Maximizing My Messaging Source Document

I am grateful to have met, been mentored and been exposed to some of the best work of product marketers. Yu Ting Huang was the first to expose me to the messaging source document (MSD). I still remember to this day when I was tasked with the exciting project of heading the Citrix Ready Vertical Solutions Program with the objective of raising industry awareness of our tailored Citrix solutions for financial services, education and healthcare. Yu Ting directed the solution marketing, strategy and execution for the financial services. The moment she shared her MSD with me, I was blown away. Until then, messaging and positioning exercises for me were wordplay, a strike of creative genius, one-liners and whatnot. When I read her 6th revision (yes, this detail for your MSD is important), I totally was bought into Citrix's strategy, what we are doing for financial services, why we are winning and how customers will too if they associate with us.

Christopher Campbell succinctly explains in his recent post why to develop a messaging source document and the process. If you have come this far in my article, do me a favor and jump to his article right away. The guy is another marketing champion from whom I silently learned for years at Citrix as he executed global sales enablement and ran weekly rundown meetings.

My experience, however, with messaging source documents is conflicted; I am still learning how to maximize its value and instill cross-collaboration. Here are my top 3 learnings:

1) Don't Get Disheartened Too Soon

Here's the scenario: You have a solid 14-page messaging source document that supports our strategy and execution, so you want every other stakeholder with whom you work to have digested it, appreciated it and use it to execute their side of responsibility, maybe for an upcoming thought leadership webinar, preparing a short blog that connects to our target audience, designing new creatives to run ABM ads, etc., valuing both YOUR time and resources spent.

Nope, it's not happening. If you have tricks and tips, comment or DM me to share how.

2) It's a Living Document - Live Up To It

Don't just sit there and enjoy the sunshine after creating the draft your leaders reviewed and gave a verbal sign-off on. It needs constant tweaking and exploration into new territories. That's why I always maintain a signed-off version (say v6) that's ready for distribution and a v7 that's upcoming and includes both ongoing experimentation and what's ready for future discussion/clarification.

3) Drive Decisions with Data

Marketing is always subjective, and that is why, at the start of my career, I preferred staying in a Product Management role before being shoved into Product Marketing. It's really hard to gain any consensus. There was a time in a team when I was responsible for taking to market an early-stage AI solution that was really crafty with multiple industry-specific customer service use cases, so the essence of the product's value was its elasticity. So I did a lot of thinking and came up with the simple tagline, "The most flexible AI platform to turn customer service into customer success". Within a few minutes of the review call with the entire team, my GM of the portfolio ripped it apart (not cruelly) by saying, "So, are we into yoga now?".

Don't end up like me. Bring data to back your every claim.

That's my top 3 learnings. If you liked it, if you hated it, if you have feedback, reply to me, tweet to me, share it with your network, but most importantly, comment below.