Much of my work with marketing teams involves messaging—developing the strategic ideas and positioning that inform the way you tell the world about your brand or product. We invest serious care and effort in developing such messages, because they’re the foundation for so much other communication, such as:
- Creating campaigns and promotions to pull people through the marketing funnel
- Crafting content for web, email, social media, and more
- Equipping internal and external spokespeople to tell your story
- Training sales and customer service teams to talk with customers
Messaging passes through a lot of internal filters before it reaches a customer. And though a few brilliant phrases may land in the marketplace verbatim, that’s not necessarily the intention.
Messaging is meant to be refined and adapted to match the audience and the moment.
“Wait a second,” you say. “After agonizing for months over these messages, I’m supposed to sit by and let other people twist and revise my words to suit their needs?”
Precisely. Messaging is a starting point. A launchpad designed to inspire the soaring success of communications and conversations inside and outside your organization.
How do you ensure those positive outcomes?
When creating your messaging, before obsessing over well-crafted statements, first be sure you’re asking excellent questions.
How can you take your questions from “meh” to meaningful?
Keep reading. I’m about to give you 2 examples PLUS 4 guidelines for questions that lead to strong marketing messages.
Example 1: Ask about the one who matters most
The best messaging isn’t about your brand, products, or features. It’s about your customer’s problems, desires, and thought process. Ask questions that will create a complete, honest picture of the customer’s circumstances.
Meh:
What does our widget do?
Meaningful:
What problem does our customer struggle to solve?
What “workaround” are they using because they don’t yet have our widget?
What frustrations do they experience when that approach falls short?
Instead of describing what’s important to you (or your product engineers or senior leaders or shareholders), focus on what matters most to the customer.
Example 2: Ask for a vision of the future
Rather than boasting about what your organization is doing or has done, messaging must project or predict what the customer will be able to do. Ask questions that focus on the customer’s future.
Meh:
How have we improved our widget?
Meaningful:
When a customer adopts our widget, what’s the biggest change they will notice?
What will they be able to accomplish like never before?
If they suddenly had to live/work without that widget, what would happen and how would they feel?
Your company’s innovations are worth celebrating. That’s why we have internal and industry awards programs. Your messaging does not need to address every new and improved feature. The only advancements that matter belong to your customer.
4 guidelines for better questions
When you’re seeking answers to build a marketing message, the best questions tap into details that will captivate, engage, and even persuade your target customer.
What makes one question do that better than another? Maybe you’ve already cataloged the differences in my examples. Here are 4 ways to ask better questions for good messaging:
- Probe for specifics. Generic questions lead to generic answers. Ask questions that narrow the focus to something concrete, with human interest.
- Go after the hard stuff. Enthusiasm for the solution can result in glossing over the problem. Resist the urge to race into the positive. Ask questions that consider the customer’s problem from many angles. Later, you can turn “problem” into “opportunity.”
- Aim for stories, not statements. The best messaging inspires a story, not just a series of rote statements. Ask questions that will shine the spotlight on moments you can see with your mind’s eye.
- Balance facts and feelings. If you want factual details to stick, you need to wrap them in a context that will stir emotion. Ask questions that will reveal why your target customer should care about your offering.
The best messaging doesn’t come from brainstorming catchy phrases. It comes from asking the right questions first. A good question doesn’t just ask for information—it invites a perspective, a story, an emotion, or an insight. By asking questions that rise above “meh” to explore what’s meaningful, you’ll develop messaging that isn’t just clever—it’s clear, specific, and emotionally relevant to your target customer.
