Can you share the messaging framework that you use?

Here's my messaging framework! Feel free to make a copy and try it yourself.

Yes! There is a template attached to the AMA that I use with my team at Shopify. You can also create your own with these guidelines in mind.

• Separate your audiences

• Write a really strong main value proposition for each audience. This is the main message you want to get across. Make sure it is outcome and benefit focused.

• Support your main value proposition with 3-4 pillars.

• Each supporting pillar should have a few messaging points to explain how the product helps users achieve this outcome.

• Add data proof points and customer testimonials to really drive it home.

There's only one framework that I've ever needed in my career as a product marketer and it's sort of motherhood and apple pie:

• Start with the customer insight written as if you were them (i.e. "I have xyz problem and really wish there was abc solution to help me.")

• Write out your benefit statement that aligns to your customer insight. Keep it single minded, otherwise known as an SMP - Single Minded Proposition. And your benefit can be emotional, or it can be functional, depending on the space your product is playing in.

• List out your RTBs - reasons to believe - that your product can deliver on the customer benefit.

So for example if your product delivers on the benefit of efficiency, your RTBs become the things the product does or promises to do that can deliver on that benefit of efficiency (i.e. uses AI to save 50% of time doing x,y or z activity).

This changes slightly based on whether this is Company Messaging, Platform Messaging, Product or Feature Messaging, but my frameworks usually contain a mix of the following:

• Target Audience 

• Description

• Key Message (in 1-2 sentences)

• Key Value Prop(s)

• Customer Pain 

• How we solve it (in a differentiated way)

• Product Proof Points

• Customer Proof Points 

• Hero Use Cases

• Key differentiated features 

These are the steps I think through when crafting messaging:

• What is the story I'm trying to tell and to whom?

• Why is my brand telling this story, and why now?

• What's the user promise and user benefits?

• What action do I want users to take?

This outline not only helps me identify the key points I want to make, but it's a means of getting internal buy-in. When your team understands how you got there and how you considered the product as part of the messaging, they can better align with your vision.

There are different ways to set up your messaging framework, and you want to make sure it's tailored to your buyer, company, product, and goals. That will help determine which sections you need.

For example for product messaging, we use the following sections:

• Value proposition

• Differentiators

• Capability/Use Case

• Feature

• Benefit

• Proof points

For solution or persona messaging, we use the following sections:

• Solution Outcome or Persona Value Prop

• Driver (what we call Capability/Use Case)

• Product Proof (Supporting Features and Value Prop)

• KPIs (what are the tangible results as our product is directly connected to revenue metrics)

• Customer proof (customer stories, testimonials, results)

These messaging frameworks are typically in Google Docs or Google Slide format.