During a messaging session with clients, one of the first questions I ask is, what does your audience want?
Sometimes the answers I get are inward-facing, meaning they are your objectives, not your audiences. When you think about messaging for your business or brand, you have to think about it from your audience's perspective, not yours.
The Four O's of Messaging help you “flip” your message, so it is customer-facing. Talking about your customer's objectives in your messaging will get you much further than talking about your own, which is what most experts tend to do. The first “O” – Objective – asks what is it your audience wants. Without an answer to this question, you'll be guessing at the second “O.”
