Building a Message House: The Best Product-Based SaaS Messaging Framework

The Importance of a Strong SaaS Messaging Framework

The marketing pipeline is drying up. Sales is falling behind on revenue. Product adoption is lagging. When one or more of these issues arise, company leaders tend to evaluate the accuracy of their forecasts, the effectiveness of marketing and sales tactics, and even the ability of the product to solve compelling market problems. In these instances, an aspect of the go-to-market strategy that is often overlooked is the SaaS messaging framework being used.

How easy is it for prospects to recognize the problem this product solves? Does the messaging speak directly to the target audience or has it been diluted to appeal to a broader audience? How quickly are prospects able to grasp the unique way this product solves their problems?

Unclear and inconsistent messaging can impact everything from brand awareness and demand generation to sales effectiveness and product adoption. Marketing campaigns become disconnected from product solutions, sales feels ill-prepared to discuss buyer challenges and defaults to feature-first selling, and customers are left feeling confused or, even worse, unaware of the product solution.

When the go-to-market message is clear to the market and understood by the entire organization, it helps drive go-to-market strategy and positively impacts all areas of the revenue organization. Clear, effective messaging results in marketing generating more high quality leads and handing those leads off to a sales organization that is well versed in the market problems, customer needs, and value provided by your solution.

Whether you are re-evaluating an existing product in the market, or launching a new one, nailing the product message is critical to maximizing pipeline, revenue, and adoption results. The “message house” is a proven SaaS messaging framework that utilizes customer-centric research to craft a concise, effective go-to-market message that resonates with the market and drives the internal alignment needed to deliver better revenue results.

What is a Message House?

A message house is an internal document that articulates the value of a company’s product or service. A message house should answer the following questions:

• What problem does the new product or enhancement solve?
• Who experiences the pain of this problem?
• What value does this product or enhancement offer that uniquely solves the problem?
• What features enable the product or feature to solve the problem?

An effective message house answers these questions clearly and simply. Once completed, this SaaS messaging framework becomes the foundation for go-to-market activities, including sales enablement, marketing campaigns, and launch strategies. It is not intended to be an external-facing document and instead should inform marketing and sales materials.

The most important factor of an effective message house is focusing on the problems solved for the target audience. This approach helps marketing create value-based messaging and avoid falling into feature-heavy language. The more precise marketing can be about what problem the solution is addressing and for whom the solution is solving it, the better.

What Research Goes Into a Message House?

A message house is most effective when it is based on customer-centric market research. This is key to not only aligning internal teams, but also ensuring the messaging resonates with prospects and customers. This ‘outward, in’ approach to building a message house mitigates internal biases and opinions. Ideally, this SaaS messaging framework should include the following research inputs:

• Customer insights: interviews, case studies, win/loss calls, and sales recordings
• Market insights: competitive intelligence, third party studies, and review sites (e.g., G2)
• Product insights: product management intelligence, product beta feedback, user research
• Sales insights: intelligence gathered from client-facing teams including sales and customer success

Each message house may not include every aspect of research, and the list above can act as a checklist to strive for when creating a message house. A good rule of thumb is that the anticipated impact of your launch (i.e. launching a new product or targeting a new segment) should coincide with the level of effort and research dedicated to a message house. In other words, a new product launch may necessitate more intense research, while a minor feature launch may only require the review of readily available research materials, such as internal resources.

When Should a Message House Be Created and Who Owns the Process?

A product marketing manager should be accountable for gathering and analyzing research, creating the messaging, managing approvals, and then operationalizing the message house. Ideally, the product marketer is able to work with key stakeholders across the product, sales, and marketing organizations to collect the right information and solicit appropriate feedback and approvals. The term ‘approvals’ is used loosely in this context. A product message house should not be created by consensus; instead, key stakeholders in each department should have the ability to share input and highlight any areas of the document that are incorrect or misleading.

For a new product or solution, a message house should be drafted early in the development process. Crafting a message house early in the development process serves two purposes: 1) it ensures the go-to-market activities that rely on the message house can be completed on time, and 2) it acts as a litmus test to ensure there is tangible value being created for the target audience. As a rule of thumb, a first draft of the message house should be created once the product management team has identified the solution that is being built. After the first draft, the message house likely goes through a few iterations before it is finalized. Iterations allow for changes that are made to the product in development, as well as revisions made based on ongoing research conducted by the product marketer.

How Do You Use the Message House Once It’s Created?

A message house is an effective tool that helps drive clarity and alignment across product, sales, and marketing teams. In the instance of a new product launch, the product message house should be shared with any team tasked with creating training, sales collateral, or marketing messages tied to the new product. It’s best practice to have the product marketer who created the message house sit down with each of these teams to discuss the message house, answer questions that might arise, and discuss how the document can be leveraged as a tool for creating enablement, sales, and marketing materials.

For example, when working with the demand generation team to develop a campaign around a new product, a product marketer provides the message house to the demand generation manager to quickly get that person up to speed on the target audience, problems faced by that audience, and how the new product uniquely solves the problem. The product marketer shares the same message house with the PR agency working to bring awareness to the product launch. While the PR agency and demand generation team have different outputs and different goals for the launch, they both require a central source of truth about the product launch so that any public facing materials are working together to tell the same story.

A SaaS Messaging Framework That Works

Adding a message house framework to your marketing playbook is a straightforward way to create an effective message that can be leveraged consistently across your organization. Whether you apply this SaaS messaging framework to future launches or leverage to refine existing product messaging, remember to focus on the problems solved, leverage customer insights as much as possible, and start the drafting process early.If you’re ready to learn more about the message house framework or put it to work in your own organization, our team is ready to help. Connect with us today to get started.