How do you validate your messaging and positioning once you've already finalized them?

Testing, iterating, and optimizing with your core audiences is the key to successful positioning: 

• Talk to your customers and prospective customers to see how the messaging resonates with them and if it helps them understand the benefits of the product
• Mockup product flows, or marketing touchpoints with the new messaging and test this with customers 
• Use websites like usertesting.com to see how people react and respond to the messaging 
• Cross-reference your messaging with subject matter experts 
• Cross-reference your messaging with the sales team to ensure it resonates with them and the feedback they hear from customers 
• Test the messaging through experimentation live on your product or on the website to track how the new messaging helps with conversion, sales, lead generation 
• Work with the performance marketing team to A/B test the new messaging in market to determine how it performs

Change is inevitable! So whenever possible, going to market with “final” messaging should include room for evolution over time based on various external and internal factors. Markets change and evolve, and customers’ needs or perspectives also change and evolve based on whatever is important to them in that moment--sometimes even driven by trends or current events that cannot be ignored (think, Covid!). If in a B2B org, you can quickly leverage feedback from the field to validate whether your messaging and/or positioning needs does not hit or needs refinement. And, if possible, leveraging your marketing arm to test and optimize along the way and on an ongoing basis will help ensure your messaging sticks and evolves as the market does. Internally, you may have business strategies shift, so having the agility to also ensure your messaging aligns will be helpful.

We try to validate our messaging and positioning prior to finalizing them. We try to obtain feedback from the sales team (ultimately they will use this messaging/positioning most internally), existing and potential customers, third-party analysts (e.g. from Gartner/IDC etc.), internal stakeholders. I have personally found it very helpful to validate with individuals who are not close to the product/solution. Individuals outside Marketing also can help with a quick sanity check to make sure 'markety' terms don't sneak in too much!

I’m going to split my answer into two parts, using the following (loose) definitions:

• Positioning: An internal-only description of what the product is, who it’s for, the problems it solves (with key benefits), and how it’s differentiated from the competition.

• Messaging: The language you use in the market to convey the value of the product.

Messaging

First, I can’t overstate how important it is to always be open to feedback about your messaging, and to be willing to update it (even after it’s been “finalized”).

In this scenario, I’m going to assume that you’ve already spent hours drafting and editing messaging, in part based on internal feedback from your manager, your PM(s), Sales reps, SEs/SCs, and potentially executive stakeholders (eg, Head of PMM, CMO, CPO, etc), depending upon the importance of the product and the associated launch.

So what’s next? At this point, it’s time to get input from people outside of your organization, to see if your messaging actually resonates and lands the way that you want it to. One of the easier ways to get this type of feedback is from analysts, assuming you have that function set up. Analysts speak with tons of customers, and they also hear from your competitors, so analysts are well-positioned to have an informed opinion about your entire market, including knowing what customers value and prioritize. Just use caution to not over-rotate to an analyst’s feedback, especially if you’re launching a novel product or an emerging technology that the analyst may be unfamiliar with.

Oftentimes, the more difficult feedback channel, but ultimately the best source of feedback, is getting it directly from customers. Hopefully you’ve been able to develop a handful of close relationships with your AEs and SCs/SEs, who may be able to arrange a meeting with a friendly customer. Low-hanging fruit would be customers involved in a Preview release who are actively providing product feedback, but getting any customer feedback is incredibly valuable! Again, don’t over-rotate to a too-small sample size, and make sure you’re getting feedback from customers that match your ideal customer profile (ICP) for that product.

Positioning

Positioning should be the entire basis for building and releasing anything, as it forms the foundation of any product strategy. So while I’ve listed it second (behind Messaging), the reality is that this work must be done first (and is often owned or co-owned by the Product team).

The channels for validating Positioning should be very similar to those of Messaging, but the feedback you would seek would be different. You’ll be less focused on how you talk about the product/feature/release, and instead you’ll want to seek answers to the following (non-exhaustive) questions:

• What problems are we solving? For whom?

• Does the market need this capability?

• How well does our solution address the problems we’re trying to solve? 

• Will customers be willing to pay (more?) for this capability?

• Are we playing catchup with a competitor, or is our solution differentiated?
  

Again, getting feedback from analysts and actual customers is critical to getting Positioning, and ultimately, the product strategy right. But that input should be received well before the product is built, because only after you understand the answers to the questions above, can your organization determine what to build.

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.

Here is how I validate before and after finalizing them:

1. Form a guild or squad consisting of product manager, sales rep, CSM, an exec (if possible). Use them as a sounding board to get early feedback on messaging options - based on the positioning.
2. Once drafted, I validate it internally via Slack through all sales and CSM teams for wider feedback and buy-in.
3. Next, I design a landing page with the messaging copy and upload it on Wynter.com to validate it with external audience from the target audience industry. Or use Askable as well.
4. And then as the last step, I participate in sales calls to listen to the questions raised when my messaging guidance in used in the pitch decks etc. Based on the questions raised, I can generally gauge whether the messaging is hitting the mark or do we need refinement.

The above helps me validate the messaging internally and externally. And refine it as we go.

- Kash

Messaging and positioning is never truly "finalized." It'll evolve as your product and market does. So, the first thing will be to shift your mindset. You can validate that your current messaging and positioning resonate with the intended audience by collaborating with other departments to test It out. You can do this by:

• Collaborate with Customer Success: Partner with your CS team to learn about their customers, common questions they ask, who the best customers are, etc. One thing that has helped me validate messaging is doing case study interviews, asking open-ended questions about challenges a customer was experiencing before finding a solution, identifying their requirements, and the value they get from the solution.

• Talk to Sales: Your sales team is a vital resource in message testing. On demo calls, which features do prospects seem most interested in? Why? What are they trying to solve with it? Do prospects become disengaged on a specific topic? Also, don't underestimate the value your BDR and SDR team can bring to your messaging. Because they are often on the front lines, they know what message resonates well with the market, what doesn't, or which audience is most likely to advance to the next stage of the buying cycle. If your company uses Gong, ask for a seat and set aside some time each week to listen to a few calls.

• Experiment with Growth Marketing: Close collaboration with Growth Marketing can help you validate messaging. Work with them to run ABM campaigns based on the message and persona work. You can also run ads or AB test different campaigns to collect data on what resonates with your actual prospects. This data will help prove the messaging direction.

Based on this feedback, it's important to keep an open mind. Sometimes, you'll get data or recommendations that seem counter to your judgment, and that's ok. That's actually where you'll gain some of the best feedback if you act on it. If you keep an open mind and ask questions, you can evolve the messaging to fit your market and audience better.