Many organisations slog at their key messages, coming up with a mass of words that are often cased in jargon.
We recently spent time with the Federation of Community Legal Centres helping them to refine messages for a campaign involving a range of partners.
A great deal of work had been prepared to reach the six messages and our job was to test the messages with a selected group to make sure they were free of jargon, delivered a punch and were useable on a range of different audiences.
There was a range of audiences to appeal to: Government (politicians and policy makers, journalists, lawyers and the ubiquitous public.)
In two hours we pared the messages to four, found sharper words and toyed with different words to make sure they were appropriate for the campaign and the effect that the campaign wanted to make.
Here are our general tips:
- Remember your messages should be relevant and appropriate to the audience
- You may want to talk to your supporters in a more forthright language than you would for Government or journalists.
- You need to ensure there is continuity across the messages.
- All stakeholders must understand what kind of organisation or cause you stand for so messaging always needs to link back to objectives and values.
If you are interested in checking or refining messages, give Penny Underwood on a ring on (03) 9818 8540.