Key messaging is synonymous to effective communications. The importance of it lies in communicating what the client wants its audience to know in the simplest manner. Good key messages are short and concise and relay the brand’s ideology in the best way possible.
A brand’s goal is to educate and/or persuade someone about something.
The reason PR professionals develop Key Messages for clients is that an average person forgets what’s told to them in its entirety within 20 minutes of having a conversation. Hence the deal is to create compelling, clear messages that tell a story and is easy to remember.
Every organization has a set of vision, mission statement as well as values that are identified during the branding exercise. This helps determine where the organization is, where it aspires it to be, and the values they live by and who they are looking to target.
Thus, it is important to align the key messages with the overall business strategy by asking 3 simple questions:
What do you stand for? How are you different? And what does that matter?
Once we’ve aligned our requirements to the above questions, the agency would create a framework that is used to create compelling, relevant messages. A statement that would be used as an elevator pitch to get your point across in the most appropriate manner possible or a pitch statement to the media that would cover all bases. When dealing with the media, having good key messages in place is a great way to sidestep questions you don’t want to answer. You can use key messages to refer to information you would want to discuss.
Do the key messages complement the organization strategy, do they ring true, do they motivate stakeholders to act?
Finally, share the final message map with all team members and ensure that the spokesperson knows the key message inside out. It is important to review the key messages from time to time and create additional key messages for specific audiences
You should start any communication with your key messages, return to them throughout, and then summarize with them at the end.
