The Power of a Message House for Product Marketers — Part 2
Out of the articles I’ve written on Medium, The Power of a Message House for Product Marketers is by far the most popular. Given its popularity, I thought a part 2 might be beneficial to other product marketing managers (PMMs) out there.
A Quick Recap…
What is a message house?
Simply put, a message house is your single source of truth for your company, product, solution, etc. It encompasses the key aspects you need to explain what a particular product or feature does, for whom, the value, etc.
It is a document you can hand off to a content marketer, a freelance writer, an agency, or learning and development specialist to create internal and external resources and feel confident your messaging is consistent across the board.
The Message House Evolution
I started creating message houses over a decade ago and each time I implement the template at a new company, I tweak it. I make adjustments because a template is not 100% applicable for all types of organizations. Just because I used this template at an enterprise SaaS company, doesn’t mean the exact same one will work at a professional services startup. The edits I make are based on feedback from colleagues, the company’s needs, the industry, the organization’s experience in product launches/product marketing, as well as other factors.
How I’ve seen the templates differ from company to company is mainly the amount of detail/depth. The first template I used was 1–2 pages. Now, these are easily 6 or more pages.
To help you decide on the elements necessary for your template, there a few questions to ask yourself and how you answer them can help steer you in the right direction.
- Who will be creating the message house? Product marketing? Product management? Project management? Content marketing?
- What type of content will my message house feed? Website copy? Sales presentations? Internal cheat sheets? Blogs?
- Who will be using the message house? Sales enablement? Learning & development? Copywriters? An agency?
Helpful Elements
Over the years, I received feedback on additional elements or sections to add to the templates. Below are a few I personally found helpful:
Guidance/Training/Examples
If you lack a formal PMM team or have a very small one, other teams (product management, corporate marketing, etc.) might need to take on the responsibility of developing a message house. Providing guidance within the template could be a tremendous help. Some guidance you could include is:
- A description/definition for each section: Some may not know there is a difference between your short description of your product and the positioning statement. Providing a brief definition can quickly clear up any confusion.
- Examples: Providing a link to another finished message house can help those new to the process.
- Training videos: I started creating short training videos on how to develop elements of the message house such as how to create a value proposition. You can place a link to that video right within the template.
- Noting where it falls within the launch process: If you have an established development, product launch, or new product introduction (NPI) process, place which step of the process each element should be completed (I use the section headers for this — see below). Some can be completed at the very beginning, and others might not make sense until much later in the process.
Links to Other Sources
To help keep your message house from turning into a novel, you can provide links to other sources such as market research, voice of customer (VOC), and competitive intel. The research itself can help you develop your message house and help others who need to create content, but you don’t necessarily need to include a huge table of all of your competitors within the document itself. You could link to a separate spreadsheet or competitive portal if you have one.
Related Content
This might be one of my favorite elements I recently added to my templates. A message house is a living, breathing document. It should continually be reviewed and updated, especially if you manage a product with regular feature releases. With each release, your message house will more than likely need edits. If you update your message house, look back at all the content already created such as product web pages, PowerPoints, datasheets, etc. to make sure your messaging is on point. Sales enablement content as well as external content need to remain up to date and consistent.
There is probably so much more I can go into on message houses, but I’ll stop here. Maybe there will be a part 3 in the near future!
I do hope this information is helpful. Incorporating a comprehensive message house into your process can help make product launches and feature releases much more streamlined and scalable.
