AMA: Checkr Former Head of Product Marketing, James Huddleston on Messaging

Be very clear and transparent about what it is your product is and what it does. I’d give the same advice for companies with greater brand awareness as well, but I think the problem is even more acute when you don’t have the benefit of that awareness. Avoid jargon, buzzwords and make it super easy for anyone to understand who you are and what you do. Also always lead with what the value or benefit is to someone who uses your product. Again, something that applies to companies of all sizes, but often surprisingly overlooked.

This is where your work on buyer personas is critical. If you’ve done your research and understand what makes a specific buyer persona tick, then you should be able to adjust your messaging accordingly based on their unique interests. I’d also say this is where partnership with your demand and digital counterparts is key because they can provide you insights on the right format of messaging for a unique audience. As an example, you might learn that a more technically literate audience is going to want to see the product and then get direct access to your product documentation, so you’ll build a 90-120 use case demo with a CTA that points to documentation versus perhaps creating a longer form blog focused on how industry trends tie into your product benefits for a less technical audience. But at the root is your knowledge of your audience and buyer personas.

The approval process may differ depending on your company, but I believe it is incredibly important to get input from various stakeholders throughout the process. Not only can you uncover interesting perspectives but it also gets those stakeholders bought into the process which will help them act as champions of the messaging as you roll it out more broadly. Key stakeholders I typically work with include leaders from Sales, Customer Success, & Product specifically (and of course fellow marketing leaders as well).

For me personally, I like to use a messaging framework to help consolidate my thoughts based on the research I’ve done. There are a lot of good messaging frameworks you can utilize but the one I start with is typically the one that answers the questions ‘for’, ‘who’, ‘provides’, ‘unlike’, and ‘only’. It helps me frame up the most important elements of the message. The next thing I do is go solicit feedback from people smarter than me. My final step is to test how simple and clear it is to understand. To do that I test it on my partner (who is not in tech) and kids to see if they can understand what it is and the value it provides. It’s a great way to ensure you aren’t using too many buzzwords or tech-speak.

I’m not sure I’d draw a strong distinction between the two actually. As a product marketer, my teams and I are building the messaging framework that supports all types of external comms including PR. I work closely with my PR counterpart and/or PR agency to ensure that we are using that framework to find various angles or storylines that might appeal to the media and provide us with greater coverage and exposure. At the root of these communications is the messaging framework we’ve developed.

I probably spend more time tailoring for the audience than I do the specific channels. When thinking about different channels, I put a lot of thought into how that information is consumed. Obviously messaging in a digital ad is going to be consumed differently than via email. I work closely with my design and DG teams to ensure anything we develop is visually appealing and on brand. In terms of measurement, this is where I partner closely with my demand and digital teams to get insight into what is resonating and what isn’t. What channels are performing well and why? I can’t stress enough the importance of data to inform how you can tailor your messaging appropriately.

I’ve always had the most success when making sure I am putting myself in the shoes of my potential customer and framing the message within the context of a story. This means making sure you understand your buyer and audience very well. Specifically: what problems is your product solving for them? Get insight from the right people in your organization to test and refine the messaging. Then ensuring I enable the internal teams with an effective rollout that includes storytelling and clear use cases that bring it to life.

I try to keep a finger on the pulse of broad macro trends that could impact my buyer. This information can be accessed through a variety of different sources including media, analysts, or influencers in the space. To avoid the buzz words I try to break down those trends to what they really mean in layman's terms and how they might apply to the problems my company and/or product is looking to solve. 

I ask them a lot of hard questions to understand how they came up with the messaging they did. I want to hear from them what customers they talked to or surveyed, who else they worked with internally to refine the messaging, and I try to poke holes in the benefits they cite to pressure test it. I am also very critical about making sure we are leading with value and that the messaging is extremely clear and consice. 

One way I've found some success in rolling out to the field is using one of my better reps as a champion of the new messaging and having the "pitch" for the new messaging come from them. Instead of it feeling like the messaging is coming from marketing or product, if you can arm one of the most respected sales persons with the new messaging and have them roll it out through a presentation or role play with the field it might resonate and be internalized better. Some other ways I've found success are making sure you're connecting it to a customer win or use case specifically. This can help people take more abstract concepts and understand how it applies within prospect or customer conversations.

The books that have had the biggest impact on me aren't always specific to messaging but provide greater clarity into the importance of storytelling and psychology. One of my favorites is Michael Lewis' "The Undoing Project". It really helped me understand the psychology that drives people to make the decisions they do and that while we'd like to think humans are rational and logical people, we actually make decisions primarily driven by emotion. That's why it's so important to frame messaging through the lens of a story and incorporate emotion into your messaging.