A recent Aventi Group blog proposed that product messaging is a system. I don’t disagree, but I think it’s more appropriately called a process. Often, people don’t fully understand what product marketing and product management are all about. They are told, and they believe, that they are the CEOs of the product. That’s simply not true, and anyone who thinks that is delusional.
HiPPOs Have the Final Say
When it comes to messaging, it is a collaborative process that is usually bound by a HiPPO. HiPPO stands for Highest Paid Person’s Opinion. The HIPPO is the person who cares most about messaging and has the final say. You’ll write some initial messaging, and it will get completely rewritten by the highest-paid person. It was ever thus.
Moreover, every step up the organizational ladder to approve that messaging will result in changes. The sooner a young product marketer or product manager gets used to this, the better. Your job isn’t to write the messaging; your job is to get it approved.
Once the messaging is approved, the most valuable part of the process begins. Distributing the message. When you develop messaging, you should always start with the end in mind. By this, I mean: how will the messaging be used?
Consistency = Copy and Paste
Why is this important? Because the biggest guarantor of messaging consistency is copy-and-paste. First, get the general messaging outlines approved. Next, make sure you deliver it in the form it will be used. These include 100-word copy blocks for the website and 30-character headlines for Google Ads.
First, the canonical form of your messaging is your website. The messaging you work on, and the text you create, should appear exactly as it does on your website. Why? Because this is where most people will see your messaging. It’s 2026, and people don’t use collateral anymore.
The one- and two-page documents from years past are useful for sales. But you will have tens or hundreds of people looking at them. If you’re at a large company with a big website, you’ll have thousands or millions of people viewing your website. Choosing the website as the official messaging channel just makes sense.
Second, your messaging will be used in advertising and on social media. If you want consistency, simplify the process for those transforming your crafted messaging. This will help it become copy that actually engages customers. Come up with standard messaging formats that can be easily copied by the folks working in those areas. This means you’ll need your value proposition in both 30-character(Google Ads) and 140-character(social media) versions.
In short, understand that as a product manager or product marketer, you don’t necessarily control the message. Your job is to be a convener, bringing together the people who need to collaborate and reach an agreement. Always keep in mind how this message will be used. This way, you can offer it in a form that’s easy to copy. Because the quickest way to guarantee consistency is to copy and paste.
