How often do you re-iterate on messaging and why do you do it at this interval?
I don't have a specific formula for re-iterating on messaging, because I firmly believe that it's important to critically evaluate messaging through multiple lenses with several stakeholders throughout the messaging development process. Landing a strong brief and aligning on it with all key stakeholders as the foundation is the first and most important step - that way, you can challenge whether the messaging is aligned to the brief throughout the development and revision phases. Without a strong brief it's much harder to zoom into exactly what you should say and how you should say it. While that foundation is important, it's also OK to adjust to maximize impact. Especially in a business where things shift rapidly, you have to be comfortable with making quick pivots throughout messaging development.
My team re-looks at messaging every 3-6 months. It's important to keep messaging fresh, relevant, and accurate with small tweaks. With that said, don't feel like you need to reinvent your messaging every time. Here are some signals to know it's time to review and tweak your messaging:
New feature release
Competitor insights
Market shifts
New customer learnings
Campaign kick off
Big marketing moment
Data insights from previous campaigns
If you're struggling with product market fit or poor campaign performance, then it's probably time to realign your messaging and positioning. Make sure you're gathering your data and customer insights before you do this.
I think this question depends on a lot of factors mostly which revolve around the release rate of updates to your products and services. There's a careful balance of ensuring your message is in market long enough to gain traction and to get positive recall while still being fresh/updated. If you are adding significant functionality to your products you want to be evolving your message to add weight to it. You also want to ensure you're staying relevent in market and that your value proposition etc is aligned to our ideal customer profile etc. So I suppose the 'refresh interval' really depends on a) how often you are making significant updates to your products, b) how much the market and/or audience is changing and c) the performance of your current messaging in market and if there is a gap to your intended performance which will require some reiteration of your message!
Short answer is....no one size fits all- with a major dependency on your product, your audience lifecycle, competitors & industry. Here are a few guidelines that you can take into consideration:
Product Development Cycle: If our product undergoes regular updates or enhancements, we often revisit our messaging to reflect these changes. New features, improvements, or shifts in functionality can necessitate adjustments in how we communicate our product's value proposition to customers.
Market and Industry Trends: Our messaging strategy responds to evolving market trends and industry dynamics. Changes in customer preferences, competitive landscape, or technological advancements can prompt us to refine our messaging to stay relevant and competitive. We look for signals & we also temper and test messaging on different channels to get confidence.
Audience Turnover and Expansion: Depending on the rate of audience turnover or expansion into new market segments, we may reassess our messaging to resonate with diverse customer demographics. Understanding the needs and expectations of our changing audience is key to maintaining effective communication.
Competitive Landscape: Regularly evaluating our competitors' messaging strategies informs our own messaging iteration. If our competitors adjust their positioning or highlight new value propositions, we analyze these shifts and adjust our messaging accordingly to differentiate and maintain our competitive edge. The key here is to be measured in approach.
Feedback and Performance Metrics: We closely monitor feedback from customers, sales teams, and other stakeholders. Insights from customer interactions and performance metrics (such as conversion rates, engagement levels, and customer satisfaction) guide us in refining our messaging to address pain points and capitalize on strengths.
Seasonal or Campaign-Based Adjustments: For certain industries or products, seasonal fluctuations or specific campaign initiatives may require temporary adjustments to messaging. This agility allows us to capitalize on timely opportunities and maintain relevance throughout the year.
We iterate on copy - through in market testing - more frequently than we iterate on messaging. We treat our core messaging as more durable than copy and changing that too frequently probably means you haven't landed on the right messaging for your product.
One caveat is the pace and type of innovation at your company, and whether or not it's changing the core value prop of your product or your product positioning. If the pace of innovation is high, you'll outgrow your messaging quickly. There's no set amount of time for refreshing your messaging, it's really going to depend on how quickly your business is growing and how fast you might outgrow existing messaging.
This definitely depends on your business, strategy, industry etc. In my past experience the more macro level messaging like Company or Platform messaging is iterated on less frequently. This is usually updated in relation to specific events such as company level strategy shifts, net new product (product SKU), acquisitions, etc. Maybe once a year.
Product Messaging likely gets updated more often. Definitely when you introduce new (Tier 1) features that may open your product to new segments or audiences. Or after a collection of features have been introduced that now allow you to tell a fuller, richer macro product story. Keeping an eye on competitive messaging is important too as competitors often look to each other to see what is being said, and adapting their message - which leads to diluted messaging in the market. All that said, I'd look to update product messaging on some level on a quarterly or bi-annually basis.
I don't have a set formula for re-iterating; it's dependent on whether the messaging is around a new or older feature, who your consumer is, and many other factors. But consistency in tone is key. I always ask myself—would someone know this was from my brand versus a competitor's, and how? If the answer is no, it's time to rethink the entire message—and possibly even feature.
If you don’t have a process for this you’re going to be pulled into it anyways every 6 months or so. That’s how often either you or one of your competitors is shipping substantial new value.
To get ahead of this, and avoid doing piecemeal updates to this page or that page, I would recommend scheduling a messaging review committee every 6 months. You can start with gut feels—does what we said 6 months ago still resonate? Is it still true? Is it still unique? And let stakeholders like founders and marketing and sales counterparts respond. Then add in quantitative data like website, search, and ad data, as well as use case and call recording data to see if what the market is asking for—and the words they use to ask for it, is addressed by your messaging.
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