How to Develop Strategic Messaging and Positioning

How to Develop Strategic
Messaging
By Myk Pono
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/mykolaponomarenko
Medium - https://medium.com/@myxys
Twitter - https://twitter.com/myxys
Article: How to Develop Strategic Messaging and Positioning

Why care about strategic
messaging?
Myk Pono | Linkedin Medium Twitter | How to Develop Strategic Messaging and Positioning

Why care about strategic messaging?
➔ Product/market fit also means message/customer fit
➔ Fundraising and investor decks
➔ Sales
➔ Marketing

Product/market fit also means message/customer fit

Is your messaging effective?

Effective Messaging = Simple + Consistent
Internal Evaluation
(sales, marketing, product, customer support etc.)
What do we do?
1 sentence company pitch
What problem are we solving?
1 sentence problem pitch
How are we different from our competitors?
1 sentence competitive pitch
Why should customers buy from us?
1–3 bullet points of values we provide for customers
External Evaluation
(customers, prospects, industry experts)
Why did you buy our product?
What problems were you looking to solve?
How do you use our product?
What do you like most about our product?
What do you like least?

What is strategic messaging?

Strategic messaging communicates product
value to the customer by describing the
solution to a problem.

The Golden Circle (by Simon Sinek)
Why? = The Purpose
Why do you do what you do?
What do you believe?
How? = The Process
How do you achieve and realize WHY?
What? = The Results
What do you do? The results of WHY.

The Golden Circle of Strategic Messaging
Why?
Vision - why organizations do what they do.?
How?
How companies organize their vision and value.?
What?
What strategies, channels, and format organizations use to deliver
their message?

The Biggest Strategic
Messaging Mistakes.

The Biggest Strategic Messaging Mistakes
➔ Message should be consistent
➔ Brevity and simplicity leads to clarity
➔ Define, don’t assume
➔ Avoid superlatives and buzzwords
➔ Don’t change the message too often, preferably never
State of the art
Best in class
World class
Leading

How to design strategic
messaging.

The Process of Designing Strategic Messaging
Step 1: Pick Target Customer & Messaging Framework
Step 2: Discovery
Step 3: Build Target Customer Profile
Step 4: Identify Value Categories for Each Target Customer Profile
Step 5: Summarize Details Under Each Value Category
Step 6: Design Top Tier Messaging
Step 7: Review / Get Feedback / Iterate

Step 1: Pick Target Customer & Messaging Frameworks
FIT / Profile PAIN Behavior
Company Profile
Revenue Daily activities
Size Goals
Industry / Vertical Responsibilities
Persona Profile
Role in buying cycle Success Metrics
Title Challenges
Function Budget
Team Size
Technology Stack

Positioning
Messaging
Tagline / Headline
Slogan
Positioning Statement
25-word description
Target Customer
(buying personas)
Business function
Titles
Role in the buying process
Value Messaging
Value category Value #1 Value #1 Value #1
Value statement
Value bullet points
Product features
Proof points / Metrics

Tagline / Headline
Catch phrase or product category definition.
Ex: Best-in-class Marketing Automation Software (Marketo)
Slogan
Short, memorable phrase/statement that summarizes the company's strategy.
Ex: Drive Revenue with Accounts that Matter (Marketo)
Positioning Statement How your product/company/brand brings value to customers in ways different from competitors.
25-word description One sentence company description.
Business function Business functions or departments involved in the buying process.
Titles Titles of your target customers involved in the buying process.
Role in the buying process What role an individual plays in the buying process.
Value category Describe the value provided using two or three words.
Value statement One sentence value statement.
Value bullet points Value broken down into a few smaller items.
Product features Identify the exact product features that correspond with a particular value.
How success of delivering this value to customers can be measured, case studies of the customers with similar pains that were
solved with your product.

Step 2: Discovery
➔ Interview sales reps
➔ Interview the product owner and customer success managers
➔ Listen to prospects (shadow sales calls)
➔ Interview the last 5-10 lost prospects
➔ Interview the newest 5-10 customers
➔ Interview customers that have been customers for more than 1 yr
➔ Interview industry experts / analysts
➔ Review competitive messaging and 3rd party sources

Step 2: Discovery
Interview sales reps
➔ Ask them to identify a target customer
➔ Ask about the easiest deals they’ve closed
➔ Ask about the biggest deals they’ve closed
➔ Ask about the toughest deal they’ve closed
➔ Ask about a recently lost prospect and the reasons
➔ Ask them to state the pain that most customers have
➔ Ask what questions they ask prospects to identify their pain
➔ Ask what customers they have the best relationship with (these are the customers you will be interviewing later)

Step 2: Discovery
Interview the product owner and customer success managers
➔ Focus on questions that help you understand how customers talk about the product
➔ Ask how the product team describes the product and what’s on the product roadmap
➔ Ask customer success team about customer goals and the most common support questions

Step 2: Discovery
Listen to prospects (shadow sales calls)
➔ Record what questions prospects ask
➔ Record what objection prospects raise
➔ Note how they talk about their problems/pain and record how they describe your product
➔ Notice what competitors customers mention
➔ Record how your sales reps talk about the product and what questions they ask
➔ Note what use cases your sales reps are using

Step 2: Discovery
Interview the last 5-10 lost prospects
➔ Ask why they decided not to buy
➔ Ask what needs and pains they were looking to solve
➔ Ask what hat competitor (if any) a lost prospect decided to buy from
➔ Ask if they are they happy with their current solution
➔ What was a deal breaker? What was the main reason to choose another product?

Step 2: Discovery
Interview the newest 5-10 customers
➔ What did they think about your product prior to purchase?
➔ How did they hear about you?
➔ What problem did they want to solve?
➔ What are the biggest challenges they are facing?
➔ Would they recommend your product?

Step 2: Discovery
Interview customers that have been customers for more than 1 yr
➔ Why do they use your product?
➔ How often do they interact with your product?
➔ What do they like most/least about your product?

Step 2: Discovery
Interview industry experts / analysts
➔ Understand how analysts segment your market
➔ What criteria do they use to rank vendors in your market?
➔ What value / need do analysts see as critical?
➔ Who is the leader in your category? And why?

Step 2: Discovery
Review competitive messaging and 3rd party sources
➔ Create a short list of direct competitors
➔ Review their messaging and how they talk about their products
➔ Identify what advantages and disadvantages your product has compared to competition
➔ Research industry blogs and Quora to see what type of questions and topics people care about in your industry

FIT / Profile PAIN / Behavior
Company Profile
Revenue >$5M Daily activities Strategy, planning, management
Size >200 employees Goals User growth & revenue
Industry / Vertical Non tech companies, hospitality,
banking, finance
Responsibilities Overseeing marketing
Persona Profile
Role in buying cycle Influencer, buyer / decision
maker, end-user
Success Metrics Revenue / customer
Title CMO, CDO, VP of Engineering Challenges Grow mobile presence
Function Marketing Budget >$1M
Team Size <10
Technology Stack Salesforce, Adobe

Target Customer
(buying personas)
Business function CMO / Chief Digital Officer Engineering IT Operations
Titles CMO / VP of Marketing /
Mobile PM
VP of Engineering / Dir of Eng
/ Dev Manager
VP of IT Ops Manager
Role in the buying process Economic buyer End-user / Decision maker Tech evaluator / Influencer

Step 4: Identify Values for Each Target Customer Profile
Economic Buyer: CMO / CDO / Line of Business
Value 1: Revenue / Engagement / Retention
Value 2: Customer Satisfaction
End-user / Decision Maker: Engineering
Value 1: Faster Development Cycles
Value 2: App Quality and Performance
Influencer / Tech Evaluator: IT operations
Value 1: Visibility
Value 2: Mean-time-to-resolution

Positioning
Messaging
Tagline / Headline
Slogan
25-word description
Target
Customer
(buying personas)
Titles CMO / VP of Marketing / Mobile PM VP of Engineering / Dir of Eng
/ Dev Manager
Value
Messaging
Revenue / Engagement /
Retention
Faster Development
Cycles
Visibility
Value statement
Value bullet points
Product features

Target
Customer
(buying personas)
Titles CMO / VP of Marketing / Mobile PM VP of Engineering / Dir of Eng
/ Dev Manager
Value
Messaging
Revenue / Engagement / Retention Faster Development Cycles IT Operations
Value statement
Value bullet points
Product features
Value
Messaging
Customer Satisfaction App Quality and Performance Mean-time-to-resolution
Value statement
Value bullet points
Product features

Step 4: Identify Values for Each Target Customer Profile
Tips:
➔ Great quality is not a value.
➔ Amazing customer service is not a value.
➔ Cheap price is not a value.
➔ Easy integration is not a value.

Value Messaging
Revenue / Engagement / Retention Faster Development Cycles Visibility
Value statement
Value bullet points
Product features
Value Messaging
Customer Satisfaction App Quality and Performance Mean-time-to-resolution
Value statement
Value bullet points
Product features

Tips:
➔ Keep your tone and style conversational.
➔ Assign every product feature to a value.
➔ Bullet Points help you deconstruct value statements.
➔ Proof points and Metrics help customers measure the progress towards perceived value.

Value
Messaging
Value statement (Revenue) Minimize revenue at risk by
proactively monitoring transaction success rates
(Engagement) Improve user engagement by
correlating behavior and operational metrics
Iterate faster by reducing time to detect,
diagnose, prioritize and resolve bugs, errors, and
crashes
Gain end-to-end visibility of your mobile app
performance, including the impact of backend
servers and 3rd party API calls
Value bullet points - Revenue growth/loss due to app performance
and performance issues
- Engagement loss due to app crashes and
performance issues
- App downtime = business downtime
- Slow user base growth due to slow app
performance and crashes
- Long product development and QA cycles:
devices, networks, OS;
- Less time in QA = Faster Product Releases
- Rapidly identify the root cause of issues
- Reduce the time to detect, triage, diagnose and
resolve experience problems
- Quickly resolve crashes through stack traces
and user flows
- OOTB support for new device and OS releases
- Prioritization of issues based on - scale of
impacted users - revenue at risk
- Measure performance impact of 3rd party
systems/SDK/APIs
- Management tool integrations: monitoring
tools, alerting consoles
- Internal API endpoints (ex: server talking to a
mobile app)
- Mobile app "last mile" visibility (data traffic
from cloud to device)
- Integrated: REST APIs
- End-to-end view of mobile to backend servers
performance
Product features - Transaction monitoring - Breadcrumbs
+ how user flow cause crashes & exceptions
+ visualize API issues in context
+ what actions lead to transaction failures
- Multiple OS & Device support
- Root Cause determination
- Cloud Service API Monitoring
- APIs and service monitoring
Proof points /
Metrics
- Daily Active Users
- Revenue / DAU
- Avg. app downtime
- Abandonment Rate
- Customer Lifetime Value (LTV)
- Retention Rate
- App Adoption Rate
- Avg. time of a release cycle
- Avg. # of Support Requests
- App Time
- Availability
- Alerts

Positioning
Messaging
Tagline / Headline Catch phrase or product category definition.
Ex: Best-in-class Marketing Automation Software (Marketo)
Slogan Short, memorable phrase/statement that summarizes the company's strategy.
Ex: Drive Revenue with Accounts that Matter (Marketo)
Positioning Statement How your product/company/brand brings value to customers in ways different from competitors.
25-word description One sentence company description.
Tagline / Headline (examples):
Metadata.io - Demand Generation on Autopilot
Marketo - Best-in-class Marketing Automation Software
Intercom - Customer Messaging Platform

Slogan (examples):
Marketo - Drive Revenue with Accounts that Matter.
Drift - Your best leads are already right in front of you.
Slack - Where work happens.
Positioning Statement (example):
Salesforce - not software!
Slack - anti-email / email killer.

25-word description:
Company {does} (value) to {help} (target customers) with (problem).
Examples:
Marketo provides the leading engagement marketing software and solutions designed to help marketers [TARGET CUSTOMER]
develop long-term relationships with their customers — from acquisition to advocacy [VALUE].
Zendesk builds software for better customer relationships [PROBLEM]. It empowers organizations to improve customer
engagement and better understand their customers [VALUE].
Intercom is the first to bring messaging products for sales, marketing & customer service to one platform [VALUE], helping
businesses avoid the stiff, spammy status quo [PROBLEM] and have real conversations that build real connections.

Positioning
Messaging
Tagline / Headline
Slogan
25-word description
Target
Customer
(buying personas)
Titles CMO / VP of Marketing / Mobile PM VP of Engineering / Dir of Eng / Dev Manager VP of IT Ops Manager
Value
Messaging
Value statement (Revenue) Minimize revenue at risk by proactively
monitoring transaction success rates
(Engagement) Improve user engagement by
correlating behavior and operational metrics
Iterate faster by reducing time to detect, diagnose,
prioritize and resolve bugs, errors, and crashes
Gain end-to-end visibility of your mobile app
performance, including the impact of backend
servers and 3rd party API calls
Value bullet points - Revenue growth/loss due to app performance and
performance issues
- Engagement loss due to app crashes and
performance issues
- App downtime = business downtime
- Long product development and QA cycles:
devices, networks, OS;
- Less time in QA = Faster Product Releases
- Rapidly identify the root cause of issues
- Reduce the time to detect, triage, diagnose and
resolve experience problems
- Measure performance impact of 3rd party
systems/SDK/APIs
- Management tool integrations: monitoring tools,
alerting consoles
- Internal API endpoints
Product features - Transaction monitoring - Breadcrumbs
+ how user flow cause crashes & exceptions
+ visualize API issues in context
+ what actions lead to transaction failures
- Cloud Service API Monitoring
- APIs and service monitoring
Proof points / Metrics - Daily Active Users
- Revenue / DAU
- Avg. app downtime
- Avg. time of a release cycle
- Avg. # of Support Requests
- App Time
- Availability
- Alerts

Step 7: Review / Get Feedback / Iterate
➔ Present new strategic messaging
◆ To stakeholders and top managers
◆ To small functional teams
➔ Get feedback
➔ Iterate and adjust

How to implement new
messaging in organizations.

Implementing New Strategic Messaging
➔ Update your sales playbook
◆ Sales scripts
◆ Pain / problem diagnostic questions
◆ Competitive cards
➔ Marketing
◆ Content marketing strategy
◆ Ads
◆ Website copy

Learn more:
How To Develop Strategic Messaging and Positioning (includes resources)
Related Articles:
How To Track Customer Acquisitions: Customer Lifecycle, Sales Funnel, and Content Strategy
How To Design Lead Nurturing, Lead Scoring, and Drip Email Campaigns
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