What Is a Messaging Workshop?
We’re glad you asked. During a messaging workshop, you’ll take a step back from your daily routine to look at your business holistically. Because you have intimate knowledge of your organization, having a fresh perspective with an unbiased third party facilitating the workshop is helpful. Interactive exercises will allow you to define a buyer persona, identify the pain points of your target customers, and establish your business’s unique solution to those pain points.
Benefits of Messaging Workshops
Messaging workshops are a dynamic and engaging way to construct a clear, concise message and a unique value proposition so your company can stand out among your competitors. Defining who your target customer is will allow you to recognize and address customer pain points. The deliverables of a marketing messaging session will allow you to create effective marketing assets leading to higher customer engagement.
What Makes You a Good Fit For a Messaging Workshop?
Pop quiz!
- Do you have an ideal client profile?
- Do you have a unique value proposition?
- Do you know how to speak about your company accurately?
- Does your entire team convey the same brand messaging?
If you answered “no” to any of those questions, then your company could use a thorough messaging workshop.
What to Expect During a Messaging Workshop
There are three exercises that Top Fox performs during our messaging workshops, and these can be applied to any business across all industries, from financial services and technology to business consulting and legal. At Top Fox, our new clients are usually surprised at how much fun our messaging workshops are.
Now, what are these pivotal exercises that will change how you market your company? Let’s jump in and see…
Exercise 1: Creating Your Buyer Persona
Trying to market to everyone will water down your messaging and leave you with a bunch of confused non-customers. Well-thought-out personas will give you a deep understanding of who your customers are, including their challenges, pain points, communication preferences, and buying behaviors.
An accurate persona is achieved by understanding the following characteristics:
- Demographics explain who your buyer is and include age, gender, family structure, income, education, ethnicity, geolocation, and employment.
- Sociographics explain why they buy, personality characteristics, belief systems, goals, habits, and attitudes.
- Sources and Influences are the platforms your buyers use to consume information.
To create a complete persona, demographics, sociographics, and sources and influences are needed to understand and market to consumers’ purchasing habits.
Persona work provides insights into how to address, solve, and market to your target audience more effectively. For example, when you’re ready to launch a digital ad campaign, you’ll be successfully set up to:
- Craft a lead magnet that addresses your audience’s pain points, and
- Design a landing page with a high probability of converting.
Exercise 2: Lean Business Model Canvas
The Lean Business Model Canvas is a visual framework that outlines your vision and focuses on your value proposition. It is one page of a very condensed business plan. The following are key elements that make up a Lean Canvas:
- Problem
- Solution
- Key Metrics
- Revenue Stream
- Customer Channels
- Unique Advantage
- Customer Base
The Lean Business Model Plan enables you to articulate your unique value proposition so that you can build your messaging around it.
Exercise 3: Brand Pyramid
People are not loyal to a brand because of its features and benefits; your company needs to take on a personality that emotionally shapes the total customer experience. A brand pyramid is a framework that allows you to gain clarity on your company’s brand identity and market positioning.
When creating a Brand Pyramid, start at the bottom of the pyramid and work your way up:
(Top)
- Essence: A single thought that captures the core quality of your brand
- Personality: How consumers experience your brand
- Values: attributes your brand stands for that resonate with the target consumer
- Emotional Benefits: the total customer experience
- Functional Benefits: what your brand does for consumers
- Features: tangible aspects and facts about the brand
(Bottom)
Completing the Brand Pyramid allows you to explore your company’s values and determine how you’d like customers to see your brand.
Deliverables From a Messaging Workshop
We can’t speak for anyone else, but we can tell you what Top Fox Marketing delivers after facilitating a messaging workshop. After we extract information from you and your leadership, we magically translate the internal work into consumer-facing language.
You will usually receive a complete Brand Pyramid, your Business Model Canvas, Personas, a Positioning Statement, and Value Proposition options. Boom, now you’re ready for the big leagues!
“A brand is a set of expectations, memories, stories, and relationships that, taken together, account for a consumer’s decision to choose one product or service over another.”
Seth Godin, marketing expert
Ready to Take Your Business to New Heights?
It can be challenging to evaluate your competition through an unbiased lens, but when developing messaging, it’s imperative. Top Fox Marketing’s dedicated team will empower you to thrive in the competitive business market. Take the first step toward business growth and increased profitability. Contact us now to schedule your marketing messaging workshop.
