Why Use A Messaging Guide?

Jim is flustered.

He needs a blurb for when he stands up at a networking breakfast, and is running out of time. Leanne is on the third draft of her email to all staff. Ben’s Board Report is due by COB, and he is grappling with how to align what he wants to say with the missions and values discussed last month.

On any given day, organisations are sending messages out to various stakeholders. But, how do you help your team frame their content, both to make their job easier, as well as stay on brand? With a Messaging Guide.

A Messaging Guide is different to a Style Guide.

A Style Guide is largely directive with fonts, colours, logos and the like. A Messaging Guide helps you speak in the voice of the brand and includes things like Elevator Pitches, Boiler Plate Pitches, as well as key phrases and supporting statements.

A well written Messaging Guide considers the nuances of writing for internal and external stakeholders, contexts, platforms, and topics. For example, today you might speak to your partner, your barista, your boss, your doctor, your child, and your neighbour. No doubt you will speak with them all in different ways, but there is not a lack of authenticity just because you speak with your partner in a more intimate tone than your neighbour. You are still you.

A Messaging Guide allows you to do the same for your workplace.

It’s a go-to document for every time you write or speak as a representative of your organisation. By giving your team pre-approved words and phrases to use, as well as guidelines on where and when to use them, communications can be streamlined. Your audience will also receive consistent messaging, no matter who they speak to within your organisation.

Has your organisation reached a size where managing messaging has become challenging? Would you like to support your team and boost internal efficiencies? Talk to us about developing a Messaging Guide for your organisation (it’s much more effective than a message in a bottle).