Messaging is the building blocks for who you are, what you do, and the value you provide.
Messaging is a collection of key points that you need prospective customers to understand in order to be aware, care and buy from you.
Messaging is the launchpad for all marketing and sales activities, and it can even influence what product to build.
- What is the one main thing we want customers to know about us?
- What are the 3 - 5 key messages/ideas we want to communicate?
Copy changes regularly. Key messages rarely change.
The purpose of messaging is to increase motivation to take action.
Messaging isn’t about showcasing features and capabilities. It’s about helping people see what new things could be possible in their lives, thanks to those features and capabilities.
- Strategy dictates where to play and how to win.
- Strategic narrative describes what's happening in the external world. What are the trends. Why do we need to adapt?
- Point of view is our opinion on it. What needs to be done?
- Positioning describes which problems we are solving for whom (that cares a lot about it).
- Messaging are the key things we want to communicate to the target buyer.
- Copy is how to say that.
Messaging impacts your ability to
- Reach strangers
- Attract visitors
- Convince customers
- Educate power users
- Delight promoters
The best way to get someone to do something is to get them to want to do it. You do that through words.
Without strong messaging, you are relying on their intrinsic motivation.
When looking at the landscape, what's our opinion on what to do and how to do it. Point Of View (POV) fuels content for the brand.
The more controversial the opinion, the more it will stand out from the noise (which increases the likelihood of getting attention).
POV-driven marketing.
A messaging product is an item intended to convey a message. Examples of messaging products include:
- Articles
- Commercials
- Ads
- Landing pages
Positioning is where you fit into the market.
Messaging is clarity on what you say.
Copywriting is cleverness on how you say it.
Messaging is channel-agnostic - copy is messaging re-stated FOR a channel.
Copy is how you state your messaging ideas.
Your copy needs to join the conversation in someone's head. It needs to use the same language.
A target audience is the intended audience or readership of a publication, advertisement, or other message catered specifically to said intended audience.
When something “resonates with you,” it hits you on an emotional level because you can relate to it, meaning it mirrors something the receipent already believe to be true.
It moves you and evokes a feeling of familiarity within you. On some occasions, it might even inspire you to take action.
Simply put, resonance is about engaging your audience by delivering a message that reflect their own interests and values. When your messaging resonates with a consumer, they feel understood. They feel that they share some important values with your company—that you’re just like them—and that makes them more motivated to do business with you.
https://wynter.com/use-cases/get-to-message-market-fit
Why is message market fit important?
You can´t get to product market fit without first getting to message market fit.
How to find
The messaging needs to be clair and consistent (across channels) and needs to adress the target audiences needs and motivations. Do this by answering the following questions:
- The value you deliver: What problem(s) do we solve?
- The unique value you deliver: What makes you stand out?
- What do we believe in?
Controll question: Did we adress the target audience´s needs and motivations?
https://wynter.com/solutions/messaging-resonance-audit
You'll know this by the way people react to your pitch - they nod their heads, they say "tell me more", they open up.
- How simple is the message?
- To which extent is the recipient confused by the message?
- How quickly does the recipient understand the message?
- Lead with product category.
- Explain the problem it solves.
- Avoid jargon.
- Be specific.
- Short sentences. Avoid commas.
- Short paragraphs (no more than three lines).
- Real screenshots.
- Don't ask questions - give answers.
- Who is it for?
- Why should I care?
- Problem/benefit statement (gained through JTBD research)
- Order items by priority
- Do I want this?
- Top pains
- Top priorities
- Can it be quantified?
Why choose us over X?
If you are a category leader, this is less important (you are the default).
You want to compare yourself with your competition before they do. Be honest of your shortcomings.
How do we want to come across?
- Tone of voice
- Brand personality
- Associated keywords
Message mining is collecting information on how people think about and describe your product, or the product of your competitors. Which words are they using to describe the problem? Which words are the using to describe the benefits?
Message mining could be done by looking up reviews of your product, or by interviewing people who recently signed up for your service or a competitor and ask questions like:
- What were you hoping to do?
- Why is that important to you?
- Where did you look?
- What else did you try?
In order to produce great messaging you need to understand:
- Competitors - what is their product like, and what key messages do they use?
- Market trends
- Jobs To Be Done - what your audience needs
Messaging should speak to the situation, motivation and expected outcomes of the target user/buyer/influencer.
Ideally, inteview key customers on how they use the product and leverage the language they use.
The idea here is to know who you're figthing with, and align your messaging accordingly.
The goal of the messaging is to get your customers to switch from the competition.
Think about:
- Push: What's pushing them to shop alternatives?
- Pull: What's pulling them to your product?
- Anxiety: What worries to they have about switching?
- Habit: What do they like about their existing solution?
This is a super simple way to brainstorm examples of new possibilities for your customer. It helps you get out of features and into the things that REALLY matter to customers.
What I like about this exercise is that it works for different parts of messaging.
For example, it’s my go-to method for aspirational headlines and emotion-driven value propositions:
- Win more customers for life
- Manage staffing without the stress
- Make more time for the work that matters
But it also works for smaller, more functional benefits:
- See all your work in one screen, without having to switch tabs
- Get approved for financing in just two clicks
- Resolve issues quickly and accurately the first time
An organization can orient its messaging around different dimensions:
Externally oriented
Client oriented
Client oriented messaging talks about the ambitions and challenges of a particular type of person.
Problem oriented
Problem oriented messaging talks about the problem as perceived from a particular point of view, and it's consequences.
Internally oriented
Competence oriented
Competence oriented messaging is focused on which competencies the organization holds.
This orientations assumes a pretty well problem-understanding of the buyer in that they know which competencies that they are looking for and/or capacity within those competencies.
Product oriented
Product oriented messaging is focused on the benefits and capabilities of the product.
This orientation assumes that the client perceives the problem to be a product problem, and are comparing different product alternatives against eachother.
Social proof is a term that was coined back in 1984 by author Robert Cialdini in his book Influence. This phenomenon is also called informational social influence, and essentially it's the idea that people copy the actions of others in an attempt to emulate behavior in certain situations.
If there ever was a product marketing “hack" to make your messaging 5x clearer, it would be this...
→ ✅ lead with 🟧 capabilities, not 🟦 benefits
Here's an example comparing two different interactive demo products: Navattic and Walnut
This a newer but rapidly growing product category.
If you've heard of category, you might know the loose parameters of its purpose:
→ let people walk through the product themselves before they book a meeting
So by the time you start checking out products in the space, you've likely already been convinced...
✅ this would be a helpful for your pre-sales or marketing teams
✅ if you added a tool like this, you could expect to see ROI
But what you're left wondering is... WHICH interactive demo tool should you get?
🤔 how does these tools actually work?
🤔 which one will best fit our product?
🤔 which one will be easiest to setup?
🤔 which one will be easiest to use (or most customizable)?
Notice what's missing → ROI.
People start looking at tools because...
1️⃣ they believe the problem is real and
2️⃣ they believe this product category can potentially solve the problem.
In the context of this typical journey, Navattic does a far better job of actually explaining the HOW and meeting customers where they are.
(Which isn't surprising, since Natalie Marcotullio is the real deal).
When you're SCANNING the page (since people don't really "read" websites), this makes it super to understand HOW the product works and WHAT it does...
(i.e. the capabilities 🟧)
...which makes you more likely to believe the benefits 🟦
My only suggestion would be → don't hide this in a use case page! Bring this type of language onto the homepage!
Source: Linkedin post by Anthony Pierri