If there is one thing I always do when starting a new, major project, particularly if the work is going to be shared across departments or functions or at least collaborated on by multiple parties, I always create a messaging document.
How do I know if I need a messaging document?
If you work in marketing, especially in a management or leadership role, and are collaborating with other departments on a new, largescale project or want your team to be able to create marketing assets with a unified voice and position, a messaging document will guide your efforts. It will help everyone involved in a project learn how to navigate communication, and it will help you provide the overarching strategic messaging angle so you don’t have to explain what each team member should say when creating each content asset. The messaging document serves as a guiding document for anything related to communication around a particular project or topic. It is especially helpful when introducing a new idea or project, as is the case with new product launches and go to-market strategies, new topics to create thought leadership content around, or new ways to position your brand.
A strong communication leader should be able to take thorough notes to understand the foundational information about a product or topic, synthesize perspectives, filter them through the marketing lens, and convert them into one cohesive angle. At the most granular level, this might begin to take shape a few different ways:
a) A new project is announced; there is an internal kickoff meeting where details are discussed and teams are given deliverables. I take notes from the meeting, understand my role, and start organizing my thoughts around what needs to happen (particularly from my role in marketing/communication) in order for goals to be reached.
b) A new project is announced; there will be an internal kickoff meeting at some point, but in the meantime, each team needs to figure out their role, strategy, and wish list (things they need to know in order to do their jobs properly). I consider expectations, resources, and outcomes, then put together a strategic plan to chart my team’s goals, deliverables, timeline, and processes.
c) A new idea arises but implementation plans are not yet laid. I might put together a high-level strategy illustrating the possible implementations and applications of this idea and the path that would need to be taken in order to get there.
There are certainly other ways that journey might begin and progress, but at their core, all of these paths share the idea of collaborating on work with other people and seeing a project though to a shared final goal or product. Many teams work differently on all of the middle steps, but at the beginning, there should be some sort of internal launch or announcement to kick off joint efforts, and at the end, there must be something being produced or some outcome that everyone is striving towards. In order to align efforts toward that final goal and improve the communication, organization, and cohesion of all work throughout, the marketing or communication team should create a messaging document.
What should I include in a messaging document?
A messaging document should provide all readers with a clear picture of what the project is about and how different people should be talking about it to various audiences. Over the years, I have created a few different templates for messaging documents, though I will admit that sometimes I start with a blank page and build out a new document tailored to the project at hand (I wouldn’t recommend the blank page approach for new adopters of this idea, but you could potentially get to that point with practice and time).
Here are some elements that can be included in a messaging document:
This list was taken from a messaging document created when launching a new product
Title of product (if acronym, spell it out)
Definition - What is the product? What does it do? (Capabilities can be rolled up into this section or can stand on their own.)
Value proposition – What is its value/purpose?
Benefits per audience segment
Example: Audience 1: X, Benefits: 1, 2, 3. Audience 2: Y, Benefits: 1, 2, 3.
You can also include a brief summary of overarching benefits from a general standpoint
Positioning per channel – internal language, marketing /PR angles, sales positioning
Noteworthy terms – What language does the internal team need to know in order to speak to this product confidently, answer questions in real-time, and feel supported in client conversations?
Challenges – What do we know are shortcomings or hurdles and how do we respond to them?
Resources – What do we have that we can repurpose? What do we need to create?
For brand new projects, this will be a list of what you’ll need to create, since repurposing probably won’t be possible.
Example: Plan to create messaging matrix and email templates; will need to also create slides for a sales deck and one-sheets to email to clients
Questions – What do we still need to figure out?
Timeline
This list was taken from a messaging document created to support cross-team outreach about a particular topic
Title – how we refer to this topic internally vs. externally
Facts - what we know about the topic
FAQs – questions people may ask
Talking points – answers to questions people may ask
Information to be included in outreach – what we need to say
Positioning – how we need to say it
Resources required to support this endeavor – email templates, one-sheets, slides, etc.
Timeline
This list was taken from a project brief created to teach a marketing team about a new assignment that required intradepartmental collaboration
Title
Overview
Goals
Value proposition/positioning
Audience
Deliverables
Timeline
Other elements that can be included, though they may fit better into a higher-level marketing strategy document than a specific messaging document:
Competitive analysis – What already exists in the market that is similar to this offering? How is it being talked about by the company offering it? How is it being responded to by audiences?
Example process/journey – List out the steps of the customer journey that break down each touchpoint, decision, interaction, etc. so you can anticipate exactly how your target audience will engage with this product
Teams involved – Perhaps a RACI chart might help here
Resource analysis – What do you already have that you can repurpose? What resources have you published that your audience may already be aware of (contributing to their education level/knowledge surrounding this idea)? Which team members or departments will be assigned to this project? How much budget can you allocate to this project? Do we have the capabilities to do this right now or should we wait until next quarter?
Design – Does this need its own design package? What design can we create that will complement the story we are trying to tell?
The elements you include in each messaging document may differ based on the type of project, but beginning with a master template that you then tailor to each project’s needs will help you stay organized each time you begin the process.
How can I ensure my messaging document is effective?
Adoption & communication
When messaging documents are adopted and trusted as the guiding force behind all communication for a particular project, your team will find success. One challenge might be the adoption of the idea – messaging documents have to be created by one person, though they can be collaborated on by multiple, and they have to be adopted by all involved in order to be most effective. Communication around the messaging document’s use as an internal guiding force must also be clear: The main goal of a messaging document is to ensure everyone knows how best to speak about a particular product or topic as well as to share how the marketing team will be promoting and communicating about this product (and how this may differ based on setting, team, audience, or other factors that apply to your particular implementation).
Thoroughness & organization
There will be differences between internal and external implementation, among audience segments, and in the use of this messaging by different departments, so try to think of as many applications as possible when creating the structure for your messaging document. One messaging document for a major project should outline all of this in one place and provide enough detail that each team can refer to the information within it that applies to them and know exactly how to proceed in their communication.
Collaboration & synthesis
Marketing may need to collaborate with other teams to collect information that should be include in the messaging document (e.g., if there is a Product team creating a product that is about to be launched, Marketing needs to get all of the information around its capabilities, usage/onboarding, customer journey, timeline, etc. before creating this document); then, trusting one person to create and maintain the messaging document will keep your communication streamlined. If you typically determine the messaging for your company, you will likely be the one creating the messaging document; as such, you will be responsible for synthesizing the information you have gleaned, filtering it through each lens, and wording it in a way that tells one cohesive story from the overarching brand but is also tailored to each layer of segmentation (a sales rep might talk to his long-time client differently than a PR professional might be writing a press release, but the main points have to be the same, and the various angles should at least be outlined in the messaging documents so each party can do his or her job while maintaining the appropriate message).
In essence, a messaging document helps support all parties’ conversations and promoting alignment across all efforts to ensure the same story (which is the right story!) is being told by all. Effective messaging documents will allow your brand to tell its story in an organized, strategic, cohesive manner that supports its identity and furthers its mission.
Note: I have seen similar messaging documents come from other departments than marketing, but they are not quite the same thing – there may be a technical document from a product or technology team that lays out the technical or operational details, or a document from a sales team specific to the way they want to pitch that particular angle, but the marketing team should be responsible for rifling through all of that information and putting together the one, overarching, driving document that synthesizes all of those details and angles for everyone else and lays it forth it one place (after being filtered through the appropriate strategic branding lens, of course!).
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