AMA: Gusto Head of Product Marketing, Benefits, Leah Brite on Messaging Strategy

Messaging consistency can feel like herding feral cats—but adding structure can help you get proactive consistency and out of reactive correction. The goal isn’t to make every channel say the exact same thing. Rather, you want to make sure they all tell the same story in a way that is right for their channel. Solutions for ensuring consistency will vary by company size/scale, so here’s where to start for small, med, and large: Small orgs (early stage / scrappy) One source of truth: Create a 1-pa ...Read More

The key to meeting both audience needs is about hierarchy and structuring. Here’s what I mean by that: Design for execs to scan: Put a TL;DR at the top: positioning sentence, ICP + core pain, 3 value prop pillars and corresponding proof points. Put this into a table so it is scannable. Make it brief - 200-300 words.  Assume that execs won’t read beyond this section.  Add detail for copy and channel teams: Further down, expand on the messaging, giving teams, approved phrases, notes on tone, do/do ...Read More

If everyone’s happy with your messaging, you probably got beige. Stakeholders don’t water messaging down out of malice. They do it because pushing the envelope can feel risky. Your job is to make “sharp + customer-true” feel safer than “generic + forgettable.” Define the decision making model upfront (RACI/DACI/RAPID). Get explicit on each person’s role and there can only be 1 decider. Ideally the final decider sits in the PMM leadership chain. Start with the customer problem. Anchor the exercis ...Read More

Competitive analysis is like hot sauce (or if you are like me, raw jalapenos) in messaging: a little makes everything better, too much and you can’t taste the actual food (your customer). Use it as project fuel: Nothing kickstarts a messaging sprint like seeing a competitor absolutely nail a buyer truth. If you’re competitive like me, that mix of “ugh they got there first” + “we can do better” is rocket fuel. Use it to raise the bar and create urgency, without copying. Keep the customer as north ...Read More

Treat Sales as a core part of your messaging strategy. They sit on a goldmine of prospect knowledge: the questions buyers ask, the objections that stall deals, the words that actually land. Having a tight and continual feedback loop with sales ensures your messaging is always evolving and getting better, and that sales stays continually bought in, seeing how great messaging helps close deals faster. Bake Sales into the decision process: Put Sales in your RAPID/RACI/DACI as input (and sometimes a ...Read More

Customer feedback is central to shaping your messaging strategy. Use a combination of signals and explicit tests to hone and strengthen messaging.  Start with the pain: Anchor messaging on the customer’s job-to-be-done, their stakes, and what “success” looks like in their words. Use existing data first: Before you ask anyone’s opinion, look at behavior. What A/B tests have you run in the last 3–6 months? Where are prospects dropping (ads, LP, demo request, activation)? Pair quant with qual so yo ...Read More