Getting your Message Right

By Melanie Johnson, Account Director – Eskenzi PR

Creating a messaging document is one of those vital processes that every company should go through, but still many organisations don’t get it right, or neglect to make sure they have a fully comprehensive document in place before launching a product/solution, creating a campaign or even kick-starting a company. All employees, stakeholders and spokespeople need a go-to messaging document to learn and understand the company’s ethos, how it should be portrayed and what its key objectivities are. It should also include who the company is targeting, how to target them and the challenges and issues they face, plus how the company can help them with those problems.

All communications including press releases, interviews, analyst briefings, demonstrations, blogs and presentations depend on getting your messaging right. An organisation that invests time into its messaging will see results because everything they do will fit into an overall ‘umbrella’ vision or statement.

Here are a few tips on getting that messaging right:

1. Make sure statements are clear, understandable and not too long. Try and explain what the company or product does in one sentence or 50 words maximum if you really want a challenge.
2. Understand who your customers are, and make sure the messaging fits with the challenges they face and what their goals are.
3. Don’t make it over complicated by using what you think are intelligent words. Use easy to understand language and avoid using the latest ‘buzz’ words (they date extremely quickly).
4. Following on from the point above, never use words like innovative, breakthrough, disruptive and revolutionary. If your company/product genuinely is a ‘game changer’ it will speak for itself.
5. Be careful about announcing your company as the ‘fastest growing’ or ‘most used’ solution in a specific market. If you make bold statements, make sure you can back it up.
6. Refrain from using marketing or sales speak, save this for the advertising campaign.
7. Think about tailoring key messages to specific markets the organisation is targeting.
8. Think about how your messaging can into all planned activity, from customer days, media tours to employee events.

A company whose spokespeople and employees can describe what the business does, and its goals have a strong advantage. As a result, investing the time to create a messaging document that everyone buys into will allow you to experience benefits across all communications.