Key messages

What key messages are

Key messages are the three points a reader should still be holding after they close the page, ranked so that everyone in the business agrees which one comes first. They are written once, on one page, and every piece of material you publish is expected to carry at least one of them.

They are not a messaging framework. The framework is the whole library: eight to twelve claims, the buyer each one is aimed at, the proof bank behind them, and the answers to the objections they provoke. Key messages are the top three lifted out of that library and made repeatable.

If you can only buy one of the two, buy this one first. Three points people can say from memory are worth more than twelve points in a document nobody opens twice. The framework is the right purchase when several people sell and they need the proof and the objection answers as well as the points.

Who this is for

A business where the material is mostly fine and nothing sticks. The website is accurate, the brochure is accurate, the sales email is accurate, and a buyer who has read all three could not tell a colleague what the business is for. That is a ranking problem rather than a writing problem, and rewriting the pages will not fix it.

It also suits a business about to brief somebody outside it: a designer, a printer, a freelance writer. Three points on a page does more for that brief than an hour of conversation, because they survive being passed on and the conversation does not.

You do not need this if only you write and sell, and you already have a value proposition you believe and use. And if you cannot yet say in one sentence who the business is for, that sentence comes before any of this.

What the three are

Three, not four. Four is the number at which people start to drop one, and which one they drop varies by the person doing the dropping.

• The lead message. The point you are willing to lose a reader over. It is the one that excludes people, and if it excludes nobody it is not a message, it is a pleasantry.
• The second message. The one that answers the doubt the lead message creates. Every strong claim produces an objection within a sentence or two, and this meets it before it is spoken.
• The third message. The one that makes buying feel safe: the guarantee, the record, the thing that happens when something goes wrong.
• A proof line for each. One fact per message, in one sentence, that you could show a sceptic. A message with no proof line is an adjective and gets cut.
• The order, written down. The ranking is the deliverable people argue about, and it is the part worth paying for. Once it is settled, arguments about which claim leads a page stop happening.

The three come out of your own material, your last ten quotes or proposals, a recorded hour with you, and short calls with two or three recent customers. Customers are the useful part. The point you are proudest of is rarely the point they repeat back.

What you get

The one-page sheet. Three messages in order, each with its proof line and a sentence on which buyer it is for. One page, printable, the version that actually gets used.

The repeat test, written up. I read the three to two or three people who do not know your business and ask them, a few minutes later, what they remember. What came back and what did not is recorded with the messages.

Three worked openings. The messages applied to three real pieces of yours, usually a home page opening, a proposal introduction and a short post, so everyone can see what carrying a message looks like.

A forty-minute walkthrough. With whoever writes and whoever sells, ending with each person able to say the three in order without the sheet in front of them.

A worked example

An illustration, not a client. A family-run window and door installer with fourteen staff has a website of twenty-six pages and a folder of nine printed leaflets. Every one says something true and slightly different: thirty years in business, energy ratings, free quotes, family-owned. Reading the last forty enquiry emails shows two questions arriving over and over. Who actually does the installing, and what happens when a frame does not fit.

The three messages become these. The crews are employees rather than subcontractors, proved by the payroll count. Every opening is measured twice before anything is ordered, proved by the measurement sheet the customer signs. A fitting problem is put right by the same crew within five working days, and that sits in the contract. “Thirty years” drops to the footer, because the two nearest competitors are older and the claim invites the comparison. The nine leaflets become three, each carrying all three messages in the same order.

How it runs

1. A half-hour call. What you sell, who buys it, and what you currently say first. No charge.
2. A fixed price in writing. Scope and number agreed before anything starts.
3. Reading and listening. Your site, recent quotes and enquiry emails, a recorded hour with you, and two or three short customer calls where you can arrange them. Four to six working days.
4. Candidates and the argument about order. You get five or six candidate messages and a proposed ranking. We settle it on a call. This step is where the value is, and it is rarely quiet.
5. The sheet, the repeat test and the worked openings. Delivered with the walkthrough, usually five working days after the ranking is agreed.

Two weeks from first call to final sheet is typical. Three if customer calls take time to arrange.

What it costs

Quoted as a fixed price in CAD after the half-hour call, agreed in writing, and not changed without your agreement. The price depends on how much existing material there is to read, how many buyer types you serve, and whether customer calls are possible. Three messages taken out of a finished messaging framework cost less, because the reading is already done. The pricing page explains how fixed pricing works.

What happens next

Most people take the three messages to the home page first, because that is where the wrong claim currently leads. Teams who have to say the messages out loud rather than print them go on to an elevator pitch. And where the three points are settled but the wording still sounds like six different people, brand voice guidelines are the other half of the job. This piece of work is complete on its own, and nothing further is assumed.