The best way to develop killer key messages

What are key messages?

Key messages act as a foundation for all communications. Whenever you communicate, you want all your audiences to understand the same basic messages. While each person might remember different details of your communication, they should be able to sum up what’s being said in one or two sentences. These are your key messages.

The best key messages are:

• clear, concise, compelling, with a strong call to action;
• concentrated on your main points – this is the not the place for detail; and
• short and focused. You should only have around three key messages. Any more and you’ll confuse people (and they’ll be more difficult to remember!)

In order for your key messages to be effective, they should:

• make it clear why the audience should care about whatever you’re talking about (answer the “what’s in it for me?” question)
• address any concerns audiences may have about the subject;
• highlight benefits of the topic; and
• convey any mission, values or vision of the project, company, or team.

It’s important to remember that your audiences have short attention spans. We all do. Your messages need to cut through all the noise (the average office worker receives over 120 emails a day!) and make an impact. Once your key messages have been developed, you’ll need to be prepared to repeat them, and repeat them often. Just because you have seen or said something ten times, it doesn’t mean your audience has.

This may be the first time they’ve seen your communication.

With enough repetition, your messages should start to resonate.

Why do you need key messages?

The main reason for developing key messages is a simple one. Your messages will help you and your team stay on track and make sure you’re communicating the right thing to the right people. Everything that’s communicated – internally, externally, formally or informally – should be built on the foundation of your key messages. Key messages structure your thinking and help you:

1. Focus on the why

It’s easy to concentrate your communications on the ‘what’ and the ‘how’ (the service you provide, and how you do it, for example) but companies need to focus more on the why. Why are you doing what you’re doing? Why should people care? This why needs to convey your company’s core beliefs. Only then will you inspire action.

2. Be consistent:

Whatever you’re saying, you need to ensure you’re saying the same thing across all your communications platforms – internally and externally. Any misalignment in your messages will be quickly picked up. Your key messages will create a theme to your communication.

3. Talk in a different way:

Gone are the days when communications and marketing was purely a broadcast medium. Audiences expect to be engaged with companies they’re interested in. They want to be talked to in their language, through their channels. They want to feel something, connect with something. Less jargon, more human, please.

4. Be concise and straightforward:

Audiences tend to have short attention spans and a lack of time to digest information. They want to understand the initial facts quickly. They need specifics and then the ability to find out more details if they want to.

How do you write key messages?

So now we’ve gone through the why and the what, we come to the how.

You know a lot about your project, product, organisation. And, yes, it’s tempting – you want to share everything you know with the world. But unfortunately, that’s not going to be your most effective communications strategy. If you overwhelm your audience, you risk them not understanding the importance of what you’re talking about, or, worse, just switching off completely. 

You need to prioritise your messaging – cutting it down to the most important information, the clearest information, the simplest information. The information which is going to help your audience instantly answer two key questions

1. So what? (Why should I care?)
2. What’s in it for me? (What problem of mine are you solving? What are the benefits?)

The easiest way to develop an initial set of key messages is by using a message house.

What is a message house?

A message house is a simple framework that will help you focus your communications on what really matters and can be used time and time again. Your key messages act as a consistent foundation for all your communications. Whenever you communicate with one of your audiences, you want them to all understand the same basic information. While each person might remember different details, you need to make sure they’re going away with the same takeaway, or headline. 

You can use these messages as part of your marketing and communication strategy – on your website, as part of your executive summary, on social media, to introduce your pitches… the list is endless! Most of the best communicators create a message house for everything they do – from media interviews, meetings with key stakeholders, even negotiations about salary!

How do I fill out a message house?

Unlike normal houses (where you’d normally start building with the foundations) with a message house, you always start at the top – the headline.

HEADLINE (ROOF)

• This is the one thing you need your audience to go away understanding or feeling from your communication. This is normally your purpose. 
• Why do you do what you do? What’s the bigger picture? What impact do you have on your audience? Why should they care?
• This should be a sentence of around 20 words.

KEY MESSAGES (PILLARS)

• These are the points or arguments that support your headline. Try and keep this simple – restrict yourself to three bullet points of a couple of sentences for each pillar. 
• One simple way of doing this is by thinking in terms of problem – solution – result
  • Problem: A little bit of background. What’s the current situation? Why is this a problem? (Think in particular of the problem your audience is actually facing, not what you think it might be) Why is the topic important? How does it impact your audience? Why should they care?
  • Solution: How your product/company/project solves the problem. What are you doing and why are you doing it? Why this approach is different. What is changing? What’s the consequence of this change?
  • Result: What is the world like with you in it? What’s your vision for the future? What do you need the audience to do? Why should they get involved?

Anything you say needs to be backed up by facts, figures, examples, and data. How can you prove what you’re saying is true?

Your messages should fit in with your communications objectives and be tailored to your individual audiences. Some audiences may have concerns about a certain aspect of your plan; your messages should specifically address this. Likewise, if they’re looking for a certain benefit from the company, you should highlight that.

It’s said that the best structure for a speech is a simple one: tell them what you’re going to tell them, tell them, and then tell them what you’ve just told them. This is how we should use our key messages. Any communication should start with your key messages, refer to them throughout, and then use them to summarise at the end.

Should communications focus on heart or head?

While we’d like to think people use logic to make a choice, it’s emotion that guides decisions and actions. Basically, your key messages need to focus on both the head and the heart.

Messages that appeal to the head:

• Statistics and research that heighten credibility and believability
• Authentic information with third-party validation (e.g., “According to the UN, 783 million people do not have access to clean water”)
• Clear, relevant facts that provide a common ground of understanding

Messages that appeal to the heart:

• Telling engaging and relevant stories – people forget facts but they remember stories
• People focused messaging – connect your communication with your audience by using a hero they can relate to
• Communication that is authentic – speak to your audience on a personal level. Talk to them like a human.

(If you’d like to hear more about storytelling, we did a whole series on the Dear Comms… podcast on the very topic)

And finally…

To have the most impact, it’s not just what you say, but the way you say it. Think about the tone and words you’re using.

Are your messages filled with jargon, TLAs, and technical information? Are you telling your audience what you want them to think and do? No matter how strong your argument, you’re unlikely to win if you can’t move people to action.

To really create killer key messages you need to:

• Be normal, not formal
• Show, don’t tell
• Be story- and people-driven

Get all these elements in place and you’ll be ready to start appealing to emotions and motivating action. For the right reasons.