Do you struggle with your message and positioning?

Do you struggle with your message or positioning? If you work in marketing, communications, advertising or even film making you’d be familiar with the elevator pitch concept. Basically, you can tell someone your idea clearly and effectively in the time it takes to travel in an elevator from the first to the third floor.  Approximately 15 seconds.  When you step out of that elevator you want them saying ‘this is a great idea, tell me more.’ Sounds easy but it’s surprisingly hard.  And getting your message this succinct is really important if you want to get people on the journey with your project, brand or product.

In this episode of the Moonshine Moonshot series we’re asking you ‘Do you struggle with your message?’ and then unpacking how you can develop a really great message that you can use all the time, in conversation, in marketing and in life. Yea! One less dilemma to face.

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Transcript

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SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hello, welcome back. Today we're asking the big question. Do you struggle with your message? Sue, have you ever struggled with your message?

SPEAKER_01 0:08

Oh big time. Absolutely. I think it's really hard to get your message really succinct. You know what you do, you know what you're trying to say, but trying to get that really crystal clear so that everybody else understands it, that that is a challenge.

SPEAKER_00 0:22

This is the Moonshine Moonshot series about how to make an impact with your communication, going for the moonshot, the impossible goal, making that dream come true with a focus on communications. I'm Mike Hill.

SPEAKER_01 0:35

And I'm Sue Collins. And um this is why really getting your message clear is so important because everything that you communicate will really come back to what that message is.

SPEAKER_00 0:48

Yeah, and we ourselves, even running a communications company, have struggled with our message because you get so in your own business, so in your own head. And sometimes it can get confused even when you've got really good models of communication, like uh, for example, uh mission, vision values. You know, these things are really helpful in terms of your positioning, but sometimes they can make uh your message, your core message, a little bit harder to find.

SPEAKER_01 1:19

Absolutely. So, for example, we've um we've done a lot of time on vision mission values over the years and it's evolved and you know, um had various iterations, but what we've kind of really settled on now, which is really true to the work we do, is we're trying to move move humanity forward. But that's not a message, you know. You can't just say to someone, you know, what do you do? Well, I try to move humanity forward. It's like, what? So what we actually do is we make really great videos.

SPEAKER_00 1:48

That's a pretty simple message.

SPEAKER_01 1:50

Exactly. So you know, you'll you see if you come to our website, the the first thing you really see is we make great messages. Uh we make great we make great videos. See, I can't even get my own message out.

SPEAKER_00 2:03

So I think uh a lot of us struggle with our messaging, and we certainly work with lots of people, organizations, uh, who also struggle with their messaging, even though um they're amazing at what they do. Sometimes it is really hard to distill down what is your message in a few words, one or two sentences, and that's really what you need to get it down to.

SPEAKER_01 2:28

Yeah, so if I was to say to you, you know, if someone was to say to me, What do you do? And I said, Well, I create crafted stories that transcend every level to influence my audience, you go, What the heck are you on about? Like, I don't know, what I just asked for what you did. I didn't ask for some mythical kind of explanation that's out in the cosmos. Yeah. But if I say to you, we make great videos, you you just know.

SPEAKER_00 2:55

Yep, that's right. And uh and then we sort of have an extension of that as well, which comes back to you know what makes you unique and what adds value. So our extension is we make great videos that reach your audience and make an impact. So the key to that is that not only do we make great videos, we make sure that they reach your audience, meaning that we're very conscious of who you're talking to, and that once they reach your audience, they do something, they make an impact, they help, they add value. So I think that's really important too, just to distill down what's the message and how's it at value.

SPEAKER_01 3:35

So keep it really simple. Start from a really simple place. If you can just get that really fundamental, what is it that you do, and what is it that you're trying to tell people, then you can grow it and expand on it and get more nuanced and much more crafted and clever around it. But if if you really want to um, you know, look think about the the brands or companies and that that you really resonate with and that think about the way they're sharing their message. Like you'll go to their websites and you know, like to use a really you know big famous one, obviously, Nike, just do it. You know, like the it's so clear, that message is so clear. They're telling people to get up, put your shoes on and run. You know, like you don't need anything more than that. So it's just super simple, but I bet you if you went back into the Nike archives of yesteryear before they had that campaign, they would have had a whole lot of it would have taken them a long time to get to that.

SPEAKER_00 4:31

Yeah, so I think there are a few tools that we can offer for those who are struggling with their message. There's another episode that is specifically focused on strategic communications planning, and that really breaks down a whole methodology, really, about how you start this process, and and there are even more tools available if you want to reach out to us. We can share those with you. But those tools are really helpful because they sort of you often dive into the detail uh and then you come back out to be able to distill down that detail into a much more concise message. So it really, you know, uh starts from a different place, you know, being about what you do, what's your broad goal, what's your objective, who are you working with, who are you helping, how are you helping them, who are you partnering with, you know, what are your tactics and your messages? And then from all of that, um, you can come back to okay, at the top of that pyramid, what is the single key message that you can hang your hat on and everything else is connected to that?

SPEAKER_01 5:34

What do you need people to know about you in a matter of a sentence that's gonna get them really clear on who you are and just keep it simple.

SPEAKER_00 5:46

They sometimes call this the elevator pitch, and it's really helpful, isn't it? Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:50

So an elevator pitch for anyone who's not familiar is the the concept of that is you could tell someone about your project plan or business in the time it takes you to get from the ground floor to the third floor in an elevator.

SPEAKER_00 6:01

Yeah. So that's about 15 seconds, and that's really what you need to aim to get it down to. So, you know, um, if you're struggling with your message, you're not alone. Uh, lots of people struggle with the message, and often it's tricky when you've got lots of stakeholders and different people who might have different ideas. So, using tools and methodologies that help to find consensus among a group, help to find that common thread that goes through that everyone can agree on is a great starting point. It is quite a process and quite a number of steps until you can often get to that very simple message that becomes super important to you.

SPEAKER_01 6:42

Yep, so I've got a challenge for everyone in the audience and you, Mike.

SPEAKER_00 6:45

Right.

SPEAKER_01 6:46

Go and have a look and find us the most confusing, most unusable messages that you can on anyone else's websites or or projects, and you'll really quickly like send them in because they'll be they'll be great to uh great to really distill and go, okay, well, why doesn't this work? And that will really help you to understand as well what's going to work.

SPEAKER_00 7:06

Gobbledygook.

SPEAKER_01 7:07

Yeah, find some good ones, find some not very good ones, and love to know what you come up with.

SPEAKER_00 7:13

I think the average person spends eight seconds on any given web page, and I think this is true of browsing and interacting with ads and uh and different types of communications, content marketing, etc. So you've got a very short period of time to explain what you do and to hook your audience. So that's gonna be critical. If you're struggling with your message, once you get there, once you find it, uh it's gonna be super helpful to improving your engagement across all of your communication platforms.

SPEAKER_01 7:43

So hopefully you found that helpful. And um, if you've got questions about it or you, you know, please do send me in the the ridiculous ones you find because um there's some pretty funny ones out there.

SPEAKER_00 7:53

And so what's with Wonder Woman?

SPEAKER_01 7:55

Oh, Wonder Woman, okay. Well, she's she's just awesome. She's a one-woman army. What can I say? She's got her message down.

SPEAKER_00 8:02

She doesn't you know what she's doing. She doesn't struggle with her message, does she?

SPEAKER_01 8:08

So until next time, please send in your comments, ideas, thoughts. Love to hear from you.

SPEAKER_00 8:12

Hi.

SPEAKER_01 8:16

Do you struggle with your message? Is it hard to communicate?