How do you test your messaging assumptions?

1 Define your messaging goals

The first step to test your messaging assumptions is to define your messaging goals. What are you trying to achieve with your messages? Who are you trying to reach and persuade? How do you want them to feel and act after reading or hearing your messages?

Your messaging goals should be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART). For example, your goal could be to increase the click-through rate of your landing page by 10% in the next month by attracting and converting more qualified leads from your target segment.

2 Identify your messaging assumptions

The next step is to identify your messaging assumptions. These are the beliefs or hypotheses that you have about your audience, their needs, their pain points, their motivations, their preferences, and their objections. These assumptions form the basis of your message strategy and influence how you position your product, what benefits you highlight, what tone and language you use, and what call to action you include.

Your messaging assumptions should be clear, concise, and testable. For example, an assumption could be that your target segment values speed and convenience over price and features when choosing a product like yours.

3 Prioritize your messaging assumptions

The third step is to prioritize your messaging assumptions. You can't test everything at once, so you need to focus on the most critical and risky assumptions that could make or break your message effectiveness. These are the assumptions that have the highest impact on your messaging goals and the lowest level of certainty or evidence.

You can use a simple matrix to prioritize your messaging assumptions based on these two criteria. For example, an assumption that has a high impact and a low certainty would be in the top-right quadrant of the matrix and would be a high priority for testing.

5 Analyze your messaging test results

The fifth step is to analyze your messaging test results. You need to collect and interpret the data and feedback that you get from your messaging tests and compare them with your messaging assumptions and goals. You need to look for patterns, trends, insights, and surprises that can help you validate or invalidate your assumptions and improve your messages.

Your messaging test results should be objective, reliable, and actionable. For example, you can use metrics like response rate, completion rate, satisfaction rate, click-through rate, conversion rate, and cost per conversion to quantify your test results and evaluate your message performance.

6 Iterate and refine your messages

The sixth and final step is to iterate and refine your messages based on your test results. You need to use the learnings and feedback that you get from your tests to optimize your messages and make them more relevant, compelling, and clear for your target audience. You need to keep testing and tweaking your messages until you achieve your messaging goals and satisfy your customers.

Your message iteration and refinement should be continuous, creative, and customer-centric. For example, you can use techniques like A/B testing, multivariate testing, or split testing to experiment with different variations of your messages and find the optimal combination of elements that works best for your audience.

7 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?