You're refining your product messaging strategy. How do you effectively integrate feedback from focus groups?

Product messaging is one of the critical part of "Promotion" (4Ps) strategy. Even a great product doesn't do well if promotion messaging is not adequate or sometimes it becomes counter-productive. The best example is Tata Nano car, one of the excellent product delivering very high value as compared to money. However, it's product messaging - "Garibo ka car" (as perceived by consumers) became counter-productive. Hence it's very important to follow the 7 step process while designing or implementing the product messaging strategy.

Get in touch with all Stakeholders. One needs to gather diverse perspectives from across the target audiences, analyze common themes around pain points, and needs, and understand empathy. Prioritize updating messaging in the most impactful areas that align with your sales roadmap and go-to-market strategy, and ensure consistency across channels. Continuously test and refine your messaging through sales and support feedback, and an ongoing process of learning and improvement based on evolving customer needs and market changes.

Start by organizing diverse focus groups representing your target audience. Use open-ended questions and interactive activities to gather rich, qualitative insights. Record sessions for accuracy and look for recurring themes and unique perspectives. This raw data is invaluable, providing a direct line to consumer thoughts and preferences, which are the foundation for refining your messaging strategy.

Durante las sesiones de focus group, debes de tener sensibilidad de entender y hacer preguntas que ayuden a clarificar los mensajes. En muchos casos, se dicen palabras e ideas pero el lenguaje corporal dice todo lo contrario. Considero que hay que buscar una mezcla entre los datos duros y tangibles, así como lo no es tan obvio pero que puede ser enriquecedor.

Customer focus groups provide invaluable feedback for product marketers, especially for feature launches. Ensure diverse customer interests by properly segmenting your groups. This segmentation will also help establish multiple use cases for your product and features, which can support the development of valuable case studies and other sales enablement tools. Collect both qualitative and quantitative data, and meticulously analyze it for customer sentiment and insights. Prioritize data based on common themes, which will shape your customer messaging strategy and support collaboration with Product and Sales Enablement teams. A/B test messages to see which themes/messages resonate. Develop feedback channels to gain continuous insights!

Once you’ve gathered feedback, categorize it into themes such as product benefits, pain points, and emotional triggers. Use qualitative analysis tools to identify patterns and significant insights. This structured approach helps you see the bigger picture and understand the nuanced perspectives of your audience, ensuring your messaging is both relevant and impactful.

Uno de los mayores retos que se enfrentan quienes hacen focus group es poder aceptar los resultados, romper paradigmas y entender como piensan diversos grupos mas allá de las consideraciones preestablecida. Cuando analizas todo desde una vision global y de aprendizaje, puedes obtener insights lo suficientemente valiosos.

It’s always critical to leverage the data with other data sources from other departments to enable a digital feedback loop. This enables continuous learning and innovation across various teams. Constant learning about your customers, business, and partners, leads to better service for all those involved. Ultimately, this is creating a stronger outward message. Using the right tools to gather feedback and to manage that information will help you better respond. For example, today’s customer demands more and is getting it. If brands don’t deliver customers are turning instantly to social media, X or whatever means possible, to share their experiences. It’s about instant feedback, good or bad.

Not all feedback will be equally important. Prioritize changes based on the frequency and impact of the feedback. Use a matrix to assess the potential benefits versus the effort required to implement each change. Focus on high-impact, low-effort adjustments first. This strategic prioritization ensures that your messaging evolves efficiently and effectively.

Prioritize the feedback based on its potential impact on your messaging strategy. Focus on the most significant insights that align with your business goals and can drive the greatest improvement. This prioritization ensures that you address the most critical aspects first.

We have said this before, but it deserves repeating, data is the diamond in the rough. Or for some it’s the new gold and people are only just beginning to recognize how they can mine all this valuable data. But here’s the caveat. Don’t get lost in the data. Have a strategy (prioritize) in how you plan to analyze the data and extract all the valuable information. You need to decide how will this information help you establish a marketing strategy to reduce friction for customers, increase sales, reduce costs, better collaborate with partners, streamline services, and the list goes on. Without a plan for how you will implement, data will be just gathering dust; and who wants all the dust? Remember it’s all about the data!

Es importante identificar las verdaderas prioridades de lo que buscamos. A veces no es fácil, ni cómodo ver como las ideas y estrategias que se podían tener preconcebidas deben ser ajustadas vs el plan. Mas allá de considerarlo un fracaso, entiendo que es importante hacer los ajustes necesarios a la estrategia a fin de garantizar los resultados esperados.

Keeping messaging relevant is crucial, so it’s essential to revisit and tweak on an ongoing basis using feedback from internal and external sources- focus groups as well as your customer facing teams, NPS, and analysts. An important consideration is cadence, need to allow time for updates to be rolled out and adopted before starting a review cycle- changing too often creates confusion and messaging fatigue. Make this part of your portfolio planning process so you can rollout updated branding/messaging as part of GTM activities.

With prioritized feedback in hand, craft your product messaging to address key insights. Focus on clarity, authenticity, and alignment with your brand values. Tailor your messages to resonate with your audience’s needs and emotions. Use storytelling techniques to make your message compelling and memorable, connecting with your audience on a deeper level.

Así como hacemos segmentación de portafolio por canales, debemos hacer lo mismo según la audiencia. Si bien es cierto, que algunos productos pueden llegara un publico de consumo masivo, cada segmento pueden recibir, conectar e interactuar con el mensaje de manera muy diferente. Conoce tu receptor, que les interesa, que los mueve y tendrás mayor conexión.

Once you’ve gathered key insights from your focus groups , it is important to test which message is most effective . For this , using A/B testing to compare the effectiveness of the revised messaging against the original or multivariate testing if you have more than 2 ideas to test is very helpful . Then tracking the performance of your messaging through relevant metrics which could be engagement or conversion rates is what will determine the success of your messaging . Both Google and Meta platforms provide extensive features for testing out messaging . You can see how each variation performs in terms of click-through rates, conversion rates, cost-per-click, and other key performance indicators.

Before a full-scale rollout, test your refined messaging through A/B testing, surveys, and pilot campaigns. Collect data on engagement and conversion rates to evaluate effectiveness. Be prepared to iterate based on these results. This iterative approach allows you to fine-tune your messaging, ensuring it resonates perfectly with your audience before broader implementation.

Prueba, corrige, prueba, corrige, prueba y lanza... Esta practica muy usada en el mundo de Hollywood, de hacer pruebas de audiencia para ver como los consumidores reaccionan a ciertas escenas, historias y situaciones, para así minimizar sus riesgos y conectar mas con el consumidor. ¿Te imaginas replicar este modelo en tu día a día?

Before fully implementing the new messaging, test it with a smaller audience or additional focus groups. Gather feedback on the revised messaging to see how well it resonates and make any necessary adjustments. This iterative process ensures that your messaging is effective and well-received.

Probaste, corregiste, adaptaste, lanzaste... Si funciono, entonces escala y expande. Pero recuerda, durante la ejecución siempre debemos de revisar que todo funciona y cuando deje de hacerlo. Debemos adelantarnos al cambio antes que la realidad nos obligue a hacerlo.

Consider leveraging AI and advanced analytics for deeper insights and predictive analysis. AI can help identify subtle trends and preferences that might be missed in manual analysis. Additionally, continuously seek feedback even after implementation. Customer preferences evolve, and staying attuned ensures your messaging remains relevant and effective. This proactive approach keeps your brand agile and customer-focused.

Gather all feedback collected from focus groups, including comments, suggestions, and reactions to different aspects of your product messaging. Organize this feedback systematically for analysis. Look for recurring themes or patterns in the feedback. Focus on common areas of praise, concerns, misunderstandings, or suggestions for improvement related to your product messaging. Prioritize the insights based on their relevance and impact on your product messaging strategy. Identify which feedback points are most critical for addressing or incorporating into your messaging.