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Messaging shouldn't feel this hard.
If you’re staring at a complex product, an oversaturated market, and a mountain of conflicting opinions from stakeholders, you aren’t alone. Whether you’re a founder trying to find your voice or a marketer struggling to align multiple buyers, the "messy middle" of messaging is where most brands get stuck.
On Better Messaging, Emma Stratton, author and B2B messaging expert, is pulling back the curtain on how to turn technical complexity into clarity. Drawing from a decade of experience partnering with hundreds of tech companies, from seed-stage startups to global household names, Emma shares the practical frameworks and real-world lessons needed to make people actually care about what you’re building.
[00:00:00] Emma Stratton: I am Emma Stratton and this is Better Messaging. If you want to stop second-guessing yourself and start writing better messaging today, you are in the right place.
[00:00:12] Emma Stratton: One of the services that I offer is what I call a messaging review. So it's an hour and someone comes and shares their messaging framework that they've worked on, and I give them feedback on how they can make it stronger. And it's a really fun offering because most people have read my book, Make It Punchy, they've followed the frameworks and all of the techniques, and they've done it themselves, and they want to bring it to me just to check to see if they had done it right and, you know, if it could be improved.
[00:00:41] Emma Stratton: So I met this one marketer who had gone through the Make It Punchy process, and he did a great job. I was really impressed. It's very cool to see people following some of your advice and techniques and just getting great results, and this guy got really good results. He'd carefully applied the frameworks, and he came up with messaging that was really specific and benefit driven and super focused on the customer, which is what I'm all about.
[00:01:10] Emma Stratton: His language was clear, it was simple, and his benefits were really, really strong. I was actually quite impressed. But he asked me to look at the value proposition. He said, "I'm pretty happy with the benefits, but there's something about the value prop that just, I don't know, maybe it just feels a bit boring or I feel like it's not working as hard as it could.
[00:01:32] Emma Stratton: What am I missing?" And the moment I looked at the value prop, I knew exactly what was going on, and it's something that I actually see more often than you might imagine. Now, his value proposition said something along the lines of launch new products faster. And this wasn't wrong, 'cause it did really connect to something that his customers genuinely wanted, but it just felt a bit generic.
[00:01:58] Emma Stratton: Anyone in the manufacturing space, which was his industry, could say something like that. Everyone is, creating things that will help other people launch products faster. So anyone could say it, and probably multiple companies had said it before. So it was a bit undifferentiated But the other issue that I saw was that there was this huge gaping, chasm between what the headline was talking about and the value proposition and what the benefits were talking about.
[00:02:27] Emma Stratton: The benefits were very specific, very grounded, and very close to what the product itself could actually do, whereas the value proposition is suddenly talking about launching new products, and it felt like something was missing. And I knew just from looking at it that he needed to fix the altitude of his value proposition, and that was really what he was sensing when he said he wasn't sure about the value proposition.
[00:02:52] Emma Stratton: He was actually sensing the fact that the value prop was at too high of an altitude, and that is what we're going to geek out on today, my friend. if you listened to the last episode, and if you haven't, I recommend checking it out maybe before you finish this one, I introduced the idea of altitude and how I think about it.
[00:03:12] Emma Stratton: So as a refresher, altitude is the word I use to describe how either broad and high level and value-driven a message is or how specific, technical, a message could be, and there's a whole kind of, spectrum in between. And the idea is you want your messaging to be at the correct altitude for your audience.
[00:03:33] Emma Stratton: Now, different audiences, different personas require different altitudes. So I explained what it was and how it works, but today I want to give you a really practical technique that will help you get altitude right. Because a lot of times we write something, and then when we look at it and think about it, we're like, "Hmm, that's actually not at the right altitude."
[00:03:54] Emma Stratton: So I want to help you get your messaging at the right altitude, and you can do that by asking yourself two really simple questions. I'm going to share two prompts or simple questions that you can ask yourself to adjust altitude. Whether you need the altitude to go lower or higher, one of these questions is going to help you get there.
[00:04:18] Emma Stratton: Now, when I first got into this work many years ago, like 10 years ago at this point, I was inspired by effectively messaging that was at too low of an altitude. So we're talking about messaging that's full of the jargon and the tech speak, and it's all about the features and functionality, and you, can't even see the human in any of it.
[00:04:38] Emma Stratton: When I first met my first tech client, that's what the messaging was like. It was almost like it was for robots, and it scared me in the very beginning. I was like, "Oh my God, if customers like to read this type of thing, they're way smarter than I am. I might be too dumb to write this kind of messaging."
[00:04:56] Emma Stratton: And then, of course, I quickly learned that this messaging actually didn't really work for anyone at all. A lot of people didn't understand it. They got confused, or they found it boring. So This idea of messaging that's too low altitude, too stuck in the features, and too technical was something that I was seeing a lot.
[00:05:14] Emma Stratton: And I knew that I would be able to get people out of the features and into benefits and value, and that's what inspired me to get into this work and start Punchy in the first place. Low altitude messaging. So I'm going to start with low altitude messaging, when what you've written is too low altitude and you actually need to effectively raise the altitude and go higher.
[00:05:39] Emma Stratton: Okay, so what are the signs that your messaging is perhaps too low altitude? your messaging is likely too low altitude, first of all, if it's full of technical speak and features and functionality. Okay, so if you look at the messaging and if you ask yourself, "Will this be universally understood by my audience?
[00:06:00] Emma Stratton: Are people going to pretty much understand this?" If the answer is no or maybe not or only a few, then your messaging is probably too low altitude. Another tell that your messaging is too low altitude is if there is no whiff of a human or a customer in that message. So effectively, it's all about the tech and nothing to do with the customer.
[00:06:24] Emma Stratton: So it's all about the tech and nothing to do with what you can actually do with it. Now remember, one of my definitions for benefit is the cool new thing a customer is going to be able to do, be, or feel with your product. Now, if you can't see any of that and it's all about the tech and nothing about the customer, your message is likely too low altitude, right?
[00:06:46] Emma Stratton: Not enough of benefits. I don't know why I should even care about this. So if you are in a very technical field, cybersecurity, for example, there's a really good chance that your messaging might be too low altitude. So if that's the case, you simply wanna raise the altitude. You know, like an airplane going higher, higher in altitude, you want to ascend, okay?
[00:07:10] Emma Stratton: Now, how do you ascend? You do that by asking yourself a really simple question, which is, "So what?" Now, I talk about the so what exercise in my book, and in this exercise, I tell you to imagine a bored teenager staring at you in the face and you're talking about your product, and they just keep saying, "So what?
[00:07:31] Emma Stratton: So what?" And that so what forces you to come up with another reason why it's so great. And then they say, "So what?" And you come up with another idea. And this is effectively a prompt to raise altitude, to get out of the feature and towards benefit and value. And this was a tool that I used a lot, especially in my early days when I worked with a lot of technical founders.
[00:07:54] Emma Stratton: I was constantly asking them, "So what?" To try and get out of the features and the tech and into the benefits and the value. Okay?
[00:08:01] Emma Stratton: knowing that you're speaking to a CEO or a business buyer is a reminder that you are likely going to wanna have a higher altitude message for them, because typically that's what that audience wants. So let's say my audience is a CEO, and the message is around this kind of new automated content creation product.
[00:08:23] Emma Stratton: And my message is, "Hey, get some AI-powered brand templating." So AI-powered brand templating. Now, see how that's very close to the technology? Right? We're talking about AI-powered and, and what it is. There is no whiff of a human in there. Like, I don't sense a human there. I am just pretty much talking about the tech, AI-powered brand templating.
[00:08:47] Emma Stratton: Now, the CEO hears that, and they're like, "What even is that? I do not care about that. I got a lot going on." It's not even going to register, and this is what happens when we have a disconnected altitude. It's too complicated, too specific, and so the CEO's like, "I'm not interested in that." We've narrowed down too far.
[00:09:10] Emma Stratton: Okay, so we figure this out. We've identified it. Great. Now all we have to do is raise the altitude by saying, "So what?" So AI-powered brand templating. I imagine the poor teenager being like, "So what?" And I say, "Well, now all your teams can create content no matter how good their design skills are." I'm like, "Yeah, nice."
[00:09:30] Emma Stratton: But then my teen is like, "So what?" I'm like, "Okay. All right. Fair. Okay. Well, then your design team doesn't have to spend all their time on mundane fixes, um, and tasks because other people are doing a bad job making branded materials." And my teenager says, "So what?" And I say, "Well, then all your company's content is going to be consistent, polished, and on-brand."
[00:09:54] Emma Stratton: Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. I've now landed on something that the CEO actually cares about. You see, the CEO doesn't really care that all the teams are going to be able to create content regardless of skills, 'cause the CEO is paying someone to get it done. so they don't necessarily care how it's going to be done.
[00:10:11] Emma Stratton: you know, CEO doesn't necessarily care that the design team is annoyed that they're having to fix other people's shoddy brand work, but CEO does care about putting out a consistent brand that looks good and elevated in the market. So I know I have landed on the right altitude. So as you are saying, "So what?"
[00:10:32] Emma Stratton: You see that I'm raising the altitude of the message, and which is the right one? It's the one that resonates with my audience, that really connects with what they care about, that is on their level. Now let's do another example. This one's a bit more technical, and this is for a database performance analyzer.
[00:10:51] Emma Stratton: And again, I'm targeting C-suite or an executive, someone who is going to demand a higher altitude message. So if I go in hot to my CEO, and I'm like, "Hey, you need this. Um, you need to start analyzing your database performance using wait time analysis. Trust me." And the CEO's like, "Oh God, you know, you nerd, like, what are you talking about?"
[00:11:15] Emma Stratton: Too low altitude. Again, it's, uh, a little bit too technical. I'm talking about wait time analysis, and what is that? And there is no trace of a human. I do not see my customer in any of that. So I know it's too low altitude, and it's not going to connect or interest my CEO. So I'm going to turn to my lovely bored teenager who says, "So what about that analyzed database performance using wait time analysis?
[00:11:41] Emma Stratton: So what?" I say, "Well, using wait time analysis means that you can measure the time rather than just looking at the metrics." My teenager's like, "So what?" And I say, "Well, you can clearly see what's going wrong and why." "So what?" "So you can easily find the root cause of performance problems before they impact the applications."
[00:12:03] Emma Stratton: Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. I have landed on something that the CEO actually cares about. You know, making sure that the application isn't going to get messed up and customers are going to be mad, and we've connected to this idea of finding the root cause before any of that happens. We have landed on something that matters to the CEO, and I know I am at the right altitude.
[00:12:27] Emma Stratton: So those are all examples of what to do when your messaging is too stuck in the weeds, too technical, and we need to raise altitude and make it more relevant to a less techie audience or a business buyer or a C-suite, leader where it needs to be higher altitude. So you can do that with so what.
[00:12:45] Emma Stratton: Now let's do the reverse. Now this is another thing that I noticed a couple years into my work with Punchy. Like I said before, I was initially inspired by the low altitude messaging that I saw everywhere. It seems like everyone was being too techy and was totally stuck in the weeds. But as I started working with larger clients in more established companies and later stage companies, I realized that a lot of people had the opposite problem, where their messaging was too high altitude, where it was just too broad, too vague, trying to take on everything.
[00:13:21] Emma Stratton: And I think larger companies are often guilty of this. They're like Grow your business, you know, drive revenue, make the world a better place. These big sweeping statements that kind of cover everything, but at the same time sound like everyone else and don't say anything different, and you kind of don't have an idea what the company even does.
[00:13:43] Emma Stratton: So sometimes we can be too high in altitude in our messaging, and we are miles away from where we need to be. We've, like, taken the whole value thing a little bit too far. So what are some signs to look out for that may point to a message that's too high altitude? Well, first is generic. Okay, is it a bit generic?
[00:14:03] Emma Stratton: Is it something that many other products or companies could also say or even have said? Then that's probably a good sign that your message is too high altitude. If you are at a company that actually has lots of products, when you go too high altitude, all your products kind of sound like they have the same value proposition.
[00:14:23] Emma Stratton: So that's another thing to kind of think about. Another sign is, is the message too vague? Like I'm reading it and I'm kind of unclear what this product even does. Launch products faster is sort of an example. That headline was very far from what the company did, which was actually automate the production of this certain type of gear, and it was too high altitude.
[00:14:48] Emma Stratton: So yeah, if it's too vague and you kind of don't have any idea what this product does, could be high altitude. And a final thing I would say is if it's unbelievable or overpromising, okay? It's promising something that sounds too good to be true, that's really big, like grow your business or drive revenue, which is a lot of things need to go right in order to drive revenue or grow a business, and a lot of companies say that they grow your business.
[00:15:13] Emma Stratton: That, again, is another sign that your message might be too high altitude and need to be lowered. So okay, you're at this point where your headline is too high altitude. You know, like the person who came to my messaging review, same thing. Launch new products faster. It was too high altitude. So what do we do?
[00:15:32] Emma Stratton: It's actually quite simple. You ask yourself the question, "But how?" But how is the opposite of so what. So, so what was a prompt that helped you increase altitude and move closer to the value, but how does the opposite. It gets you more specific and moves you closer to the feature itself. So we're not diving straight into the feature and into the tech, but we're getting closer to it so that the message becomes more specific and more clear and give you a better idea as to what the product can actually do and help you achieve.
[00:16:05] Emma Stratton: So that's why we wanna go lower in altitude. So but how will get you there. So let me give you some examples to kind of illustrate. All right. Say I have this Email copy agent. So it's an awesome magic little agent that writes your marketing emails for you. And my headline is Generate More Leads. Now, generate more leads is not wrong, but it's a bit generic.
[00:16:31] Emma Stratton: Lots of people will say generate more leads in the sales and marketing space. Probably tons of solutions would say that. And it's a little bit undifferentiated. Also, I'm kind of wondering, well, how? Lots of different ways to generate leads. You can call people. You can follow up with people. You can email people.
[00:16:50] Emma Stratton: You can buy ads. You know, there's a lot of way to generate leads, so it's very wide open and it's a bit vague. So I know I want to get more specific. So we start with generate leads and I say, "But how?" Oh, and a caveat here. When I'm thinking about the audience for this, let's say the audience is a marketer, like a practitioner.
[00:17:12] Emma Stratton: Now remember, practitioners, users, uh, these are the-- and technical folks, these are the people that typically want a lower altitude message 'cause they're the ones using it. They wanna know what it's all about. So again, for this email copy agent, we're thinking about a marketer who's actually going to use it.
[00:17:29] Emma Stratton: So generate more leads, I think, but how? Okay. by improving your email click-through rate. But how? By creating more personalized emails faster. Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. I'm going to stop there because that's actually getting to what? That new superpower that you're actually going to have. That ability to create more personalized emails, that is what the marketer wants.
[00:17:56] Emma Stratton: Right now, it takes them way too long to get it done, and that's what ultimately is going to lead to improving click-through rates and generating more leads. But really, this idea of creating a personalized email faster is the value that my marketer actually cares about. So as you can see, create more personalized emails faster is a lot more specific and clear than generate more leads.
[00:18:17] Emma Stratton: It is more tied to the product itself, and it is more believable as well. So when we get super high altitude and broad, the message itself can become less believable, have less credibility. So when we get more specific, it's more believable that that's something you can deliver. Let's do one more example.
[00:18:37] Emma Stratton: so this is, interviewer training. So this is for like, talent acquisition folks, uh, people who work in recruitment, and It's personalized interviewer training. So essentially a personalized, Plan to make you better at interviewing candidates, for a job.
[00:18:54] Emma Stratton: Okay? Now, if I were to say, "Hey, this will help your organization hire great people," that's still a bit vague, 'cause if you think about recruiters and talent acquisition folks, they have a lot of different tasks and jobs and KPIs and things that they need to do. Sure, ultimately, we hope it all adds up to the organization hiring great people, but a lot of things have to go right in order for that to happen, and that is, like, a really big umbrella statement, and I'm not really sure what it's talking about.
[00:19:29] Emma Stratton: Okay, so we wanna go lower in altitude. So help your organization hire great people. Well, then I ask, "But how?" It's like, well, it helps your team perform better interviews. But how? By building confidence in their interviewing skills and filling gaps where they are. Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. You know, this idea is what someone in recruitment would care about.
[00:19:53] Emma Stratton: It gets very specific, and it shows how it's going to improve over their current, situation. And so we know that this is the right altitude. So again, when it comes to choosing the right altitude, you do have to know your audience, but you want to think, "Is this something that matters to them? Is this something that they want?"
[00:20:13] Emma Stratton: And does this give enough of a sense as to what this product is and what it does? And if the answer is yes to both of those, you are likely in a good place with your altitude. So now you have two really useful questions that you can use to kind of play around with your messaging. because here's the thing, and I always say this to my marketers when I train them, whether it's in my individual marketing cohort or when I come into a company and train the whole team at off-sites and on-sites and things like that.
[00:20:46] Emma Stratton: No one is expecting you to just nail the message first time. It's amazing that, how that perfectionism, desire to be perfect kind of creeps in, 'cause even in my workshops when we're in training and I'm like, "Hey, this is just a brainstorm," people are trying to get their brainstorm correct in the first try.
[00:21:05] Emma Stratton: And it's like a brainstorm isn't right or wrong. A brainstorm is how you get to, you know, what feels right. So just accept the fact that what you put down the first draft, like, might not be right, and that's perfectly fine. You just wanna start somewhere. Then once you have something, ask yourself, "Is this at the right altitude for my audience?"
[00:21:27] Emma Stratton: Think about your audience. Do they know a lot about tech? Really sophisticated, super techy? That's your hint that you want a lower altitude message. Is my buyer a business buyer, non-techie user, C-suite? That's your hint that you probably want a slightly higher altitude message. Then look at the message before you and, ask, like, "Is it a higher altitude or a lower altitude message?"
[00:21:51] Emma Stratton: If you're not sure, just do the but how and the so what, and flesh it out, and then take a look. Sometimes when you see a message in context with other messages, you're better able to rate it and assess it and see if it's at the right altitude. So don't be afraid to kinda brainstorm it, try a few different things.
[00:22:11] Emma Stratton: But then when it comes down to deciding, really be mindful and intentional about the altitude that you choose. And but how and so what are your friends, those questions that are going to help you get there. So I hope you enjoyed this episode and you're into this idea of altitude. I will say that altitude and getting it wrong is one of the biggest opportunities that I see in front of companies, right?
[00:22:39] Emma Stratton: People are typically either too high or too low. When you get it just right in the middle and just right for your audience, the message just resonates in a very clear and simple way. You don't have to do the razzle dazzle. You just connect with them, and they can quickly see why your product matters and how it might help them, and that is the number one goal of messaging.
[00:23:01] Emma Stratton: We're not trying to, you know, amaze people and stop the press and get everyone jumping up for joy. We're simply hoping to get a buyer in their limited attention span and amount of time that they have that they're giving to you to quickly read your message and be like, "Huh, cool. I think this is interesting.
[00:23:21] Emma Stratton: I'm going to read a little bit more and check it out a bit more." And when that happens, your messaging has done its job.
[00:23:27] Emma Stratton: Thanks for joining me for this episode of Better Messaging. If you like what you heard, go ahead and subscribe. Leave a review and share it with a friend. You can also follow me on LinkedIn. Until next time, keep it punchy, my friend.