AMA: Shopify Director, Revenue & Product Marketing, Kevin MacGillivray on Messaging

Accessibility - you need to make sure key messaging docs are accessible to the stakeholders that are using them Engagement - you need to engage key folks who will be leveraging your messaging through the build phase to they feel like they were part of the process (where it makes sense) and are not just having something dumped on their lap that they don't understand or agree with. Rituals - you need to make sure you have the right synchronous or asynchronous rituals set up to share and walk throu ...Read More

Key documents include: Master Messaging Doc - includes the most detail and the most structured framework. This is mostly used as a reference document rather than something that is presented. Messaging Deck - usually an abridged version of the messaging doc that is meant to be leverage during live reviews with leaders, stakeholders, sales teams etc. Pitch Deck - leveraged by sales and is one of the clearest manifestations of your messaging if your product is sold by a sales team. One Pager - a cu ...Read More

We leverage internal tools to store and organize messaging frameworks (and all other marketing assets). Once messaging is fully documented and approved we upload it into tools like Google Drive or Seismic. Defaulting to open internally is important so your peers and partners can easily access. In an ideal world you have a fairly uniform and consistent format you use across all your products/product areas for easy consumption. It is also important to monitor regularly and ensure that there remain ...Read More

There are many different ways to test the success of messaging. A few common best practices include: A/B testing different messaging - this can be done in product, via email communications, or even on different versions of a product landing page Talking to your customers directly - focus groups and 1:1 interviews can often be a great way to get more detailed feedback on whether you are saying what you think you are. Recently I have started leveraging AI tools like ChatGPT to pressure test whethe ...Read More

My product marketing team is currently organized in a hybrid manner: Part of my team is organized by product - these folks pair very closely with their R&D counterparts, building up robust context that they leverage in GTM motions + growth. The other part of my team is set up to focus on foundations - these folks focus on crafting narratives, building assets, and running campaigns that weave all of our product value together into something cohesive at the platform level. The PMM's follow som ...Read More

A few great ways to use AI for messaging: Measure the efficacy of your external messaging by asking an AI tool "what the value prop for product x is". If the response comes back aligned with your framework (and what you think it is) - great. If not, time to revisit and do some digging. AI can often help you get out of a mental box. If you are struggling with how to articulate something clearly - AI tools can spit out 10 different versions of something that help get the creative juices flowing. A ...Read More

One way I have found success here is to focus on (2) key review/approval moments: Early Stage Review Approval on goals/objectives Approval on target audiences + KPI's Proposed messaging framework is complete and ready for review - including potentially a creative wrapper/headline if this is for a campaign A rough GTM plan is in place outlining the tactics, surfaces, and assets where the messaging will come to life Visual Review Sometimes earlier strategy reviews can be very abstract - the plan c ...Read More