Foundational Messaging
Intentional word choices don’t happen by accident.
Words are the result of buy in, collaboration, intention, and decision. When an organization jumps right to a press release before first setting a message tone or clear wording, the message can get muddled or be lost.
Beginning with stakeholder interviews and a white board and ending with words in black and white on a page, we’ll use a process that involves the minds of those invested in your organization to develop core messaging that can become a platform for an entire organization. We’ll tackle the challenges, too, because in learning what’s not working, we learn how to communicate to a point of clarity.
Let’s develop core messages that can take on several forms and infuse every downstream communication:
Mission/Vision/Values - guiding language, concise verbiage, inspiring ideals
Core Messaging - defined concepts, key phrases, repeatable language
New Ideas - initiative launches, defined focus areas, future-casting
Words Refresh - rooted in legacy, refreshed to reflect new approaches
AI Prompts - informed information, trained voice, consistency across an organization, human powered
When operational growth points to the need for new words…
Startups often need two phases of messaging - and there is often a time lag between the two. Yet both are an important and natural progression of growth:
First, the launch-time operational descriptions and catchy taglines that help introduce the organization.
Then, the full platform of messaging that fully encompasses a complete picture of what problem the organization solves for humanity and how they get the work done.
One medical foundation, which began as the only global, patient-focused organization dedicated to a rare disease, found itself at specifically this juncture. The message and the communications vehicles used to introduce the foundation connected with researchers, physicians, and an initial cohort of patients in the early days. They effectively caught the attention of some of the rarest patients in the world who needed a lifeline, established trust with physicians and researchers, and created a presence that offered a very personal connection. More and more critical audiences joined the effort.
That successful growth, however, led to a natural inflection point: the message needed to grow to meet the expanded mission. As an increasingly global audience of patients, researchers, and clinicians engaged, additional work flowed through the organization, resulting in greater support for research and resourcing to patients. The website, newsletter, and other communications pieces lacked enough platform to house all that the Foundation could offer to the community.
Without touching the Foundation’s indisputable vision - to cure the disease - we worked to refine the foundation’s mission and core messaging. Greater clarity around missional definition led to an easier way to describe the work to those seeking a partner or resource. With new language in place, the organization was able to more easily and quickly write newsletters, develop grant applications and reports, formulate fundraising campaigns, and create promotional materials to ensure more people knew about the disease.
The first test? The foundation launched a new website at its international gathering of researchers. Highlighting the latest discoveries, interactive features, and patient-centered tips, the site is now a hub of information on the disease, drawing from sources all over the world and packaging them in a way that patients can understand. More importantly, a few patients per month discover the site, giving them hope through access to information and a community of patients they never had before.