In the early stages of their business, founders often struggle to come up with really strong messaging to describe what they are selling, and this has a huge impact on their ability to raise money, find customers, and attract employees. This is not that surprising, as it can be really hard to arrive at great messaging that is simple and appealing. This post focuses on how to get messaging and positioning right in the early stages of your company.
The Importance of Great Messaging
There are two reasons why you need to have a clear message about what you are offering:
- You need it to connect with customers, investors, potential employees, the press, etc. and if you don’t have a simple, compelling message, they won’t bother to learn more. They won’t take the time to learn about, and ultimately love and share your product. More so, if you don’t steer how people think about your product, the market will make up its own version which may not match your vision.
- Every touch point a customer or potential customer has with your product or company will shape their view of you. It’s critical that each of those touch points send the same message. When you create a clear brand message it ensures your team is fully aligned. This gets everyone moving in the same direction, telling the same story and creating consistent touch points for your customers.
The Problem
A common tendency amongst technical founders is to describe the product itself, and the features that get them excited. But buyers usually don’t relate to that kind of message, and instead react better to messaging that gets at the heart of the benefits it will bring to their lives.
How do you create this message?
But, how do you create this message? Where do you start and how does it change over time? How do you make it simple when what you’re offering is complex?
Start with a Positioning Statement
A positioning statement is the basis for all other messaging and communications. It’s a declaration of who you are, and the value you offer to a specific set of people. When someone asks about your business, I’m sure you are able to passionately describe what it is you do. But, if you’re like most founders, your “pitch” is always a work in progress and you’re likely to modify it based on your audience, mood and the latest features being built. By developing a positioning statement, and writing it down, you will have solved a number of key business issues, and have the beginning of a succinct, consistent way to describe your value proposition every time you are in front of a potential customer, investor or employee. This isn’t to say it won’t evolve, but if done right, it will only change when significant aspects of your business change.
To build a successful business, you need both a compelling product and a way to scale the sales of this product. But, you also need a way to simply communicate what you offer and connect with customers in a way that causes them to take action. That could be getting them to click through on your web site to learn more, or getting them to respond to a sales email, helping them talk to others in their company to build support for your offering, etc. And if you are raising capital for your business, clear and simple messaging is essential to cut through the noise from the many other pitches that investors are bombarded with.
The words you use to communicate your offering are often left to the last minute – usually when you are launching your product or a new feature, or going to a tradeshow. This, I would argue, is too late and too ad hoc. Communicating your value prop is just as important as building your product (it can actually influence what you build), and it’s critical to selling it.