After you have developed messaging, how do you put it to practical use?

Your messaging should show up everywhere, including within any of the following marketing tactics you may choose to employ:

• Internal

  • Internal announcements (eg, Slack, other field comms)

  • Enablement sessions and related materials

• External

  • Customer email(s)

  • Blog(s)

  • Web

  • Press release

  • Social posts

  • Videos

  • Field marketing

  • Webinar

  • Events

  • etc

But one of the biggest challenges of messaging is driving consistency, especially as you navigate multiple rounds of feedback. That’s why it’s crucial to be disciplined and have a single source of truth for your messaging, such as a messaging framework or messaging document. On my team, for every product launch (even the small ones), we use a simple Google Doc template, where we iterate on the messaging at the very top; once it’s finalized, the messaging can be copy/pasted into each templated section below it (for each desired GTM tactic), to ensure it’s all consistent. And of course, some tactics will benefit from adjustments or deviations, which is fine (if desired).

Once messaging is developed, internal teams use it in a number of ways including:

• Marketing: Webinars, emails, web refresh, social, blog posts

• Sales: Pitches, collateral

• Press, analyst, and investor relations: Previews and debriefs

• Executive leadership: Internal socialization and external pitches

As product marketers, we can support our cross-functional teams by translating messaging into formats that would be most beneficial for our teammates, including one-pagers and pitch decks.

After messaging is developed, the first places that I implement the messaging to test out its effectiveness are:

• Sales Team: Teach the sales team about the new messaging, why you think it could work, and some guidelines on how to use it (don't hand them a script).

• Ads: This is my favorite place to test messaging as you get quick feedback on what works and what doesn't. Run ads with the new messaging to landing pages to measure clicks and conversions. Work with your growth/demand team to put this together and run AB tests with slight variations.

• Blogs: Write a blog post that uses elements of the messaging.

Based on the feedback from sales and ads, you'll be able to make adjustments to fine-tune to your ICP. Over time, you'll replace your messaging everywhere (don't forget to update messaging on social profiles, review sites, marketplaces, or other 3rd party platforms).