Summary: This post tackles a common misunderstanding businesses face when interpreting technical system messages—especially those that lack a narrative arc or customer-centric language. We explore what it means when a system presents a JSON error message like “insufficient account balance,” and why, from a communications and marketing angle, turning raw data into a story requires more than a line of code—it requires human relevance, context, and purpose.
When Numbers Talk But Say Nothing
A JSON error message is not a story. It’s a machine-passed signal. Take for example a reply like this from an API or payment handler:
{
"error": {
"code": "INSUFFICIENT_FUNDS",
"message": "Your account balance is too low to complete this transaction."
}
}
Many business owners, junior developers, or even marketers expect that this sort of data dump can be “rewritten into a story” for user-facing copy. But here’s the hard truth: this sort of message lacks characters, stakes, progression, and context—all essential pillars of narrative. So turning this into a conversion asset, or even something meaningful to the user, takes far more than a rewrite. It takes translating context, not content.
The Trap of Over-Simplified “Rewrites”
Here’s the failing logic we often see: a developer, or a stakeholder upstream, assumes that a clearer user interface is just about using plainer language. So instead of displaying the raw JSON, someone thinks: “Let’s just rewrite this in plain English.”
But the deeper problem remains untouched. The user doesn’t care about “error code INSUFFICIENT_FUNDS.” They care about what it means to them. Are they locked out? Will the transaction retry? Did they get billed at all? Can they solve this?
That’s the gap between tech-facing error handling and user-understandable communication. And patching that hole requires empathy, not syntax fixes.
Why This Is a Marketing Issue Disguised as a Technical Glitch
We often see this technical message misalignment bleed into customer friction. Someone tries to sign up or make a payment, and they get a message that makes them feel blamed or blocked. The company loses trust, not because of a real problem, but because the message left out the human factor.
What you say when things go wrong says more about your company than what you say when things are smooth. If your app slaps users with robotic messages that fail to guide or reassure them, you’ve turned a technical hiccup into a branding failure.
What Could Have Been Said Instead?
Let’s reframe the message with ideas from solid copywriting and customer care:
- Empathy First: “Looks like your payment didn't go through just yet.”
- Guidance Built-In: “Check your account balance and try again, or update your payment method to continue.”
- No Blame Language: Skip code numbers unless support staff needs them. No user should have to “decipher” errors.
Your job as a professional communicator or founder is not to preserve database speak but to duel complexity into clarity where it counts. That’s respect for the user.
Where the Real Communication Work Begins
The fact that the original JSON text “doesn’t contain a story to rewrite” may sound like a dead end to some. But it’s actually a red flag that something fundamental is missing in how the product or interface speaks. You need to ask: why was the message formatted and phrased this way in the first place?
Is the system designed for developers, not users? Is it being output in places where user-interface language belongs instead? What assumptions are baked into the system? These are communication faults built on engineering defaults—and if left unchecked, they cost support requests, lost conversions, and reputational dents.
From JSON to Journey: What It Really Takes
If you truly want to turn error data into a meaningful message, you have to zoom out first. Ask:
- Who sees this message, and under what conditions?
- What does the user need to understand or do next?
- What emotional state might they be in?
- How can we guide them without blame or jargon?
Only after answering those can we generate statements that do more than inform—they reassure, explain, or resolve. Whether that’s a modal with support links, or a proactive retry suggestion, or a dashboard alert written in plain language, the work starts higher in the stack than most teams think.
The Marketing Upside of Doing This Right
Let’s bring this back around. When handled correctly, an error message becomes a closing opportunity. Sounds absurd? It’s not.
Think about it: your competitors ignore this detail. Their user flow breaks, and they hiss out system alerts. You, on the other hand, use that same moment to prove you're different—to show concern, provide clarity, offer help. That builds trust. Trust earns retention. Retention grows revenue.
And yes, this level of detail earns comments from users and mentions in reviews. Why? Because error handling is one of the few moments where users feel vulnerable, confused, or defeated. Who they hear from next—and what is said—defines how they feel about your brand from that point on.
The Core Takeaway
No, the original text didn’t contain a story. But its failure is a story. A cautionary one. If you’re serious about creating services users trust, this is where you dig deep. Don’t just translate technical messages. Replace them with meaning. The real breakthrough starts when you stop treating messages as backend assets and start viewing them as conversion moments.
So my question to you is: How many of your current system messages still sound like code? And what are they costing you that you don’t yet realize?
#ErrorMessaging #UserExperienceMatters #ClarityWins #MarketingFromTheMargins #SystemDesign #UXContentStrategy #ProductMessaging
Featured Image courtesy of Unsplash and Google DeepMind (jJMqaZU4EnU)