Josephine Ruiz-Healy

Quantitatively test your messaging through experimentation: * A/B test different types of messages on your website * A/B test different types of messages through paid social & organic social * A/B test different types of messages through SEM — I find this to be the easiest channel to experiment with given all you have to do is change copy. * A/B test different types of messages through email * A/B test different types of messages through in-product experiments — for example, our product is offered through a self-serve platform where we can set up in-product onboarding modals, notifications, and tooltips. Measure things like CTR, open rate, CVR, average budget size, and revenue. While engagement metrics like open rate and CTR are instructive, I wouldn't put too much stock in them, given people can be clicky but ultimately not convert or not convert at higher spends. Definitely take the time to confirm that the messaging that is driving the most initial engagement is also driving the most adoption and revenue. 

From the start of a project, outline a clear RACI on the key deliverables needed to get to market, including 1) Positioning, 2) Pricing, 3) Messaging. Share it with the working team early, so you can make sure everyone is on the same page. For example, positioning and pricing might require approval from a GM or whoever is accountable for the business goals, whereas messaging might require approval from a Senior Marketing Leader. Further defining the RACI helps you determine who has to approve the messaging versus who is informed or consulted. For the approver, share early thoughts as soon as you can and before you’re too far along in your thinking or in briefing in other teams. If that person is hard to find time with, I would try to find someone who they regularly touch base with and who can get you directional feedback. Assuming they don’t raise any red flags, share a document or deck with the decision-maker for formal approval, making it clear what the next steps are once you have their approval. For senior leaders, it’s often worth emphasizing the “why now?” for alignment and whether or not their approval is required to unblock other work.

Before I explain the difference between messaging and copy, let me quickly recap positioning. Since positioning informs messaging and messaging informs copy, it’s important to start there. * Positioning is the foundation of all product marketing activities. I love the way that April Dunford defines it — ‍"Positioning defines how your product is a leader at delivering something that a well-defined set of customers cares a lot about." Once you know your positioning (this template helps), create a sales narrative that your internal teams agree on. It follows a general pattern — define the problem, explain how users are currently solving it, show where those solutions fall short, and introduce your product as a solution to the problem (you can read more in Founding Sales). * With positioning in place, you can move onto messaging. Messaging consists of value-oriented pillars supporting your product positioning — with key messages / statements for each pillar and proof points to support those key messages (e.g. product features, data points). Once you have your positioning and your messaging in place, synthesize it in a document that can serve as a source of truth for your partners teams across content, brand, growth, etc. * Copy is the way that your positioning and messaging come to life on external communication channels. Copy should reflect the essence of your messaging but in a way that will capture the undivided attention of your target audience. It’s okay to be punchier and less nuanced than your initial positioning and messaging. For example, your website’s tagline is often not the original sentence crafted by a PMM — it’s usually simpler, more enticing, and should make potential customers think, “That’s a no brainer!” For example, take a look at Slack’s positioning via their website. If a Seller is explaining Slack to a potential customer, e.g. something to the effect of “Slack is a productivity platform; it’s a better way to communicate with your team than email”, that’s the positioning. And messaging helps land that positioning. Key messages center on a few key benefits, e.g. speed, collaboration, security — with value-oriented statements for each of those, alongside supporting product features and marketing claims. But it all comes to life in their channels (e.g. website, email, paid social campaigns etc) via copy.

While messaging informs content, content brings messaging to life for the right users, at the right time, and in the right channel. Practically, this means that a content expert will choose the messages which will most resonate with the audience and determines how to best deliver those messages, taking into into account factors such as: * The context in which the content lives — e.g. a post on socials versus a blog post on a website or a video on YouTube * The unique audience of the content — e.g. you could have a large following on your social handle, but a small and passionate readership of your blog * How that audience likes to receive information — e.g. your Instagram audience might want small, bite-sized pieces of digestible content, whereas readership of your blog might want a detailed explanation of how your product works.

I recommend creating a messaging document which can serve as a source of truth for internal teams. That document can include things like your positioning, key messages / value props, a glossary of key terms, and even a “do” and “don’t” section (e.g. do talk about X in this way, don’t talk about it in this way). If you work on a self-serve product, it’s critical that you share this document with your Product and Design team, so that a given user is seeing the same verbiage / language across the entire user journey — whether that’s an email, an ad, a conversation with a Seller, or your product.