relief)
Explore Stage: Educate the Possibility
Now they’re researching solution categories. They want education and confidence that this type of solution actually works.
Message focus: Education + category benefits
Example: “How low-carb pasta actually works” (builds understanding without product push)
Evaluate Stage: Prove the Choice
They’re comparing specific options. They need logical proof and social validation for choosing you over competitors.
Message focus: Differentiation + social proof
Example: “Why 2,847 customers chose our pasta over [competitor]” (specific evidence)
Purchase Stage: Remove the Friction
They’ve decided what they want but need the final push. Remove barriers and create urgency.
Message focus: Urgency + ease + guarantee
Example: “30-day taste guarantee + free shipping today only” (risk removal + time pressure)
The key insight: each stage requires a different customer psychology. Trigger needs emotional connection. Explore needs educational confidence. Evaluate needs logical proof. Purchase needs practical ease.
Most operators create one message and blast it to everyone, regardless of where customers are in their journey. It’s like using the same weight for every exercise … you’ll either underwhelm the strong customers, overwhelm the new ones and satisfy none of them.
How to rep this concept
The systematic approach isn’t complicated, but it does require consistent work. Think gym reps that build long-lasting results, not a steroid shot that produces big gains that disappear once the steroids wear off.
Research Phase:
Monitor where your customers actually talk: Reddit, reviews, competitor sites. Look for the language they use when describing problems and solutions. I spend time every week digging through these conversations, looking for insights that score high on emotional intensity. Not every insight will be gold, but you’re mining for the nuggets that really hit.
Testing Phase:
Create messages for each TEEP stage based on your research. Run small tests to see which ones resonate. This isn’t about finding the perfect message on the first try: it’s about systematic improvement through iteration.
Iteration Phase:
Double down on what works. Here’s where most operators miss the real opportunity. Finding a winning message isn’t the finish line: it’s the starting line for systematic scaling.
I stumbled over a tweet that said it best: “The best marketing isn’t just about clarity, it’s about range”. It’s taking one winning message and presenting it in a hundred different ways to keep it fresh and keep it producing.
We have one client where we’ve run 22 iterations on a single messaging angle: “Almost natural isn’t enough. Even small synthetic components feel like a compromise for purist shoppers.” We’ve spent $12K testing variations of this concept because it consistently delivers 3.5% click-through rates at $1 cost-per-click.
But here’s the key: once we validated this core insight, the game became finding different ways to whisper the same thing. Same psychological trigger, different creative executions. Same customer pain point, different angles of approach.
That’s what “repping it out” looks like. Not every test is a home run, but every test builds knowledge. And when you find gold, you don’t move on. You mine that vein from every angle while continuing to prospect for new deposits.
You can’t build luck but you can build durable advantage
While competitors chase screenshot-worthy wins and pivot every time something doesn’t immediately crush it, systematic operators build daily habits that compound over time.
They understand that real strength comes from the boring work nobody posts about. The weekly research sessions that feed into systematic testing sprints. The patient validation of insights. The disciplined iteration on winners while maintaining a background pipeline of new angle discovery.
Here’s how this works in practice: Every week, research uncovers new potential insights. These get tested in small batches to validate emotional intensity and customer response. The winners graduate to the iteration phase to find new ways to express the same core truth that the testing phase discovered. Meanwhile, the research engine keeps running, continuously prospecting for the next breakthrough insight.
Most importantly, they know the difference between lucky shots and sustainable marketing systems that improve your odds as you use them.
Your customers are moving through their decision process whether you understand it or not. The question is whether you’re meeting them where they actually are, or where you think they should be.
Ready to build a system you can trust? Start with mapping where your customers are. Then match your conversion messaging to their mindset at each stage. Keep testing, keep refining, keep tracking what works.
The screenshots will come eventually. But repping out with a system you can trust? That starts today.
Want to see how we help Shopify brands build systematic messaging strategies that compound over time? Book a complimentary strategy session. No sales pitch, just a simple conversation about the systems you use and how you can improve them.
