by Sarah Vogel
To start thinking about message development, consider the following questions:
Your friend wants to try a new Italian restaurant for dinner. You’re craving sushi. How do you convince her to pick up the chopsticks?
A CEO doesn’t see the value of starting a company Facebook page. What’s the best way for employees to show him that social media can bolster his company’s bottom line?
A government agency wants to reduce the number of teenagers texting while driving. How do they convince this demographic that this behavior is dangerous?
What do these questions have in common? The answer is the need for message development. Whether the goal is enjoying a sushi dinner or decreasing teen driver fatalities, developing messages that resonate with an audiences’ values and opinions is essential for success.
How can you develop these kinds of messages? Try using a message box. This message development tool offers a communicators framework to produce a series of carefully-crafted messages that both respond to a particular audience’s (or sub-audience’s) concerns and reinforce how “the ask,” or desired action, relates to their values.
The messages produced can be used separately or together to achieve a desired outcome. Sometimes, several message boxes need to be created for a particular audience based on themes or ideas that resonate with them. For example, one message box for the CEO could be focused on the business case for a Facebook page while another could focus on how participating in Facebook reinforce the company’s commitment to customer service.
The Message Box in Action
Let’s go back to the question about the government agency and their education campaign about texting while driving. The following chart defines each element of the message box and shows messages that could be used for convincing teens that texting while driving as a dangerous activity.
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Do you think that the message box could help you create compelling messages for your own communications activities? We’re curious to hear your answers.