AMA: Instruqt VP of Marketing and Product, Sean Lauer on Messaging

This is an excellent question because the answer seems easier than the reality. It's easy for PMM to think, "We're PMM, so we get to decide our messaging, and we don't really care what other stakeholders think." While messaging is a core part of PMM, and ultimately, PMM is responsible for it, oftentimes, successful messaging lies in stakeholder buy-in of that messaging. Why is that the case? It's because if the messaging PMM builds differs from the messaging that stakeholders, such as sales, are using in the market, then your marketing efforts become disjointed. Disjointed messaging leads to ineffective marketing. So, what do you do to prevent disjointed messaging and ineffective marketing? The answer lies in how messaging is created. The process of creating messaging should not be a solitary effort. Messaging should be collaborative, with PMM utilizing key stakeholders as a resource during the creation process. When stakeholders feel like they're part of the process and their input is valued, you inherently gain their buy-in. Alignment is a natural part of the process.

The contents of your messaging library will vary from company to company and product to product. However, you'll want to create some tentpole documents no matter where you are. A few to consider as part of your arsenal: * A single source of truth—This is usually a longer form document that tells the story of your product. It should provide the source material for much of the messaging needed for different teams. While positioning should remain consistent, messaging, and this doc in particular, should evolve over time. * Product Marketing (Messaging) Briefs (PMB)—The name might vary, but the goal is to provide necessary messaging components for a product or feature. This doc is used by many internal stakeholders and is key to GTM launch success. * A sales pitch deck—Putting messaging into a pitch deck for GTM teams will enable stakeholders to deliver your story consistently and reflect the single source of truth you've created. It's also the best way for PMM to get market feedback on the messaging. * An executive narrative—This takes the form of a simple deck that enables executives to deliver high-level messaging to other executives. It will oftentimes focus on the overall business impact of a product and leave out the in-the-weeds technical detail.

It's important to create a single source of truth so that stakeholders know where to look for the latest and greatest. If your company has a wiki (Notion, etc.), create a messaging hub within your marketing space. If they don't have a wiki, a Google Drive or Dropbox folder will also work. The more tailored you can make it to different audiences, the better. Make it simple for them to find the messaging that they need—whether it's for GTM purposes or product. PMM can sometimes feel like the "messaging police," but it's important to call out and update outdated messaging if and when it's seen. Pointing people back to the single source of truth will help build positive habits. It's easy for stakeholders to just use an old document or collateral that might contain outdated messaging and it's more work to go find the most recent update. With a little bit of friendly coaching, most stakeholders will abide.

Once you see messaging that was created with AI, you start to see it everywhere. There are also tools that allow you to scan messaging to determine if it was written with AI (so it can be confirmed). It's placed even more importance on the ability to speak to your audience as a human would speak to them. Words and phrases that don't sound like typical spoken language when you read them out loud are going to feel AI-created and forced. If you want messaging to land, speak it before you write it. That's the best way to prevent yourself from sounding like a robot!

Simple answer—it takes as long as you want it to take. That's not necessarily what anyone wants to hear, of course. But the reality is that positioning and messaging can take way longer than it should if you don't have a deliberate process and there's no clear decision-maker. What's important to remember is that positioning always comes before messaging. Positioning is strategy, and it drives everything from messaging to product strategy. From my perspective, I would emphasize positioning and weight it more heavily in your process. Getting messaging right is hard if you don't get positioning right. Once you've locked in positioning, then move onto messaging, but only once you've gotten the necessary alignment. A minor change in positioning might lead to major changes in messaging. This is where the deliberate process and clear decision-maker makes the difference. Socialize the process and get buy-in on the decision-marker (use a RACI or DACI model). At each phase, define the stakeholders who should contribute to the process, and then define the point at which a decision is made. When a decision is made, keep the process moving forward and try not to look backward. Ultimately, the amount of time and effort it takes will depend on your timeline and your ability to manage the process.

Honesty is the best policy, as they say. Be direct, don't get creative, and don't sugarcoat the message. The key is to show empathy for the customer's perspective. * Explain clearly why an update is being made and be clear about the trade-offs involved. * Communicate the change early and often across multiple channels. * Always provide an opportunity for customers to provide feedback and feel heard. * Be human and avoid marketing jargon.

The value proposition of a feature is part of a messaging framework. I would go so far as to say that clearly articulating the value prop is potentially the most important part of feature messaging. This is the "why" that end users need to care about to adopt the feature. If users don't understand why a feature is adding value, they're unlikely to use it.

The answer is in the question itself—using jargon will prevent you from creating anything differentiated. Jargon is the norm, so the more you use it, the more you'll sound like everyone else. The more you create messaging that reflects how real people talk (without jargon), the more you'll create differentiated messaging. If you need a test or a framework, I always like the exercise of pretending you're in a loud bar with your friends and you're trying to explain your messaging. You'll naturally be simpler, more direct, and more human in the words that come out of your mouth. If your messaging isn't something you'd say in that situation, it's probably got too much jargon and not something you should use.

Whether you're marketing a B2B or a B2C product, you're always marketing to people. The key to PMM, and the key to marketing in general, is developing a deep understanding of the people that matter—users, buyers, influencers, etc. If you can create messaging that resonates with the right people, then it will be impactful. This doesn't change whether you're marketing a B2B or a B2C product.

I'm a big fan of "Make It Punchy" by Emma Stratton. What Emma's able to do is boil down messaging to its simplest elements and make it approachable. It's so easy to make messaging more complex than it needs to be. For instance, to involve too many stakeholders or to iterate too many times. When messaging gets overly complicated or frustrating, it means you need to take a step back. Perhaps, read Emma's book and then revisit your work. I think it'll help!