INTRODUCTION
According to a PRSA blog article, key messages are the essence of what you want to communicate, are what’s needed to engage people and are bite-sized summations that articulate what you do, what you stand for, how you are different and what value you bring to stakeholders. These messages should be used in all communication activities, regardless of the medium (e.g., website, presentations, social media, media interviews).
Here are three mistakes to avoid when developing key messages.
NOT KNOWING YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE
To create the correct message, you first need to know who will be on the receiving end of them. Not fully understanding your target audience can result in messages that don’t fully resonate with them (see Schramm’s model of communication). The consequences can be a lack of engagement or failure to achieve your goal.
To avoid this mistake, take the time to learn as much as possible about your target audience(s) prior to developing messages. What are their needs or preferences? You may even need to do conduct a survey or interviews to figure this out.
BEING TOO SPECIFIC/SALES-FOCUSED
Rather than getting into the minutia of everything about your company, make the key messages broad in scope and focus on how you can benefit your target audience. In addition, the messages should also be short in length, as this helps staff memorize and correctly use them, in media interviews for example.
Let’s say you own a home cleaning company. Instead of saying “Our staff can clean your bathroom, kitchen, etc.,” make the message beneficial, such as, “We eliminate the hassles of keeping a spotless home.” While that can be your primary message, remember to create multiple secondary messages to support it. These can include supporting information to distinguish and add credibility.
Meanwhile, don’t make your talking points sales-focused. In other words, they should not sound like advertising copy (e.g., “guaranteed to ____”) or a sales pitch. You will lose credibility if you do this.
NEVER TESTING/UPDATING MESSAGES
You can’t just hope and pray that your messages will work. Once you feel like you’re in a good spot with your messages, be sure to test them with sample members of your target audience(s) to see if/how they resonate. You can do this through a focus group, for instance. As needed, make adjustments to your messages before they’re used with the entire audience set.
It’s also important to update your messages periodically. Make sure the messages are reflecting current trends, research and any new issues you are trying to address as a whole.