Positioning & Messaging

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.]

Given that sharing information is such a critical component of most functions in marketing, it’s not hard to see why your approach to content is absolutely essential to marketing strategy. And why knowing the right information is essential to content marketing. How else can we “get the right information to the right people at the right time?”

That phrase may be cliche, but it remains as true as ever. When content sets a “through line” by connecting all marketing programs and outreach across all channels with a consistent message, it’s powerful. This helps establish your desired reputation and build the brand you want in the marketplace.

Before you create (or modify) any content, you should begin by asking yourself core questions like these. They will tell you some critical things, such as: 1) what is the content’s goal? 2) who is it for? and 3) why will it be useful and compelling to them?

• What’s the information we need to share?
• Who is it for?
• What will they do with it?
• What are their needs and expectations?
• What will make it relevant to them?
• Why will it be persuasive?
• How do they view their problems and challenges?
• What’s unique and different about them?
• How will our product/service help them?
• What value do we represent to them?
• Why should they trust us?
• What does our brand promise them?
• How can we back it up?
• How can we get them to include us in their buying criteria and on their short list?

You get only one chance to make a first impression. That’s why, despite the popularity of “stealth” and “soft” launch approaches, you owe it to yourself to take a long, hard look at your situation and your prospective customers. Dribbling out your news and content in tiny, incremental steps over time might preserve cash or save staff time, but often you’re taking a chance. You might unintentionally forfeit your ability to make a bigger splash later. And you risk not getting noticed at all.

If you don’t have time to do it right, when will you have time to do it over? (This argument goes for cost as well.) Once you become known in your prospect’s mind as one thing, you cannot cheaply and easily “flip a switch” and become something else. It’s foolish to think you can pivot your product or service without any negative impact on your brand, reputation and customer trust. From a marketing standpoint, pivot often means a radical move that requires the market to suddenly change what it believes about you. This goes to what you do, what your value is to them and why they should care about you at all. It’s a function of human memory and opinion formation habits which are seldom altered by marketing tactics (not even with a cool name like pivot).

So is there a basic recipe for a successful launch? We think so. Here are the 10 fundamental launch steps to get you started, developed from our experience in leading the launches of literally hundreds of products, services and companies:

The Countdown to Launch …

10: Market Research
Do your homework. That includes competitive analysis, market analysis, SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats), problem and niche definition and above all, listening to potential buyers and trying to learn about and categorize them.

9: Strategic Positioning & Messaging
Build on your research results. Boil down the essence of your differentiation. Research and refine your positioning and key messages. Document them in a detailed brief that guides all marketing. Tune them for what you know your buyer personas. Whenever possible, test them.

8: Brand Development
Extend the positioning by communicating your value proposition and uniqueness externally. Differentiate. The narrower the brand, the stronger it is. Well developed brands help us remember companies and why we care about them. This is not so much about “brand statements” gathering dust but about actual implementation, such as logo treatments, visual identity, taglines, voice, tone, personality, creative concepts and naming schemes.

7: High Quality, Original Content Creation (a.k.a Intellectual Capital)
Based on the positioning/messaging, go the extra mile to create high quality original content aimed specifically at your target buyers and their buying stages. Give every piece of content you create a set of goals, a job to do, a target audience segment and a set of metrics.

6: Testimonial/Third Party Validation
“Borrow” credibility from influential sources, including customers, prospects, analysts, consultants and partners. Aggressively solicit 3rd-party references and testimonials. Make it easy to say yes by suggesting multiple choices and levels of support. Align with longer term and sector-wide trends. Present references in context.

5: Content Strategy
What kind of story must you tell? What is the context? How does it relate to your prospects and their preferences? What do you know about their problems and views? How can you use that knowledge to tell your story in context to them? What media channels do you need? What is the right process for drawing back the curtains to reveal your story?

4: Mainstream/Trade Media Outreach
Define your pitch to the mainstream news media. How do you make your story newsworthy? What is the “tension” or conflict in the story? What background do they need to “get it”? What approach and tactics will help you cultivate key long-term press relationships?

3: Social Media Outreach
Where do you need to be active on the social web to reach your prospects and their influences directly? What networks, what communities, what groups, what chats, what channels? Identify your sweet spots. How can you encourage people to share your content and story? Start small and focused and grow out from there. Leverage content and connections across multiple channels. Don’t forget other influencers as well, including industry analysts, standards groups, online communities and consultants.

2: Launch Vehicle
Formalize your move into market with event of some kind — even if virtual. Focus the story to build momentum. Create a sense of “urgency” and timeliness for people to pay attention at a point in time to promote sharing. Whatever channels and media formats you choose, back them up with lots of rich content and several points from which to access your story.

1: Follow Up
Launch is only the beginning. “Launch Marketing” is a state of mind. Today, you can never really leave “Launch mode” or rest on your laurels. You may view it as a campaign–as long as you recognize it should never “end.” Be opportunistic, persistent and consistent!