Writing a Strategic Communications Plan: Key Messages

No matter if you’re making a sales presentation or responding to a reporter, every business communicator has to answer one key question: If your audience was to remember one thing, what should it be?

photo credit: Ernst Moeksis

Key messages are phrases that represent the main idea an organization wants to express to its audience. They reinforce what your audience believes about the issue you highlight, or they might counter your audiences’ current belief and work to change their opinion. Key messages open the door to direct communication with your audience, because they bridge what your audience knows and where you are trying to lead them.

• Short because they are one memorable sentence or phrase
• Concise because avoiding jargon or acronyms
• Active because they speak in the active voice
• Positive because they focusing on what one can do, not what you can’t
• Credible because they provide examples

Simple Method: Talking Points

Talking points are a set of ideas, usually compiled in a short list. They are used by executives or government leaders as a way to focus public comments around agreed upon key messages.

As a communication method, talking points are more fluid than formal. They resemble a speaker’s crib notes when written, or can be provided in a short memo. Talking points rarely find their way into large Strategic Communications Plans, as they are ad hoc and short term.

Complex Method: Message Mapping

Message mapping is a systematic approach to developing key messages. Designed for emergency response or crisis management, they are designed to answer nearly any legitimate question that might be asked by a reporter or member of the general public.

To develop a simple message map, consider the following table:

Using this table, the planner would identify the Question or Concern as presented by a particular Stakeholder. That Stakeholder could be a reporter, or President of the United States.

The planner then identifies three Key Messages that answer that particular question. For each Key Message, there should be 1-3 supporting facts (with possible citation) that provide credibility.

When using a Message Map, a planner would create one table for each question a Stakeholder might ask. In certain situations, two or more Stakeholders might ask the same question. However, depending on the Stakeholder, the Key Messages and Supporting Facts might change the way the question is answered.

As you can see, this can be a lengthy process. The benefit is clarity and completeness.

The Power of Three

One of the earliest ideas I learned as a television producer was the psychological power of three. The brain, as psychologists have discovered, can manage three items in succession—X, Y, Z; 1, 2, 3; Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.

When developing your key messages, especially in the Message Mapping technique, it is essential to use “triplets” in your message. For example, the title of this article about key messages:

Make a claim, cite a fact, and give an example.

While the Power of Three is an idea grounded in copywriting, it is a critical component for effectively communicating important information to your audience.

The Order for this Section

Key messages are the tied to establishing goals for a strategic communication plan. For example, if you are preparing a crisis management plan, you need to determine what key messages are important for a given situation.

Here are other articles I have written on this topic:

• Why You Should Be Proactive with Bad News
• What Twitter’s DoS Attack Can Teach Us
• Three Things People Want to Know in a Crisis
• How Do You Respond to Online Criticism?
• Executives Discover Online Reputation Management
• New Campaign for Will County Health Department
• 10 Day Tune Up for H1N1 – Day 2: Your Message
• 10 Day Tune Up for H1N1 – Day 1: Influenza Update
• Writing a Strategic Communications Plan: Evaluation
• What to Do When 100,000 People on Facebook Hate You