More of Creating Key Messages to help get Free Publicity
More of Creating Key Messages to help get Free Publicity
Nobody knows your business better than you - so you, as the business owner or CEO, are in the best position to develop or lead the project to develop the key messages for your company.
Assemble representation from all key areas of your company to help with the development of the messages.
Have a dedicated key message meeting with the objective of creating a long message, a short message, an elevator pitch, and a conversational message.
Many times, it is beneficial to ask employees, suppliers, or partners about their perception of what the key message of your company is. This is a great exercise to determine whether there is a gap in perception about what you do. Here is a question you could pose. "If I were to ask you what we do as a company, what would you say?" You may be amazed at the different responses.
From this meeting, create a key message document (1-2 pages max). Once developed, the key message document becomes a living, breathing part of your organization. This should not be filed in a drawer and taken out once a quarter to be admired! Use your messages daily; modify them and revise them to suit your company's maturity. This document should be distributed to ALL employees to make certain they have an understanding of the key messages of the company. You may choose to have the staff practice and recite the messages in team meetings to ensure they have a clear understanding of what your company does.
Additionally, it is important that staff members are comfortable expressing the key messages, so that any interaction with clients and potential clients is smooth and natural.
As a guide, keep in mind your target audiences when writing your key messages. You should learn all you can about those audiences. As an example, think of who your target customer is, as well as the different kinds of media that may be interested in stories about what you do.
For example:
If you are a natural dog food company, examples of your target customer might be:
Young urban professionals between the ages of 25-40
Veterinarians, Dog Trainers
Examples of different kinds of media are:
Business editors at your local and regional paper to discuss how much money people spend on their pets
Product reviewers or specialist media in your industry at trade magazines or general business magazines
Reporters at your local/regional television station for a human-interest angle (people and their pets)
Hosts of talk shows that discuss matters concerning your business (using the example of selling natural dog food), you might look for shows that discuss pets, pet health, and animal shows in general.
Now that you have identified your targeted audiences, your next step is to identify the key messages.
Creating key messages positions your company in the industry. You may have heard marketing folks talk about "SWOT". This means that you have identified your company's Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. Once you have determined the SWOT of your company, you can then develop your messages based on your strengths and opportunities, as well as the uniqueness about your company.
The key to success in the area of key messages is to develop messages that clearly and efficiently reflect how your company wants to be perceived by the public/your target audiences. The key to ensuring your messages are valuable is to constantly test them with your target audiences and be sensitive to their perceptions about whether or not the messages are working well or not.
*Questions to help guide you through this process:
1. What is my business?
2. What industry am I in?
3. What NEED does my business address?
4. What PROBLEM does my service/product solve?
5. Who does my business serve? (Who are my target clients?)
6. What is my product or service and why is it different/better than the competition?
7. Why should customers choose my company over the competition?
8. What are my qualifications?
9. Where is my company going?
10. How will it get there?
(Notice, even in developing your key messages, you have the WHO, WHAT, WHEN, WHERE, WHY, and HOW statements to answer.)
At the end of the key message meeting, you should have a framework, or, if all goes well, the actual messages completed. In some cases, you may require a follow-up meeting to review edits and agree on final messaging.
Developing key messages can be a fun and exciting project for staff, as it really engages them to think about the business and take ownership of how they represent the company.
More of Creating Key Messages to help get Free Publicity - To learn more about this author, visit Leanne Bucaro's Website.
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HOW do I develop and implement Key Messages?
Nobody knows your business better than you - so you, as the business owner or CEO, are in the best position to develop or lead the project to develop the key messages for your company.
Assemble representation from all key areas of your company to help with the development of the messages.
Have a dedicated key message meeting with the objective of creating a long message, a short message, an elevator pitch, and a conversational message.
Many times, it is beneficial to ask employees, suppliers, or partners about their perception of what the key message of your company is. This is a great exercise to determine whether there is a gap in perception about what you do. Here is a question you could pose. "If I were to ask you what we do as a company, what would you say?" You may be amazed at the different responses.
From this meeting, create a key message document (1-2 pages max). Once developed, the key message document becomes a living, breathing part of your organization. This should not be filed in a drawer and taken out once a quarter to be admired! Use your messages daily; modify them and revise them to suit your company's maturity. This document should be distributed to ALL employees to make certain they have an understanding of the key messages of the company. You may choose to have the staff practice and recite the messages in team meetings to ensure they have a clear understanding of what your company does.
Additionally, it is important that staff members are comfortable expressing the key messages, so that any interaction with clients and potential clients is smooth and natural.
As a guide, keep in mind your target audiences when writing your key messages. You should learn all you can about those audiences. As an example, think of who your target customer is, as well as the different kinds of media that may be interested in stories about what you do.
For example:
If you are a natural dog food company, examples of your target customer might be:
Young urban professionals between the ages of 25-40
Veterinarians, Dog Trainers
Examples of different kinds of media are:
Business editors at your local and regional paper to discuss how much money people spend on their pets
Product reviewers or specialist media in your industry at trade magazines or general business magazines
Reporters at your local/regional television station for a human-interest angle (people and their pets)
Hosts of talk shows that discuss matters concerning your business (using the example of selling natural dog food), you might look for shows that discuss pets, pet health, and animal shows in general.
Now that you have identified your targeted audiences, your next step is to identify the key messages.
Creating key messages positions your company in the industry. You may have heard marketing folks talk about "SWOT". This means that you have identified your company's Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. Once you have determined the SWOT of your company, you can then develop your messages based on your strengths and opportunities, as well as the uniqueness about your company.
The key to success in the area of key messages is to develop messages that clearly and efficiently reflect how your company wants to be perceived by the public/your target audiences. The key to ensuring your messages are valuable is to constantly test them with your target audiences and be sensitive to their perceptions about whether or not the messages are working well or not.
*Questions to help guide you through this process:
1. What is my business?
2. What industry am I in?
3. What NEED does my business address?
4. What PROBLEM does my service/product solve?
5. Who does my business serve? (Who are my target clients?)
6. What is my product or service and why is it different/better than the competition?
7. Why should customers choose my company over the competition?
8. What are my qualifications?
9. Where is my company going?
10. How will it get there?
(Notice, even in developing your key messages, you have the WHO, WHAT, WHEN, WHERE, WHY, and HOW statements to answer.)
At the end of the key message meeting, you should have a framework, or, if all goes well, the actual messages completed. In some cases, you may require a follow-up meeting to review edits and agree on final messaging.
Developing key messages can be a fun and exciting project for staff, as it really engages them to think about the business and take ownership of how they represent the company.
More of Creating Key Messages to help get Free Publicity - To learn more about this author, visit Leanne Bucaro's Website.
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Stephanie RobeyStephanie Robey is President and CoFounder of Pivot Positive, LLC - an Internet marketing business focused on helping people start work at home ventures. Previously, she was employed at The Search Agency with over 20 years experience in graphic design and 10 years experience in online marketing. She was responsible for launching the Conversion Path Optimization (CPO) unit where she and her team have conducted hundreds of optimization tests for online companies across multiple verticals. She is a successful entrepreneur having started and sold 2 companies and remains on the board of directors of the third, PhotoSpin.com Stephanie began her career in the direct marketing realm creating and producing direct mail for many of the major cable television companies and directly attributes her understanding of Internet marketing to those early offline experiences. Stephanie is a graduate of San Diego State University with a BFA in Graphic Arts and also holds an Executive MBA from the Graziadio School of Business and Management at Pepperdine University. Read Steph's Blog Meet Steph and Dave Sign up for our Free 7-Day BootCamp: Self Employed & Rich - Visit Stephanie Robey's Website |
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Dianne CramptonDianne Crampton is an executive leadership coach, team culture consultant, author and president of TIGERS Success Series, Inc. Dianne has been helping CEO's and Executives connect their employees to their core values and goals for over 20 years using the trademarked TIGERS team culture process, which stands for trust, interdependence, genuineness, empathy, risk and success. To download a free white paper on behaviors that build strong teams and behaviors that will predictably tear them down go here. Dianne's contribution to the 2010 Pfeiffer Consulting Journal (an imprint of John Wiley and Sons Publishers) entitled TIGERS Hearted Teams is available in November 2009. Her new book TIGERS Among Us: 5 Winning Business Team Cultures And Why, Three Creeks Publishing will release in March 2010. To receive publishing discounts, subscribe to the free TigerTracks Newsletter here. - Visit Dianne Crampton's Website |
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Casey GollanCasey Gollan, Business Coaching & Mentoring Programs. Add $1 Million to $10 Million in the next 1 to 3 years. Since 1996 Casey has to added hundreds of millions of dollars to businesses. Watch a free video see client results Business Coaching website. - Visit Casey Gollan's Website |
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Leanne Hoagland-SmithAre your sales where you want them to be? Will you be one of the few who achieves sales or business success or one of the many who have failed to change? Are you tired of being told you are like everyone else? Then you may find my first book on sales of interest. Be the Red Jacket in the Sea of Gray Suits, The Keys to Unlocking Sales available at Amazon or at http://www.processspecialist.com/red-jacket.htm. This book is a reflection of my no-nonsense approach to improving sales to overall business results. If you are truly committed to making sustainable changes, then I can help you secure a positive return on your investment because I focus on executable solutions not telling you the problems you already know you have. From training to corporate (group) coaching to executive one on one coaching, my approach is to assess, create awareness, build a goal driven action plan and then execute. The bottom line question is "Not do you or your employees know it, but do you or they want to do it?" Please call for a free strategy session at 219.759.5601. - Visit Leanne Hoagland-Smith's Website |
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