AMA: Zendesk Senior Director, Product Marketing, Candace Marshall on Messaging

A mentor once told me messaging and positioning if never done :) That's because the market changes, trends come and go, and your audience is never static. I strongly recommend testing and validating your messaging and positioning, even if you think it's finalized and great. You may learn something to make it even more effective. Even in my own experience, we'll test and validate messaging rigorously leading up to launch, and then we get feedback a month after launch...I don't get disappointed...I love it! Feedback is a gift, and anything to help strengthen your messaging should be considered.

Great question, and it's common! Many of the products my team own today serve both B2B (business-to-business) and B2C (business-to-consumer) use cases. Generally, we develop our product messaging and positioning broadly enough to speak to both. It's critical to anchor to the pain point and value. If needed, you can also consider verticalizing your product messaging to speak more directly to b2b and b2c use cases. It doesn't have to be either/or. My last tip is just consider where in the funnel it makes sense to have more specific use-case messaging, and the potential impact.

First, when it comes to verticalization, focus is good. Has your company aligned on the top verticals? Even at the XX-billion dollar companies I've served, we've prioritized max typically 6 verticals (of course aligned to GTM & marketing). Secondly, to help with organization, create a messaging hierarchy and also one central doc linking to all relevant MSDs.

Any testing and validation is great. Even if you have a small percentage of traffic, testing will give you signals. I know some may have limited levers for testing and if that's your situation, that's okay! You can get creative. Consider setting up calls with existing customers to get feedback. There are also some cost-effective platforms out there where you can set up A/B testing. Love your data-driven mindset - you got this.

Before developing messaging, it's crucial to align on your ICP. It seems your team may have differing hypotheses about the ICP, so I recommend testing and reaching alignment. The ICP is so foundational - it influences everything.... from your messaging, to the product your PMs build using the VOC you provide as a PMM partner, and of course your sales and go-to-market strategies.

Thank you for your question - it's an excellent one. In my experience, the platform story is distinct yet deeply complementary to product messaging. While product messaging focuses on the unique value and use cases of individual applications, the platform story highlights the horizontal elements that support and connect them—such as workflows, analytics, and integrations.