What metrics do you use to measure the success of your messaging and customer engagement?

The best way to think about it is across each funnel stage.

1. Top of funnel: You want to measure and quantify whether your messaging resonates in the marketplace. The best way to measure this is through your PR channels and specifically at the time of a product launch or big initiative to see if your messaging has generated the awareness you wanted it to. At Google, we had this metric called "messaging fidelity," where we counted the number of coverage pieces that quoted our value props and messaging. High fidelity is if they copied and pasted our messaging verbatim in their coverage, or loosely paraphrased it--bonus points if they compared us to the competition in a flattering light. Lower fidelity was if they didn't latch on to what made our launch or initiative different or, worse, if they compared us to the competition in an unfavorable, or middling manner.

2. Middle of funnel: You want to measure the effectiveness of your messaging at the conversion level, via things like web and digital marketing metrics if you can. This makes sense as you're putting yourself out there, most likely across multiple channels and audiences e.g. Did the subject headers in this email perform better than the other one we sent? Did the A/B test on the module placements of the landing page show a customer preference?

3. Bottom of funnel:

   1. For PLG led motions, this is measured at the product adoption level, and you'll want to see where your messaging can affect outcomes. At Canva, we have this belief that "words are design". Try to measure what part of your messaging is conducive to your user going through the first-time user experience more smoothly, and how clear language and messaging can grease the skids to a successful user journey.

   2. For sales-led motions, this will in all likelihood be measured by your win-rates. At the end of the day, were your sales reps able to convince the prospect that your product was differentiated enough from the competition? Part of this outcome will be tied to your messaging, the other part will also be tied to how good your sales teams is in delivering it. Win-rates can thus be seen as lagging indicators. For leading indicators, test your messaging as early and frequently with sales as you can. If they don't get it, chances are your customers won't.