The art of key messaging

Content Monkey's Digital Strategist Deborah Shaw recently spoke with Chris Hocking about her targeted Key Messaging workshops and where the art of messaging is now heading.

Deb, in a nutshell, what are the key messages a company should consider building?

Messaging is the secret key to achieving focused influence with your target markets. Key messages are the 3-5 core points you want your target market to think and feel about your brand and/or product.

They are the essence of what you want your audience to understand about your company and your values, and are powerful motivators for consumers and clients to take action.

You talk about three concepts to conveying key messages, what are they?

  1. Identify your unique selling proposition
    • Ask yourself what do I do that no one else does? What is unique about the way I do business? How can I make it different from the way my competitors are offering their services/products? Your potential customers and clients will be attracted to this proposition.
  2. Define a clear objective
    • The aim of your marketing should be to stimulate action and achieve an outcome, for example an online or phone enquiry, a customer visiting your store, or even better, a sale.
    • To ensure you get noticed create a distinctive and recognisable format for your marketing, be consistent and make your messaging clear and easily understood.
  3. Keep it short and sweet
    • Be brief, get to the point – your audience’s attention span is likely to be extremely limited.

When you discuss creating interest, you mention the need to build 3 to 5 key messages – why is that an ideal number?

Key messages are the foundation of a company’s communication strategy and should be used in all communication activity. Remember that they’re not the same as taglines. They’re not meant to be memorised and repeated verbatim. They should be used as guidelines for all staff so they can be included naturally in conversations in real life and in marketing copy on- and offline.

Key messages speak to your core values as a business and are the essence of what you wish to communicate, and what you want the receiver of your communication to understand and do with your information. They shape what you want people to think and do.

I like your idea of speaking to the hero inside us and not the child, and it’s interesting you talk about the difference between approaching someone as a citizen of the world rather than as consumer. How can I do that for a mundane brand which is not exciting and heroic?

Empowerment marketing works because it places your citizen/consumer/client in a position of power. If you are in the business of providing a product or a service then it’s likely there is a real need for that product or service. One way you could approach this is to uncover the most interesting RESULT of using a particular product or service. For example, a financial service that seems technical and difficult to understand on the surface, may be exactly what a particular target market may need to achieve financial freedom and live the life they always dreamed of.

Your six factors in creating a key message are a good summary to keep in our heads when writing.

  1. Use a reputable source to back your information up with evidence.
  2. Messages should be distinctive and grab attention – don’t use corporate-speak or jargonese.
  3. Key messages need a purpose behind them so they generate further investigation by your audience.
  4. Be brief, get to the point – your audience’s attention span is extremely limited.
  5. Use simple Plain English – make your messaging accessible to the broadest possible audience. Industry specialists, journalists and the public should not begin to lose their train of thought when reading your copy.
  6. Use positive language – key messages are first impressions and they should make positive lasting impressions.

While there are so many more things I could talk about from the mini workshop, I thought I would conclude by asking about building customer personas. Why do you devote significant time to personas in the mini workshop?

Looking at your key clients and prospects becomes easier when you look at the personality behind various groups, be they single mothers, time-poor CEOs or worried retirees.

It’s so much more effective to really understand who they are, what they like to do, what they’re thinking, and what else is going on in their lives … This helps us to understand the pain points they face – particularly as they relate to the product or services we are trying to interest them in. And we can find help our clients and citizens find solutions to the real problems they face.

Thanks for your time Deborah and I wish you the best with your Key Messaging mini workshops in 2020.

If you'd like to get a feel for how Content Monkey might run a workshop in your workplace check out our template agenda which can be modified to suit your needs.

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