Key Messages
Every communications program is, at its core, an effort to make a brand mean something specific in the minds of a defined audience. Key messages are the distilled expression of that meaning — the short phrases you want people (and, increasingly, AI systems) to associate with the brand when they think about it. The Key Messages dashboard is where you capture and maintain those phrases for each property.
Why Key Messages Matter
A PR program without agreed-upon key messages drifts. Different team members describe the brand differently in different placements, spokespeople answer the same question three different ways, and the story that reaches the market is blurry instead of sharp. Explicit key messages give everyone — agency, client, spokespeople, ghostwriters — a shared reference for what the brand is supposed to stand for.
In an AI visibility context, key messages matter for an additional reason: AI platforms build their answers by synthesizing the associations they've seen repeated across the web. When a journalist, an analyst, and a podcast host all describe your client as "the most secure CRM for finance teams," that association becomes a fact the models surface when someone asks about secure CRMs. When everyone describes the client differently, no single association is strong enough to stick. Key messages give your outreach, content, and spokesperson coaching a common target.
What Goes in a Key Message
A good key message is short, specific, and ownable:
- Short: It should fit in a single sentence, ideally under ten words. If it takes a paragraph to state, it's a positioning statement, not a key message.
- Specific: "We care about our customers" is not a key message — every company says that. "The only analytics platform with SOC 2 Type II and HIPAA out of the box" is specific and defensible.
- Ownable: A key message should be something your brand can credibly claim better than its competitors. If two competitors could equally use the same phrase, it isn't a differentiator.
Key messages come in a few flavors, and it's fine to capture several per brand:
- Category definition: "The original headless CMS" — tells the audience what kind of thing you are.
- Audience fit: "Built for finance teams" — tells the audience who you're for.
- Capability claim: "Deploy in under ten minutes" — tells the audience what you uniquely enable.
- Value framing: "The fastest path from data to decision" — tells the audience what outcome you deliver.
- Contrast: "No agents, no sidecars, no headaches" — defines the brand against an alternative approach.
A typical property has three to seven key messages at any given time. More than that and the list stops functioning as a reference — nobody remembers a list of twelve.
Creating and Managing Key Messages
Navigate to Key Messages in the property sidebar. For PR-focused users, this appears under Projects because key messages most often drive campaign work. For SEO and general users, it appears under Manage. Click Add Key Message and provide:
| Field | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Message | Yes | The phrase itself — up to 200 characters. This is the canonical wording your team should use. |
| Description | No | Context, rationale, target audience, evidence that supports the claim, or guidance on when to use it. |
You can edit any key message to refine the wording as the program evolves, and you can delete messages that no longer reflect the positioning. Deletions are permanent.
Best Practices
Make the Message Exact
The whole point of a key message is that multiple people will use the same words in different contexts. If the message is approximate — if different team members rephrase it differently each time — the repetition effect is lost. Agree on exact wording and use it verbatim in briefs, pitches, and content.
Use the Description Field for the Why
The message is what you want people to remember; the description is where you capture the reasoning behind it. Note the audience, the proof points, and the evidence that supports the claim. When a new team member comes onto the account, the description is what gets them up to speed without a two-hour onboarding call.
Revisit Messages Quarterly
Key messages aren't permanent. Competitors evolve, product positioning shifts, and what was a differentiator last year might be table stakes this year. Review the list at least once a quarter and update or retire messages that no longer hold up.
Coordinate With Projects
When you scope a campaign in Projects, reference the relevant key messages in the project brief. This keeps the campaign narrative tied to the brand's overall positioning rather than drifting into one-off angles.
Don't Confuse Key Messages With Taglines
A tagline is customer-facing — it shows up on the homepage. A key message is internal-facing — it shows up in briefs, pitch notes, and spokesperson training. The same phrase can sometimes be both, but most key messages are written for working teams, not for billboards.
Related
- Projects — Scope campaigns around the key messages you want to reinforce
- Annotations — Mark campaign milestones on your visibility charts