What's your cross-channel messaging development process?

Question

James Huddleston · Accepted Answer

I probably spend more time tailoring for the audience than I do the specific channels. When thinking about different channels, I put a lot of thought into how that information is consumed. Obviously messaging in a digital ad is going to be consumed differently than via email. I work closely with my design and DG teams to ensure anything we develop is visually appealing and on brand.

In terms of measurement, this is where I partner closely with my demand and digital teams to get insight into what is resonating and what isn’t. What channels are performing well and why? I can’t stress enough the importance of data to inform how you can tailor your messaging appropriately.

Andy Yen · Answer

One of the most exciting opportunities in partner marketing is to scale messaging across different channels. Some of these channels may be new to your company and your core marketing team, and you'll learn a ton by collaborating with other marketers across these channels. But it's also critical to make sure you select the right channels that are aligned with your brand.

To start, you've got to get the basics right and ensure your core positioning and messaging is landing in-market through your core campaigns, brand, demand gen, and content marketing teams. You'll actually see a pull effect where partners and other marketing teams will proactively reach out to you and ask to place your content and positioning through their channels.

But don't just take what's offered to you, be proactive and identify the channels that you want to launch through as well. As people, we read and learn from a variety of sources, your customers are learning about your product/solution the same way - so this is always something you should be thining about.

1. Outside of impressions and click through rates, how does launching messaging through a new channel impact our business KPIs (revenue, pipeline, opportunities?) Launching through a new channel takes time - there's likely a lot of education that needs to happen on what your product/solution/offering is about; and then you have to work with other marketers to tailor and create content for that specific channel. Make sure you're aligned with your internal GTM teams on what the expected results are, before you go down this path.
 2. One of the main factors that drives my decision to say "yes" to messaging through a new channel is when it expands the awareness of our brand and solution/offering to a new geography or persona, where we already have GTM resources. It's not about growth and awareness at all costs, there needs to be a clear call to action for your local GTM teams. What I've found most helpful here is collaborating with in-country and regional marketing teams, and leveraging their expertise to maximize the impact of your campaign. 
 3. As you work your positioning and messaging through additional channels (ads, whitepapers, podcasts, blogs, thought leadership articles) you'll start seeing some patterns around which channels actually deliver better value across the sales cycle. Some channels will be better for awareness, and some will be better for lead gen. If you're doing things right, you'll usually end up 'pushing the envelope' around what's possible, meaning that you'll pushing your stakeholders within your own marketing team to uplevel what they're doing, and define what's possible.

Molly Friederich · Answer

As a product marketer, our most important role is setting the core messaging strategy and positioning. This means having a clear and intentional view of who you're targeting, what you need to convey, and how they should feel / what they should do after encountering your message. From a cross-channel or integrated marketing standpoint, the "roots" of the tree are here, and are critical to achieve the consistency required for messaging to make an impact. As content branches out across channels, the form will shift, but the core strategy is linked to the roots.

At Snorkel AI, we craft a lot of the channel messaging directly, but certainly on the expertise of our teammates across events, web, email, social, and more for best practices, feedback, and experiements to run. They often take lead on measuring effectiveness (there's so much expertise bespoke to each channel!) and we'll partner to decide how to evolve based on the learnings.

Sarah Lambert · Answer

Each channel has its own parameters for success be they length of message, medium or tone. I tailor my cross-channel message based on the channel audience and length but always connect back to the overarching messaging framework. The need for consistency in messaging - and reiterating the message - is particularly important across different channels as it starts to build a stronger relationship with the buyer / influencer. If you're constantly changing your message across channels then you create distrust in the audience and then you and your product become forgettable.

With the number of messages buyers see today, it takes over 21 times receiving a message to remember it. Consistency in the message makes it easier to remember.

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