What are some specific ways you test messaging in your target market and outside of your customer base? Thank you!

Ideally, you’re developing messaging based on customer and market research. This allows you to test and refine along the way instead of going heads down and creating messaging in a vacuum. 

Instead of sharing a messaging doc with a non-customer, the best way to test messaging with your target market is to put it in action by partnering with sales. Here is what this looks like:

1. Create a few slides and ask a few AEs to use the new narrative on upcoming calls. You could consider creating a few different versions to see what resonates most.

2. Collaborate with your SDR team to test new outbound messaging. See how it performs against your baseline.

Outside of collaborating with sales, are are a few additional ways to test and refine your message:

1. Analyst Inquiries: If you're working with an analyst firm, schedule an inquiry call with relevant analysts. Share your messaging ahead of time, and come to the meeting with specific questions you'd like them to answer.

2. Run surveys with Qualtrics, SurveyMonkey, etc: While a full-blown research panel may be expensive, you can pretty reasonably get feedback on 1-2 specific aspects of your messaging from your target audience. At Sourcegraph, we paid a few hundred dollars to get feedback from developers on the name for a new product we were launching. In about 24 hours, we had what we needed to move forward.

3. Recruit on LinkedIn: If you don't have the budget to pay for survey respondents, ask your network for introductions to relevant companies and personas. Be sure to make it clear the conversation will not be a sales pitch.

Messaging is more of an art than a science. The only way you'll really know if it works is if you put it into the market.