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Hook people with your message in 7 seconds

We help you create a clear, consistent, compelling message for your business.

With message maps, we help you create a message that’s crystal-clear, consistent, and compelling.

DO PEOPLE REMEMBER YOUR KEY MESSAGE?

To win customers, recruit employees, gain investors and reach influencers, you need the right strategic message. It must grab attention and be memorable since people act only on what they can remember.

Get to the gist of your message quickly in a news media interview

Your message breaks through when you prepare a Message Map. What’s more, the right message is easy for you and your team to deliver. You’ll hook people in 7 seconds, show them what’s in it for them, and give them good reasons to believe you.

The right message pays off. How?

  • A clear, consistent message is one key to delivering a superior customer experience, McKinsey found.
  • Companies that tell a clear corporate story and provide employees a line of sight to the strategy can lift their market value by almost 5%, Watson Wyatt found.

The wrong message comes at a high cost

  • Most companies don’t have a powerful narrative, so they struggle to make a human connection, said the Harvard Business Review.
  • 2 out of 3 employees don’t know what matters most to customers, a Gallup study found. That means employees don’t know what to say to customers.
  • The #1 reason people leave websites is the lack of a message, the B2B Web Usability Report revealed.
not-listening - Use a message map to make things clear
How can your business message get through when people are not listening?

With one clear, consistent key message, you get your whole team ready to win. We work with:

  • CEOs – Chief Executive Officers, executives, and entrepreneurs focus their company’s strategic message on purpose and strategy, products and services, and more.
  • CMOs – Chief Marketing Officers to create the perfect marketing message for customers, products, services, and launches.
  • CFOs – Chief Financial Officers and investor relations teams to clearly communicate strategy, earnings, financial performance, mergers and acquisitions, and more.
  • CCOs – Chief Communications Officers and Human Resources leaders to frame messages that attract the right talent, so it’s easier to recruit, energize and retain employees.

Find out how start-ups, enterprises, nonprofits, and government agencies win with Message Maps.

People respond to a clear message

Discover a tool that makes 24 communications jobs easier to do - Message Maps
The clearest message wins.

As executives, marketers, salespersons, and communicators know from experience: it’s hard to grab people’s attention with your message.

Why?

  • People seek maximum benefit with minimum effort as they scan content.
  • They are distracted. A study showed that 2 out of 3 Americans use multiple screens, such as a smartphone and TV, at the same time.
  • People skim content, reading only 20% to 28% of a webpage, usability research revealed.

To break through, you need the right message. One that:

  • Is clear, consistent, and compelling.
  • Answers people’s question: What’s in it for me?
  • Provides 3 compelling reasons for people to believe.
  • Addresses their pain points.

Focus your message on one idea only

Successful messages must focus on one idea. As Seth Godin explains, “If you try to say three things, we will hear nothing. Because most of the time, we’re hardly listening.”

When you deliver one message, it’s the kind of message everyone can receive.

But if you try to deliver two messages rather than one, 1 out of 3 people will completely miss your meaning, a Kantar Millward Brown study found.

Millward Brown studies show only one message at a time can be delivered effectively.
Studies show: only one message at a time can be delivered effectively.

Clear messages reach more people

A clear message is easy for anyone to share and understand. It’s concrete, speaking in plain words, without jargon or acronyms.

With your clear message, you avoid a major stumbling block called the curse of knowledge. When a doctor or other professional talks over your head, the reason is that they’re suffering from that curse.

People should not need an advanced degree to make heads or tails of what you say. Speak plainly to reach a much bigger audience – and you’ll gain access to a global audience.

Simplified English reaches more people around the world
Simplify your message to reach a global audience.

Be consistent to become credible

When you deliver the same message consistently over time, you gain credibility. Through repetition, people come to believe you and your message.

A consistent message builds up your credibility. It’s the foundation for stronger brands and good reputations and it saves time.

It takes a team of leaders, salespeople, service people, marketers, PR pros, and employees to make your message consistent and credible. When your team is prepared to deliver one consistent message, you increase your company’s impact.

A clear, consistent message enables your whole organization to speak with one voice – in live events, social media, emails, publications, and on your website.

Put the whole choir behind your message
A Message Map gets everyone on the same page to sing the same song and deliver your message.

If people sniff out inconsistencies in your message, it stinks. Inconsistent messages always trigger doubts.

Use a proven approach to create powerful messages

Since the 1980s, thousands of people have learned to create clear, consistent, and compelling messages in Message Map workshops.

A Message Map gets crucial jobs done for your organization. It can help you:

  • Launch a new company, category, product, or service to customers.
  • Recruit new employees and retain your existing workforce.
  • Announce news, earnings, mergers and acquisitions, and more.
  • Build credibility with news media, analysts, influencers, regulators, and other third parties.
  • Win the hearts and minds of local communities.
Stay on message with message maps
With a Message Map, you see what to say and say what you mean.

See what to say

With a Message Map, you’re never at a loss for words. You see what to say, using a simple, visual Message Map.

When you create a Message Map in our workshops, you and your whole team learn to deliver one clear idea consistently.

As your team delivers its one consistent message (called home base), you win people over. They’ll hear and act on what you say.

Give people reasons to believe your main message by adding 3 proof points. Proof points help people hear your message loud and clear.

Say what you mean

Too many leaders live to regret something they said to the news media. In fact, that problem never needs to happen.

Message Maps help executives and spokespersons succeed in interviews with The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, wire services, national and local news media.

Using Message Maps in interviews, executives stay on message, tell their stories better, get quoted in the news, and gain coverage to position their companies for success.

Over the years, Message Maps have become foundational for all of a company’s strategic communications – marketing, investor relations, speeches, internal and external communications.

Who uses Message Maps? Enterprises, entrepreneurs, start-ups, nonprofits, and agencies

Large enterprises use Message Maps for communications and marketing. Among them are The Home Depot, SAC Wireless, AvMed, EXL Service, AT&T, and Intel.

Message Maps help entrepreneurs and start-ups launch and grow, including companies such as Avesha and Alvernia Capital Management.

Nonprofits, including the Backbones, Chicago Region Trees Initiative, and DuPage Children’s Museum, use Message Maps to build support for their causes.

Message maps developed for Government agencies sharpened their messages. The Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP) and Chabot-Las Positas Community College are among them.

The origin of Message Maps

To fully prepare CEOs and executives for the toughest news media interviews, George Stenitzer and Tripp Frohlichstein co-invented Message Maps in the 1980s.

A Message Map provides a simple, visual way to organize your strategic message on one page.

A message map template
A Message Maps helps you hook your audience in 7 seconds. First, answer the question, “What’s in it for me?” Then provide 3 reasons to believe.

You see what to say. And say what you mean.

Message Maps are intuitive since they’re based on tree diagrams, a centuries-old visual tool for organizing knowledge. Tree diagrams led to phrases such as “root causes” and “branches of science.”

Need a better strategic message?

Now’s the time to frame a stronger strategic message to help your organization grow.

To learn more, email info@crystalclearcomms.com, phone George at +1-630-383-6047, or call Ariana at +1-773-490-5657. We’re ready to help you become even more successful with a clear, consistent, and compelling message.

Sources:

Strategic Message Blogs