messaging

Messaging

Turn the position into the words people will actually use: on the website, in sales calls, in emails and ads. The library links each pain to a capability, each capability to a benefit, and each benefit to proof, so any writer can pull a line and know it holds up.

When to use it

• Right after /positioning is agreed.
• Before rewriting the website, a sales deck or a launch.
• When sales, marketing and product describe the product three different ways.

Don't use it to choose the position (/positioning), or for a single-feature question you can answer directly.

Inputs

Required: the website URL and the exact product name. Confirm the name if it's ambiguous.

Recommended: read these first if they exist:

• context/positioning/, the primary input, which frames everything
• context/icp/ for pains and voice of customer
• context/competitors/ for the status quo and contrasts
• context/win-loss/ for real objections
• context/brand/ for tone of voice

Also useful: internal docs and customer quotes. If positioning is missing, say so and offer /positioning first.

Paths. Write to context/messaging/MMYY-messaging.md. Agency or consultant? Swap context/ for clients/<client>/context/ throughout.

Tools. Page fetching for the site; web search for reviews, testimonials and comparison pages. Exa or Firecrawl if you have them.

Steps

1. Validate inputs and load the upstream context.
2. Research. Fetch at least five core pages (home, features, pricing, customers, about) with URLs and dates. Search reviews and testimonials. Record branded feature names exactly as the company writes them.
3. Extract the ten components, in order:
   1. Description. What it is, in one or two sentences, using the positioning.
   2. Status quo and alternatives. Doing it by hand, plus at least one named alternative.
   3. Pain points. Each with a consequence chain: the first-order problem, what it causes, what that costs the business.
   4. Capabilities. What the product does about each pain.
   5. Functional benefits. The outcome, each backed by a verbatim customer quote or marked "not available".
   6. Emotional and social benefits. Two of each: how the buyer feels, and how they look to their boss and team.
   7. Features. The branded names that deliver each capability.
   8. Cost of inaction. What not acting costs per week or month, in numbers where you can.
   9. Objections. 3 to 5, each with its root cause and a response that acknowledges, reframes and gives evidence.
   10. Core messaging blocks. A tagline of 7 words or fewer, a one-sentence elevator pitch, a 3-bullet value prop, a lead proof point, and one line per audience segment.
4. Link it up. Every pain points to a capability, every capability to a feature and a benefit.
5. Verify. Check each claim against its source. Quotes are verbatim. Tag confidence [VERIFIED], [INFERRED], [ESTIMATED] or [UNAVAILABLE]. For a client-facing library, aim for at least 60% verified and no more than 10% estimated.
6. Write the data gaps and how to fill each one.
7. Hand off to /funnel-strategy, and to any copy work.

Output shape

Title it # Product messaging library: [Product]. Open with a TLDR and one block of open questions. Then the ten components in order, a data gaps section, and a source list with URLs and access dates.

What good looks like

• All ten components present, or marked "not available" with a reason.
• No pain point stops at the first-order problem.
• The cost of inaction has a number, not an adjective.
• The tagline and pitch match the agreed position. If they don't, flag it rather than drifting.
• A seller could answer the top three objections using only this file.

Mistakes to avoid

• Feature lists dressed up as benefits.
• Invented customer quotes or made-up metrics.
• Messaging that contradicts the positioning because a line sounded better.
• Buzzwords where a plain verb would do.
• Repeating the same caveat in every component. Say it once.

Chain

Part of the free five-skill chain: /icp-research → /competitor-research → /tov-guidelines → /positioning → messaging. The other six context skills (company context, win-loss, founder POV, brand kit, funnel and goals) are in the paid context plugin ($19.99, link in the README).