How to 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!

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.