The Colab Brief - 113: Messaging Mayhem

Welcome to The Colab Brief

Author

Ash + Lizzy
April 06, 2024

Last week, we posted a LinkedIn that got a lot of mixed reviews. 

There was plenty of support (as there always is, thank you, we love you), but there was also quite a bit of pushback. 

The post was a simple list of words and phrases to omit from your messaging to strengthen it. 

While most PR pros added additional contributions, many marketing folks felt frustrated that they had no words or phrases left to use. 

So today, we’re going to pull a series of messaging examples from real-world companies and we’re going to strengthen them.

As and you shall receive, right?

Read Time: 5 minutes. 

For reference, here are the ten words and phrases we suggested omitting from your company messaging in order to strengthen it: 

  • Groundbreaking 

  • Unprecedented 

  • Game-changing

  • Disruptive

  • Synergy

  • Cutting-edge 

  • Robust

  • Moving the needle

  • Source of Truth 

  • Seamless

Immediately, we had people adding more words to the list, but we also ruffled some feathers. Here was the general sentiment of their comments: 

We get it. It can be annoying to constantly see PR people preaching on LinkedIn about what not to do, just to never tell you what to do. 

But, in short, there’s no one answer to this. That’s why branding and messaging are so challenging, and so important. 

You can’t use blanket terms or phrases to define a company. That’s not the point. The point is to tell your target customers what you do and how you can help them quickly. 

So nailing it is a non-negotiable. 

Before we dive into examples, here are a few things to keep in mind when developing your messaging: 

  1. 50-90% of the buying journey is complete before a buyer interacts with a sales rep. This means that your website needs to be treated as one of your most valuable sales tools. 

  2. Globally, there are 8.5 billion Google searches every day. More than 60% of those searches are from a mobile device, and 66% of all web traffic referrals come from Google. So if your meta-description isn’t on point, you’re leaving money on the table (most likely to your biggest competitors). 

  3. Most importantly, Users form an opinion about a website in 0.05 seconds and spend an average of 5.59 seconds looking at written content on a site. That’s it! You have 1/20th of a second to convert someone to a targeted lead. Every word you use needs to be perfect.

Now that we have that established let’s dive into some real-world messaging examples. 

Tech Company Number One:

Messaging: [Company] is a purpose-built all-in-one FP&A solution, unlocked by the power of driver-based financial modeling. Built for growth companies and accounting and finance heroes. 

The Breakdown:

  1. “Purpose-built”—This is accounting software, meaning its purpose is accounting. When a business is looking for accounting software, it’s probably considering price, timeline, implementation, and ROI. It is not looking for “purpose-built.” 

  2. “Unlocked by the power of driver-based financial modeling” - despite making sense, this is totally unnecessary, especially for a high-level descriptor. 

  3. “Built for growth companies and accounting and finance heroes.” This is helpful information, but it’s superfluous in nature. 

Let’s Clean it Up: [Company] is a financial planning and analysis solution for accounting and finance teams. 

Tech Company Number Two:

Messaging: Boost win rates, increase average deal size, and increase revenue per rep with [Company], the #1 Revenue Intelligence platform, custom-built for sales teams. Book your demo now and see why 4,000+ customers trust [Company] to drive more revenue.

The Breakdown: 

  1. "The #1 Revenue Intelligence platform” - Revenue intelligence is a buzzphrase. Also, number one, according to who?

  2. 4,000+ customers trust [Company] to drive more revenue”—No matter how many customers you have, we never recommend numbering them out. It just creates an opportunity for others to size you up, and if that number isn’t steadily increasing, people will start to wonder what’s going on. 

Let’s Clean it Up: [Company] boosts win rates, increases average deal size, and increases overall revenue per rep.

Tech Company Number Three:

Messaging: [Company] is a single platform that unlocks seller productivity to help sales teams efficiently create and close more pipeline.

The Breakdown:

  1. “Single platform”—Consolidation and a seamless user experience are important, but they’re not the most important. This is not critical information, especially in the first few words of a company description. 

  2. “Unlocks seller productivity” - This is prefacing a function. Still, halfway through the company’s description we have no idea what they do. 

Let’s Clean it Up: [Company] helps sales teams create and close more pipeline. 

We’re oversimplifying it—but that’s the point. People are being inundated with more copy and data than ever before. We’re in constant overdrive and need things to be as concise, direct, and simple as possible. 

Your website and your messaging are like your virtual handshake. You wouldn’t tell someone your life story right upon meeting them, would you?

Think of your messaging like a pyramid. And at the top, all you have is one sentence to tell someone what you do and convert them into a lead - one sentence to convey the absolute most important details of your product or service. What would you say if you only had five seconds?

As you work your way down the pyramid, you can include more details, but try to keep it concise and imperative. The more you follow this formula, the more qualified leads you’ll drive for your sales team to nurture. 

Until next week -

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