- Dying 4 Influence
- Posts
- Test your messaging in 3-weeks
Test your messaging in 3-weeks
And rally your opinionated stakeholders together
Gab Bujold
March 28, 2025
Let’s test it out
Message testing doesn’t really mean much.
Are we trying out different outbound emails, trying A/B tests on the new homepage headlines, or running preference tests/surveys on Wynter?
Like everything in product marketing, there’s a definition problem.
Message testing for us = testing your messaging
What does testing your messaging means?
It’s like pricing iteration, it will always change and it’s tough to approach this as a checkbox approach.
So in this newsletter, we’ll show you how you can test your messaging properly
⬇️
Welcome to the next episode of Dying 4 Influence. The weekly newsletter for misunderstood B2B product marketers.
Know how the best PMMs operate in B2B. Get a dose of knowledge to stand tall in a sea of unseasoned marketing.
If you’re a new skellie, you can sign up here and join the misfits.
🧪Not all tests are made equals
Solutions like Wynter are great, but this week Eric told us that without a structure, it can confuse you even more.
He did a test for Betterworks, trying to understand which headlines was superior.
Tried “Employees deserved more than pizza parties”
VS
“Your team deserved a better performance management”
The results told him what people preferred, but you can’t really just take the winning headline and call it a day.
That’s not how messaging works, both of these headlines don’t necessarily reflect your positioning.
how the funnier misfit must have felt like
So Eric went from confident that Wynter could help, to even more confused on what to do with this data.
We’ve spoke together and he should have started with a stakeholder alignment and hypothesis first.
Which is exactly what you should do as well, whether you run a test on Wynter or not.
How to align egocentrics executives 🙄
Even if linking your messaging to revenue is a goal you want to achieve, a lot of tests end up going nowhere because lack of stakeholders buy-in.
The committee to end all committee 💥
The worst thing is that you need to align opiniated leaders together. Here’s how to do it:
Step 1: Identify if Messaging needs improvement
Most messaging problems are actually positioning problems.
Here’s what you should be looking for to see if your messaging might need improvement.
1️⃣ Lagging indicators:
Low win rates despite high traffic.
Poor lead-to-opportunity conversion.
Prospects misunderstand your value proposition.
2️⃣ Ask Sales & Product Teams:
“What’s the #1 objection we hear?”
“Do prospects describe our product how we want them to?”
“What messaging angle closes the most deals?”
Step 2: Start with your messaging hypothesis
Draw a messaging hypothesis based on what you know and how you would grade your messaging.
The hypothesis format is:
“Our {problem} is caused by {messaging gap} and is creating {Uplift Objective}.
To fix this, we should act on {messaging gap} by doing {action} because of {trigger}.”
Step 3: Validate your messaging foundations
It’s important that you understand that message testing your messaging requires you to have proper housekeeping. But even if you don’t this is something we’re trying to show by collaborating with stakeholders.
You need to have these foundations nailed down if you want to test properly. Otherwise, you’ll be stuck in back and forth.
Step 4: Assemble the MVM-Team (Minimum Viable Messaging)
Your MVM-Team:
PMM (You): Owns the process.
Sales Leader: Ensures messaging fits real objections and pushes outbound sales.
Marketing Leader (or You): Aligns paid/organic execution.
Founder/CEO: Aligns with strategic vision.
Product Lead: Ensures messaging aligns with roadmap.
The PMM leads the process and should “Inform” (I) the Founder/CEO and Marketing
The PMM is "Responsible" (R) or "Accountable" (A) for most tasks.
The Founder is mostly "Informed" (I) or "Consulted" (C)
Sales & Product are mostly "Consulted" (C), but will be “Accountable” (A)
Marketing is "Accountable" (A) for execution-heavy parts
📊 The Internal Messaging Alignment Scorecard: Each stakeholder ranks messaging on:
ICP Alignment – Does it speak directly to our best customers?
Differentiation – Is it unique from competitors?
Clarity – Is it simple, clear, and memorable?
Emotion – Are you triggering your prospect’s emotions by telling a relatable story?
Consistency – Is the messaging uniform across GTM channels?
Instructions:
Everyone need to grade it from 1 to 5 based on their perspective
Check the definitions of each pillars and how you should rate them
Check the different votes and reasons of the scores
Bring your messaging hypothesis, and align on a uplift objectives for each departments
Step 6: Run the workshop
Basically, the agenda of the workshop should look like this:
Signals of messaging change
Presentation of the messaging hypothesis (2 minutes)
Internal messaging scoring (15 minutes)
Explanations of each members (15 minutes)
Evaluation of similarities and differences (5 minutes)
Validating the messaging gaps (5 minutes)
Setup uplift objectives (3 minutes)
Step 7: Get consensus on weakness to validate
Once everyone understands the misalignment, we all check if this is influencing the initial messaging hypothesis, and what are our biggest weaknesses.
📌 Key Question: What’s the single biggest weakness we need to fix first?
Poor ICP alignment? → Test messaging against different personas.
Weak differentiation? → Test against competitor comparisons.
Lack of clarity? → Test short, simple messaging vs. longer copy.
Then, let’s ask ourselves this question:
Do we think this hypothesis would provide the expected objective uplifts?
If everyone agrees and leadership signs off, you’re ready to run the sprint.
Discover a better way to message test
A few weeks ago, I decided to launch a manifesto on message testing.
How to help PMMs like you track and fix their messaging.
To date, it was downloaded 500+ time
You can get it for free
sorry for the epileptic party 🎉
But if you can’t, no pressure, we released an episode yesterday SPECIFICALLY on messaging testing.
Right below 👇
🎙Featured Episode:
Why most message testing is complete BS (and how to fix it)
Episode 49 with the misfits!
Is your message testing just throwing random ingredients into a pot and hoping it tastes good? In this no-holds-barred episode, we’ve tackle the chaos of message testing and why most PMMs are doing it wrong.
From useless A/B tests with tiny sample sizes to executives demanding "just one more tweak," we dive into what actually works. Tune in for laughs, practical frameworks, and why your mom's cooking method isn't a valid messaging strategy. We're covering:
Only 30% of product marketers have ever actually tested a message
Why A/B testing is the "let's not commit" cop-out of marketing teams
The one-variable rule: why testing multiple things at once is destroying your results
The critical difference between message testing and A/B testing that most marketers miss
How to build a message testing framework that gets leadership buy-in immediately
If you've ever sat through a meeting where someone suggested "Let's A/B test it", this episode will either validate your frustration or completely change how you work.
Either way, your next messaging project just got a whole lot more effective.
🌶️ Spicy meme of the week
I once had a call with a founder and asked them the product uniqueness compared to the competition.
He told me, dead serious: “You’re asking me to compare a rollodex vs. Salesforce”
My brother in Christ, you’re not that special.
This meme was an ode to that.
"How the hell are we still in business?" 🫠
📢 Share the Word
How many of your fellow Product Marketers need to read this? Drop them this newsletter so we can all enjoy the memes.
That’s all we’ve got for this week. It’s your turn to tell us what you think with this one-question poll below.
See you next Friday 👋
Eric, Gab, and Zach
What'd you think of today's newsletter? |
Reply