AMA: HackerOne Vice President of Product Marketing, April Rassa on Messaging

I think some of the work April Dunford has done in terms of the framework she lays out in her book is super practical and easy to use. There are some good examples you can find here. I'm a big fan of the Content Marketing Institute and they have some great content around messaging framework you can find. This is one example.

In the Hard Thing about Hard Things by Ben Horowitz, he says "comapnies that don't have a clearly articulated story don't have a well-thought-out strategy. The company story is the company strategy." With that said, that is a good starting point to consider. Your story must explain at a fundamental level why you exist. Why does the world need your company? Why do we need to be doing what we're doig and why is it important? Working with product management to make sure the story we are communicating maps to the strategic roadmap, connecting with sales and making sure we are capturing the customer insights in the narrative and connecting with CS to ensure the customer experience is reflected. 

When you think about your product messaging, you may start with the features and benefits the product provides. While those things do need to be defined, they should not be where you start developing your product messaging from. Instead, your product messaging should lead with the intangible value your product provides to customers. How does your product or service improve their life? Focus on how your product impacts their experience rather than the specific functions it offers. Features and benefits can contribute to that value, but they are not the overall value of your product. The core value of your product is the sum of all the benefits your product provides. It’s more than just the tactical solution your product can accomplish — it’s what that tactical solution is building toward in terms of overall goal attainment. Even though your brand awareness may still be low, your product’s core value should be concise, comprehensible, not jargony and easy to connect with. Once you know what the value of your product is and who you’re trying to market it to, use that knowledge to develop your product messaging. Your messaging should start by explaining why the prospect should buy a solution like yours. That’s conveyed through your product’s core value. Then you explain why they should buy your product specifically, which you explain by showing how your product’s features and benefits address the prospect’s pain points. You might frame your value proposition differently depending on the personas you’re addressing. The core value shouldn’t change, but the benefits you highlight might.

Every company wants to be the #1 in their field. I would argue that if your company is undeniably #1 in its market, you don’t often make this proclamation. People already know it. It’s very similar to the notion that “nobody ever got fired for buying IBM.” Companies believe that by saying they’re #1, consumers will feel a level of comfort knowing that they are buying the best. To solve this problem, ask yourself, “Are my potential customers really trying to buy #1?” Chances are, probably not – they’re not trying to buy your product simply because it’s the best, they’re trying to buy some unique aspect or characteristic of your product that makes it the best. What specific attributes of the market leading solution in your industry do buyers care about? The more specific you can be, the better. Focus your messaging on yuor customers and their pain points not driving your own company messaging. This is key. The easiest way to identify this issue is to read your company’s messaging and simply ask yourself, “Does our company care about this, or does our potential customer?” Lastly, humanize your message. To generate a message with impact, you’ll need to understand how it can be meaningful to your target audience. You want to create a “pull.” Building a connection with your prospects is way better than simply handing them the information, right? By doing so, you let them figure out how your products and services can be valuable to them.

Your messaging should ultimately map to the key buyer personas you've identified. Your messaging then needs to be developed to go a level deeper into the value statements for different buyer personas and these can range from business to technical. You need to cater the messaging based on those buyers and have a clear sense on what is the customer journey. Is the primary buyer a business or technical decision maker and what is the intended customer journey path?

I think I addressed this above. It's vital for you to get objective opinions about your idea. Chances are you've been exposed to your concept for so long that you've lost the ability to be unbiased. Talk to customers! Get feedback from your sales team. Develop regular cadences where you can get that feedback loop with sales, SDRs, and customer success teams.

My short answer is to be scrappy and test with customers. Make sure your messaging can answer these questions: - Does your message focus on one main point? People will remember if your message is concise, clear and consistent. - Does the message include “what’s in it for me”? Tell customers what is in it for them right away! - Can the message hook your audience in 7 seconds? - Is the message truthful and factual? - Does it speak the customers language, instead of your jargon? Avoid industry acronyms and jargon. - Do you offer customer or data proof in your message? - Does the message address the buyers unconsidered needs? Help your buyers discover the needs they aren’t aware of. - Is the message kept consistent and credible? People equate consistency with credibility. - Does the message answer the question why? Customers want to know why. - Is the message positive, inspiring and uplifting? Stay positive! Avoid words like no, never, can’t. Test with your beta customers, run a landing page with two versions of message and see how they convert.

Most often when you're launching the company's first product, you're most likely launching the company as well. The challenge there is its the first for everything. So, make sure you have a comprehensive launch plan as there are a lot of moving parts. Plus, make sure you define the key metrics to define success, often times this can be a challenge for team. How do you think about: Awareness: organic search traffic, PR/comms strategy, social engagement Growth: KPIs for the business around MQLs, demos, website conversions, etc Impact: Revenue, retention, etc.

Messaging is the ability to communicate pains and solutions for a specific persona using the written word. PMM writing is unique because it’s all about distilling a message down to it’s essence and packaging words in a way that will be accepted by a specific group of people. A PMM should write with very little fat. Practice writing. Test your messages with your sales team, SDRs, A/B test marketing campaigns. Listen to how your sales team pitches. Listen to how your customers talk.

It's key to align around a high-level story that powers success—in sales, marketing, fundraising, product development and recruiting—by getting everyone on the same page about strategy and differentiation. Alignment is difficult. If you can start with your CEO, that is key. Ultimately, your CEO is yuor ultimate storyteller and if she is bought in, then its easier to get the rest of the executive team aligned. The story is the strategy and that should be your starting point. What’s driving your story in the market? New features and functionality … or a bigger promise to your customers? Do they align? Clarity in the minds of your customers can only exist if you tell a clear, cohesive and connected story. A corporate story that aligns with your business strategy and product roadmap.

The biggest thing I see when companies develop a product, service or build a brand, is they get stuck on the “what” of the thing. What the product does? What the company does? This thing. And this thing. And this. And that’s great, but the bigger question is why? Savvy consumers/customers look past what a product does; they want to know what makes it authentic? What’s the backstory? Why should they believe in you? People are not just buying products; they are buying better versions of themselves and they want to know how it shapes their lives and their narrative. Consumers don’t want to be sold; don’t talk at them hawking your brand message, they want something more in addition to the sales pitch. They want you to reach them on an emotional level. They want to know what’s in it for me? They want a story. Show them what your product or service will allow them to do, how it will enrich their lives. I encourage every PMM to throw away the cookie-cutter framework that's something like: For [target customer description…]…our product is a [product category] that provides [compelling reason to buy]. Unlike [the product alternative], we have assembled [key features…]. Throw it out. Instead you should always start by talking to the customer, but not to ask them what they love about the product etc (as valuable as this is), but to focus on what has changed in their world over the last few years and how those changes have made your services or product more valuable and a must-have. Start with: - How has their world changed? What's the change? - How is this change creating winners and losers - What does the customer see as success -- where do they have to get to - what's getting in their way? And, how are you getting them over those obstacles? - what evidence do you have to prove that you can take them there? For those of you familair with Andy Raskin, this is based on his framework, and I really like it. It's worked for me.

Developers don't want to be marketed to. Developers are a sharp, no-nonsense group. They work under deadlines and stress that comes from being asked to deliver on the (next to) impossible. They can smell jargon and insincere messaging from a mile away. Since they play a critical role in choosing tools and solutions, it’s essential that to approach developers with thoughtful, engaging, and helpful content. So, with that in mind, developers want to know just what you can do for them and understand how the whole thing was built and why it will work. Therefore, get on their level. Approach content in a way that adds value to them vs trying to push jargon down their throat. And, meet them where they are.

Even if you’re selling a commodity—stop selling it like a commodity! This means that the most important part of knowing how to sell commodity products is to stop focusing on price as the primary determinant for why a prospect should buy from you. Reflect on the value that you create in the lives of your prospects or in your existing customers—ask them if you have to. Understand the value your customers are gaining from your product, the unique use cases your product offers them, quanitfy the value for yuor customer and bring those out in your messaging and materials. Identify key differentiators and unique value propositions that competitors lack and bring those out in your customer stories and product narrative.