How do you outline your positioning and messaging targeting different stakeholders, specially keeping a balance between leadership and copywriting team?

Messaging is for the customer. The Messaging Framework is for the internal team. The biggest friction point happens when we confuse the two. External messaging needs to be simple and emotive. Internal stakeholders, however, need more complexity—they need to see the 'wiring' underneath the messaging to do their jobs effectively. Bridge this by housing everything in an Internal Product Marketing Guide, but tailor the view based on the stakeholder: 1. For Leadership: Never ask Leadership to approve ...Read More

The key to meeting both audience needs is about hierarchy and structuring. Here’s what I mean by that: Design for execs to scan: Put a TL;DR at the top: positioning sentence, ICP + core pain, 3 value prop pillars and corresponding proof points. Put this into a table so it is scannable. Make it brief - 200-300 words.  Assume that execs won’t read beyond this section.  Add detail for copy and channel teams: Further down, expand on the messaging, giving teams, approved phrases, notes on tone, do/do ...Read More

Clear positioning across stakeholders depends on separating ownership while preserving alignment. Leadership should define the overarching narrative. That's the company’s point of view about the market and why it matters. That conversation should happen WITH product marketing in the room -- even facilitated by product marketing. Then, product marketing should translate that vision into a structured messaging architecture that explains who the product is for, what problems it solves, and how valu ...Read More

One mistake I see a lot is trying to create one messaging document that works equally well for leadership and copy teams. In reality, they are looking for very different things. Leadership wants to align on the strategic thinking. Copywriters need practical guidance they can write from. The way I handle this is by structuring positioning and messaging in three layers. 1. Strategic layer – for leadership This section answers three questions: • Who is this for?• What problem are we solving better ...Read More