Creating the right message, and ensuring it is heard by your audience, is often harder than it sounds.
You need something that stands out from the noise and that people absorb and can recall.
That’s why our latest exclusive masterclass for members of The Media Team Academy focused on messaging.
The session included lessons from our message development and testing courses and was led by Victoria Smith, one of our current working journalist tutors.
And she offered 7 top messaging tips we thought we would share in this blog.
1. Focus on one message
People often talk about the importance of three key messages.
But we don’t subscribe to the view that three is the magic number.
Why? Because it is too many. And on our training, we teach people to focus on establishing one message.
Victoria said: “You might have heard differently or think that you have more than one message to get across.
“People often talk about three key messages and strategies with five pillars.
“But that will not work well – it is too much for your audience to take in.
“And if your spokesperson is doing a radio interview, it may only last 90 seconds, so there is only time to land one message.
“You must work with them to be clear on what that is. Is it to promote a new product? Is it to talk about a new campaign? Is it to get more donors to a charity? Is it to get more sales?
“Sometimes, it can take time to work out what that message is.
“But once you have a clear message, you must focus on it. That means spokespeople bringing it in at the start of media interviews, repeating it further on in the conversation, and going back to it again at the end.
“If that sounds repetitive, it’s because it is. But the audience needs to hear it three times for it to get through.”
2. Be clear on what you want your audience to do
Before you hone your message, you need to be clear on who you are talking to.
Is it local press? A TV news programme? Or something a bit softer, like The One Show?
Who is watching or listening? What age are they? What demographic are they? Are they professional? Male? Female?
Different newspapers, radio stations and TV programmes all have different audiences.
“All these things will help you identify your audience,” Victoria said. “And once you have that in mind, you can be clear on what you want them to take away from the interview.
“For example, do you want them to know about your new product or how to use a new service you are offering?
“Thinking about what relates to your audience will help you hone your message.
“Remember, your audience isn’t the journalist - it is the people behind the journalist. Journalists are conduits to the people who count - the people you want to hear your message.”
3. Keep it simple
If you want people to remember your message, you need to keep it short and simple.
It needs to be a single sentence of fewer than 20 words, contain simple language – no corporate-speak or jargon - and take around 15 seconds to deliver.
Anything longer or containing complex language will be too difficult for people to recall.
Victoria said: “This can be harder than it sounds.
“It is easy to overcomplicate and over-speak and over-explain, particularly if you are new to this and your spokespeople don’t have much media experience.”
4. Loosen the messaging rules
You may have heard us talk about this in our media training and message development blogs.
We believe that no matter how well-crafted your message is, it does not need to be repeated verbatim. Authentic delivery is crucial.
“Spokespeople have different delivery styles,” Victoria said.
“That means you may have to adapt your messages to how they speak. Let them take the message and translate it into their language.
“It will sound more natural and realistic.
“You don’t want them to try and memorise a message and repeat it verbatim. When that happens, you lose the eyeline, the gravitas and the audience’s attention.”
5. Examples and stories
Any message needs to be supported by examples in a media interview, otherwise, it will become little more than rhetoric.
But what examples work best?
“Human examples,” Victoria said.
“When you look at the news, the stories that resonate are those about people. Our brains like stories about people.”
Stories give people a reason to care. They trigger emotional responses, build connections and cut through the noise.
“Give your spokespeople examples to support that key message,” Victoria added. “And get them to practice telling them – some people are naturally better at telling stories than others.
“They may even have stories and examples from their lives that would work.”
What about client confidentiality – can that stop you from telling human stories?
Victoria said: “You can tell stores without using a name. You can say something like ‘we know of one customer who is a single parent, and what we did for her was…”. You can still give us some detail.
“Another thing your spokespeople can do is to speak about themselves and their experiences. Everyone has a story about themselves, a friend, a relative or a colleague.
“Another little trick is for spokespeople to use the words ‘you’ and ‘yours’, rather than ‘the customer’. It is much more informal and reaches out through the interview and helps people listening think ‘they are talking about me’.”
Statistics, facts and figures can also help support messages.
But bring them to life in fun ways. For example, ‘that’s the height of a double-decker bus’, ‘the length of two football pitches’, ‘the equivalent of walking from one end of Oxford Street to the other’.
6. Stick with it
We’ve touched on this already.
During our message development and testing courses, and media training, delegates are often reluctant to use a message more than once.
If you want a message to resonate with your audience, you must stick with it and repeat it.
Repetition will strengthen the message. But don’t fall into the trap of using the same language - that will bore the journalist and the audience.
Victoria said: “Get to your message at the start, repeat it in the body and come back to it again at the end.
“Often, at the end of interviews, spokespeople are given the opportunity to add something – ‘Is there anything you would like to add?’.
“The answer is always ‘yes’ because you can always go back to your message.
“And then people remember it. The person writing the article is more likely to use it in the headline. Those watching and listening are more likely to go away with your message in your head.
“So, stick with your message - if it is a good one, it will punch through.”
7. Negatives
This is one of the most crucial parts of creating your message. It is something we focus on during our message development and testing training, and you need to consider it at the start of your message development.
You may have a brilliant message, but what pushbacks could you face?
Let’s say your message is about being carbon neutral by 2050. Sounds good. But, if you are a company heavily reliant on fossil fuels, there will be massive pushbacks about whether you can reach that target and whether you should be doing more sooner.
When you get to the point where you are trying to land your message in media interviews, you also need to think about the negative questions your spokespeople could face that might derail your message.
Victoria said: “Think about the negative questions that could come your way by pushing a product, launching a campaign, or admitting you need more donors.
“Anticipate the challenging and tricky areas in advance and plan how to respond.
“This should also include avoiding getting diverted down a rabbit hole, which journalists love to do when they focus on a particular point away from your message.
“You may not always be able to predict the negative questions. But you can use them as an opportunity to say, ‘I’m glad you asked that, people have raised this issue…’ and then go on to say what you are doing about it.”
Our messaging masterclass for members of The Media Team Academy also looked at the benefits and risks of using messaging house, what you need to consider for messages when things have gone wrong, and the role of comms professionals in supporting spokespeople to land messages successfully.
If you want access to masterclasses like this, you must be a member of The Media Team Academy.
Want to know more? Then get in touch with the team by emailing hello@mediafirst.co.uk or visiting The Media Team Academy.
Media First are media and communications training specialists with over 35 years of experience. We have a team of trainers, each with decades of experience working as journalists, presenters, communications coaches and media trainers.
Click here to find out more about our message development and testing training.