The second edition of "Eleven Elements to Model a Magnetic Message: How to Shape Your Story for the Press, Policymakers, and the Public" is now available. This position paper furnishes a series of concrete steps companies can follow when hammering out messages on key issues.
The bottom line goal of any messaging effort, as with all communication, is to raise the odds for achieving business and public policy goals.
The full report is available when you join the Communications Community.
I outlined some of the basics in a recent post here on the C-suite Blueprint blog. Today's entry gives you a taste for a couple of the specific steps mentioned in the paper. I'll concentrate here on two aspects: The first step when you Identify your target audiences and step number 10 where you Chronicle your missive to those segments.
Who Are You Striving to Influence?
A magnetic message requires, first and foremost, a defined target audience. Identify those groups and individuals you need to reach and aim your communication toward them. Of course, this target is likely to change from issue to issue. Some examples:
- Today you target consumers with your plans to release a new product into the market
- Next week you might confront a thorny public policy issue necessitating outreach to policymakers
- Next month it may be a crisis generated by an accident at one of your facilities requiring you to reach out to the affected community
The upshot? Early on in the messaging process, identify your prime audiences for each message you shape.
Address your audience with a foundation of four strong points, the main tenets you want to convey in your presentations, during your media interviews, and when visiting your elected officials.
The fact is many companies neglect to create formal messages tailored to their key constituencies. Or if they do, the messaging is sometimes weak and scattershot. Experience shows that the size of the enterprise makes little difference. I have worked with smaller organizations possessing well-crafted messages and with Fortune 500 companies (and, sad to say, sometimes their "PR" agencies) who either have not thought things through properly or who are ignorant in message development techniques, resulting in abysmal communication with key groups.
Write Everything Down
Chronicle every message. Yes, this means putting them in writing — always, even if the issue seems fairly minor. This will aid greatly with your company's message discipline and consistency. Keep it simple. No need to waste time and energy doodling an overly complicated diagram or trendy infographic (it's fine to develop such tools for outreach purposes after you've decided your message is ready for prime time).
Stick to a one-page document that highlights the four legs of your message. Below each main tenet, include bullet points that support your contentions and suggest quotable quotes. Sticking to this one-page format helps keep things streamlined, automatically instilling discipline that helps you avoid the verbal excess that afflicts so many spokespeople.
Revisit your message regularly, for it is a constantly evolving creature. There is no guarantee that today's magnetic message will suffice tomorrow, so reexamine it regularly. The frequency depends on such factors as how swiftly your environment changes, the profile of the issue, and changes in your C-suite or spokesperson roster.
For example, you may need to revisit your messaging during a crisis on an hour-by-hour or even minute-by-minute basis. Reexamining evergreen issues, on the other hand, may require merely an annual or semi-annual visit.
Resist the temptation to entrust your chief communications officer with remembering your messages. What happens when they depart or get hit by a bus? There goes all your institutional memory. To emphasize, write it down, then revisit habitually.
Here's How to Get Your Copy
Today's front burner issue may well be a crisis. Tomorrow's may be something more mundane. Regardless, stay ahead of the pack by employing these principles to forge and broadcast a magnetic message whenever you talk to the press, public, or policymakers.
Your business and public policy goals hang in the balance, so get the full report when you join the Communications Community.
George Torok and I shared some thoughts on dealing with the media on his "Your Intended Message" podcast. Hear it here.
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