It’s become common for writers, bloggers, social media experts and digital consultants to advise B2B marketers to ditch their messages. Nuke ‘em. Give them the old heave-ho. While well-intentioned, this is really bad advice. Messages have really important uses other than the ill-advised spraying of interruptions from the message machine gun.
Messages are the most useful tool for deciding what you want to say and how to say it. Even the most gifted speaker benefits from going through a messaging exercise. The purpose is not to write a speech (though it sure helps if you need to do that). The purpose is to prepare yourself to have the best conversation you can with your customer or prospect. And provide tools that help you present your story, ideas and supporting evidence in the most effective way. That includes deciding how to organize your ideas and also make them memorable for you to help you deliver them.
Most people don’t have much experience with message-driven, preparation-guided conversation. I’m not talking about verbatim scripting or reading prepared speeches. It’s about being well-prepared to talk extemporaneously. Very few ever argue a case before the Supreme Court, but there are other, more common examples. Job interviews. Court testimony. Tax audits. Yes, the Big Sales Pitch too–but only if it’s a dialogue and not a monologue.
What you actually want to do is teach your messages how to talk. They need to learn how to carry on a conversation. They must not be static or anti-social. They can’t be rigid, or bumper stickers. They must be messages that are organized around themes, premises, sub-plots, useful tangents and side trips, anecdotes, little human interest stories, parables and the like. They must be flexible and adaptable and dynamic, so they can fit into a variety of conversational settings and contexts. They must have memorable little hooks or trigger points, that help remind you when to trot out each, and why, and which “flavor” to use in which contexts.
In other words, messages as the stuff of conversations.
Once you discover a way of presenting your story in conversation that’s effective, you ought not abandon it. Messages can provide a meaningful framework that helps you repeat that conversational success.
Don’t get rid of your messages. Send them to conversation school.
[Based on a post that originally appeared in Steve Parker's Marketing Dissector blog.]
Tags: conversation - dialogue - marketing message - messages - positioning
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