How do you pitch and approve messaging with internal senior stakeholders? What are the best tactics you've previously used?

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 can make sense on paper, but no one is quite sure how it will materialize in reality.

• The visual review is a late stage review where senior leaders can actually see what hero asset look like (landing page, hero email, video, demo etc.)

• This is often where you get the most valuable feedback because it gauges whether what worked on paper actually works in practice

• You do not need to review every single asset - just the key ones that do the best job of bringing the messaging you've created to life

When pitching new messaging with senior stakeholders I start with a "soft launch". Usually, I keep it light and focus on asking for feedback rather than saying it's final. This happens in one-off Slack messages or in 1:1 conversations.

Then I put together a formal document (typically a slide deck) that includes the data and research behind the messaging, relevant information about how I reached the final message, and the final messaging strategy. At this point, I'm still open to feedback but try to move towards a final strategy rather than throwing out the work already done.