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THE ART & SCIENCE
OF MESSAGING
MARK EVANS
ME CONSULTING
MESSAGING IS
You need it to connect
with customers,
investors, potential
employees, the press,
etc. and if you don’t have
a simple, compelling
message, they won’t
bother to learn more.
- David Skok
>The averager person sees or hears
100,000 words/day of content
WHAT IS GREAT MESSAGING?
Simple.
Compelling.
Specific.
Differentiated.
Defensible.
Des Traynor, Intercom
MESSAGING
How how can it
really be to tell
people what you
do, who you
serve and why it
matters?
MESSAGING
IS DIFFICULT
Startups struggle due to 2 reasons:
- They product-centric (love to talk about product,
features, price), rather than customer-centric
- They don’t know their customers well enough.
Many don’t have buyer personas.
MESSAGING
FRAMEWORK
DISCOVERY
The brain
dump
RESEARCH
Looking at the
competitive landscape
BRAINSTORMING
Focusing on ideas, words
and phrases
MESSAGING
Drawing a line in the
sand
TESTING
What do others think?
POLLINATION
Spreading the word
A case study:
Our overall message didn’t match
our sales pitch.
At first, this was on purpose.
Then, it was holding us back.
Here is where we started.
No storytelling.
Message was boring.
Not seen as thought leader.
Picked
“scrappy”.
It’s in our
DNA!
SCRAPPY
Tested it.
SCRAPPY
Failed.
Created trust issues.
Made us look small.
We killed it.
And any similar words.
Prospects said their mission was to have
great customer experiences.
Settled on “happiness”.
Happy employees sell the most.
Happy customers stay for life.
We tested it during sales process.
It worked!
Now it’s our theme. Everywhere.
Making people laugh.
Illustrations
Security doc
Cards
Activities
Messages should affect everything.
www.markevans.ca
mark@markevans.ca
416-669-7028
www.statflo.com
kevin@statflo.com
647-317-4159

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How to Create Great Messaging

Editor's Notes

  1. Congratulations to Rowan and his team for putting on the conference. I’ve always been a believer in the power of messaging. As a reporter, I created messaging about technology companies and technology trends. As a marketing consultant, I work with many startups looking to use message to establish a foothold. This presentation is split into two parts – the first section will provide some context around the value of messaging and how to create. The second part will be a case study involving a client, Statflo, and how it went through a refresh of its messaging.
  2. It goes without saying that messaging is important. You could argue it’s most important than ever. Brands need to effectively and quickly connect with multiple stakeholders – customers, employees, analysts, media, partners. We live in an instant gratification world - there’s no room to be cute, obtuse or obscure. In many cases, you only one shot at capturing the spotlight.
  3. Think about how much information and content we’re consuming and processing every day Think about how smartphones make it so easy to consume at all times – waiting in lineups, in bed, etc.
  4. Great blog about the importance of words; popular blog post about using tabs vs. folders. Intercom is an excellent example of a company that understand product marketing….and storytelling.
  5. How hard can it be to create a story or message about your company and product? You live and breath it every day. You understand how the product works and why people would buy it.
  6. But many companies struggle with messaging – even companies with good products that deliver lots of value. They struggle for two reasons They are product-centric They lack perspective, driven by the fact they don’t talk to their customers enough. Strong messaging comes from knowing your customers inside out. I’m always surprised by how many companies haven’t created buyer personas.
  7. Now I’ve given you a taste of message conceptually and hopefully provided some context, let’s look at messaging in the real-world. I’d like to introduce Kevin Gervais, co-founder of Statflo, a client. Statflo is a fast-growing company that offers a Saas-based platform that lets wireless carriers and dealers offer better customer service – imagine that! Kevin is going to walk you through how Statflo embraced a new approach to messaging and how it has impacted the business.
  8. I wanted to start with the old messaging to give people some context – a fast-growing company with messaging that needs to be refreshed. You can provide the why this needed to happen.
  9. I wanted to start with the old messaging to give people some context – a fast-growing company with messaging that needs to be refreshed. You can provide the why this needed to happen.
  10. I wanted to start with the old messaging to give people some context – a fast-growing company with messaging that needs to be refreshed. You can provide the why this needed to happen.
  11. I wanted to start with the old messaging to give people some context – a fast-growing company with messaging that needs to be refreshed. You can provide the why this needed to happen.
  12. Statflo liked the idea of scrappy because
  13. Scrappy was tested as a concept by using it as the theme of a TechTO talk. It was a good way to see if a messaging concept worked.
  14. VC didn’t like scrapping. They felt it wasn’t becoming for a VC-backed company because it created the right impression.
  15. VC didn’t like scrapping. They felt it wasn’t becoming for a VC-backed company because it created the right impression.
  16. In looking at Statflo’s mission, we decided “happy” was a good concept because ultimately Statflo wanted to make customers happy. If customers are happy, sales reps are happy and dealers are happy.
  17. In looking at Statflo’s mission, we decided “happy” was a good concept because ultimately Statflo wanted to make customers happy. If customers are happy, sales reps are happy and dealers are happy.
  18. In looking at Statflo’s mission, we decided “happy” was a good concept because ultimately Statflo wanted to make customers happy. If customers are happy, sales reps are happy and dealers are happy.
  19. In looking at Statflo’s mission, we decided “happy” was a good concept because ultimately Statflo wanted to make customers happy. If customers are happy, sales reps are happy and dealers are happy.
  20. In looking at Statflo’s mission, we decided “happy” was a good concept because ultimately Statflo wanted to make customers happy. If customers are happy, sales reps are happy and dealers are happy.
  21. In looking at Statflo’s mission, we decided “happy” was a good concept because ultimately Statflo wanted to make customers happy. If customers are happy, sales reps are happy and dealers are happy.
  22. In looking at Statflo’s mission, we decided “happy” was a good concept because ultimately Statflo wanted to make customers happy. If customers are happy, sales reps are happy and dealers are happy.
  23. In looking at Statflo’s mission, we decided “happy” was a good concept because ultimately Statflo wanted to make customers happy. If customers are happy, sales reps are happy and dealers are happy.
  24. In looking at Statflo’s mission, we decided “happy” was a good concept because ultimately Statflo wanted to make customers happy. If customers are happy, sales reps are happy and dealers are happy.
  25. In looking at Statflo’s mission, we decided “happy” was a good concept because ultimately Statflo wanted to make customers happy. If customers are happy, sales reps are happy and dealers are happy.
  26. In looking at Statflo’s mission, we decided “happy” was a good concept because ultimately Statflo wanted to make customers happy. If customers are happy, sales reps are happy and dealers are happy.