Crystal Clear Communications Blog

The easier to use, the likelier your message will spread

What makes a marketing message great? Your audience craves hearing a message that tells them what’s in it for them (WIIFM), leading with the benefits they stand to gain.

A great marketing message is:

• Clear, so even non-experts understand it
• Concise, to hook attention quickly
• Consistent, in order to build credibility and trust
• Compelling, to engage people’s emotions as they decide what to do.

Many marketers struggle to deliver a unified brand message that’s consistent across every medium – digital, physical, in-person, or hybrid.

Some marketers have a message, but they lack the internal buy-in to get executives and spokespersons to deliver the message consistently. Co-creating a Message Map as a team brings you the buy-in you need.

That’s because of the “Ikea effect,” the fact that humans place more value in something they helped to create.

As cognitive neuroscientist Dr. Carmen Simon observes, one key to a successful message is consistency. Why?

Because message consistency over time and through all media channels builds credibility.

Consistency leads to credibility in the eyes of your audience. That’s how consistency of messaging helps you win customers and build revenues.

To help leaders, marketers, communicators and brands deliver powerful, consistent messages, we create Message Maps.

A Message Map helps you navigate and deliver your message

Like a road map, a Message Map is visual and spatial. At a glance, you see where to start, where you’re going, and how to connect the dots to get there.

You see what to say, so you say what you mean.

You make your message land in the hearts of your audience. Your audience’s emotional response is key, because humans make 19 out of 20 decisions with their emotions.

A Message Map:

• Centers on your main message, called the heart of your message, which answers your audience’s first question: What’s in it for me?
• Provides people with three reasons to believe, called positive points.
• Hooks your audience in 7 seconds or 23 words.
• Scales up gracefully from 7 seconds to 2 minutes as you add proof points.
• Scales up to 20 minutes as you add examples.

Here’s a template for a 7-second Message Map.

My partner and I help clients get their stories heard with a Message Map. It’s a powerful tool to frame a marketing message and gain strong internal buy-in.

Here are the questions that each element of your 7-second message answers:

Why map your message?

We format marketing messages as maps because maps are easier to follow than talking points, spreadsheets or scripts. Maps:

• Are inherently visual and spatial.
• Show exactly how ideas relate and connect to each other.
• Enable presenters to bridge back to the heart of their message when answering questions.
• Connect presenters to audiences better, since they invite you to speak in your own words rather than parrot a script or read talking points word for word.
• Enable you to maintain longer, stronger eye contact with people in your audience, so you connect with more people more often.

Wise marketers are always prepared for two-way communications — dialogues that go back and forth. Compared with monologues or broadcast communications, interactive communications build even more credibility for your brand. With a Message Map, you answer your audiences’ questions, then bridge back to the heart of your message — and repeat the heart of your message until it sinks in.

For people who use visuals, a one-page map beats talking points, spreadsheets and scripts.

For example, here’s a Google map, from my house to O’Hare.

In one frame, screen or page, you see where to start, where to go, and how much progress you’ve made so far.

In contrast, here are the written directions to drive to O’Hare:

Just like talking points, detailed directions take up multiple pages. It’s a whole lot to read. And it’s not so easy to follow when you’re driving.

That’s not the way to make a marketing message easy to use.

It’s much easier to follow a one-page Message Map! That’s true not only when you’re driving, but also when you deliver your message to audiences.

A Message Map makes your message easier to deliver

For example, here’s the Virgin Chicago Hotel’s 2-minute message. Its differentiating points are highlighted with red stars.

It’s super-easy to use this Message Map in interactive media, a live presentation, or a news interview. Here’s how.

First, hook your audience in 7 seconds

Share your home message and positive points first. “The Virgin Chicago Hotel delivers a great guest experience because it’s convenient, and has comfortable rooms ready for business. It’s Virgin! It’s fun!” Now, your audience knows what’s in it for them, so they’re likely to keep listening.

A 7-second message serves as an elevator speech. In a presentation, next, you’ll build up your 7-second message to 2 minutes.

“The Virgin Chicago Hotel delivers a great guest experience because it’s convenient. That means it’s in the Loop, near everything downtown. It’s the first hotel to deliver free Wi-Fi in Chicago. The snacks in your room are the same price as in local stores – it’s not $10 for a bag of M&Ms.

“Virgin’s comfortable rooms are ready for business, with specially designed beds that make it easy to use your laptop or read a book in bed. Doors close off the dressing area from the bedroom so you can snooze while your partner takes a conference call. If you need anything, just press the yes button on your phone. Or send your document to yes@virgin.com and your print-out will be delivered to your room.

“It’s Virgin, it’s fun, with two rooftop bars that offer a great view of Chicago. You’ll see the Virgin design, look and feel throughout. It was ranked the #1 hotel in the US by readers of Conde Nast Traveler.”

Repeat the heart of your message so it sinks in

Message Maps place your main message in the center, prompting you to repeat the heart of your message as you answer questions.

Repeating the heart of your message consistently is a way to make your marketing message stick.

When a spokesperson gets a question about the Virgin Hotel, she can answer it and bridge all the way to the heart of the message. For example:

“What about those comfy beds?”

“You get a good night’s sleep because our beds have a special patented design. You can comfortably work in bed, use your laptop or read a book. And you get a specially designed room that’s ready for business. That’s one of the ways you’ll get a great guest experience at Virgin Chicago Hotel!!”

Repeat your the heart of your message many times

It’s crucial to repeat the heart of your message since people need to hear it multiple times before it sinks in. People have more confidence in an idea when it’s been repeated three to five times, a study in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology found.

In his most famous speech, Dr. Martin Luther King repeated “I have a dream” eight times. Repetition works to help a message get heard.

That’s why the heart of your message appears in the middle of your Message Map — to prompt you to repeat it until it sinks in with your audience..

Spreadsheets make it harder to navigate a message

Messaging that appears in spreadsheet or talking point formats is harder to people to use.

For example, how would a live speaker navigate the message below in a talk or news interview? What’s the main message? What’s the one point the audience should remember? How would a presenter or an audience be able to connect the dots among these ideas?

The format below has been called a “message map.” Rather than clarify and highlight the main message, it adds layers of complexity.

This message diagram bundles together two sets of complex abstractions:

Make sure your Message Map works as a map!

With a real Message Map, you always:

• See what to say
• Say what you mean
• Make your message clear, concise, compelling, and consistent.

The heart of your message clearly tells audiences what’s in it for them. And the most effective Message Maps:

• Hook your audience in 7 seconds or 23 words.
• Use concrete words that paint pictures in your audiences’ minds.
• Activate emotions rather than logic, since people make decisions emotionally.

With a Message Map, your message becomes much easier to deliver and absorb.

Here’s more about how to put Message Maps to work for your company or brand.