As an executive, you're often tasked with communicating complex ideas, strategies, and visions to diverse audiences. Whether you're presenting to the board, rallying your team, or speaking with media, the pressure is on to deliver a clear, compelling, and consistent message.
But all too often, executives find themselves drowning in a sea of information or competing ideas struggling to distill their thoughts into a cohesive narrative. And, sad to say, often times your comms team has better things to do than help you work through your messages.
That's where a message house comes in.
What is a Message House?
A message house is a strategic communication framework that helps you organize your key messages into a clear, hierarchical structure. Like a physical house, a message house has three main components:
The Roof. Your overarching message or vision
The Pillars. Your supporting messages or themes
The Foundation. The proof points or evidence that support your messages
By building your communication around this structure, you ensure that every point you make reinforces your central idea and that your audience walks away with a clear understanding of your message.
Why Executives Need a Message House
Clarity. A message house forces you to distill your ideas into a clear, concise, and easily digestible format. By focusing on your core message and supporting points, you avoid overwhelming your audience with too much information or getting sidetracked by tangential ideas.
Consistency. With a message house, you have a roadmap for all your communications. Whether you're giving a speech, writing an op-ed, or posting on social media, you can ensure that your messaging is consistent across all channels and touchpoints.
Persuasion. A well-crafted message house is inherently persuasive. By presenting a clear argument backed by supporting evidence, you're more likely to win over skeptical audiences and inspire action.
Efficiency. Investing time upfront to build a message house can save you countless hours down the line. With a clear messaging framework in place, you and your team can develop communications more quickly and with less back-and-forth.
How to Build Your Message House
Building a message house doesn't have to be a daunting task. With the right template and approach, you can craft a powerful messaging framework in a matter of minutes.
Here's a simple step-by-step process:
Start with your roof. What is the single most important idea you want to convey? This should be a clear, concise statement that sums up your vision or goal.
Identify your pillars. What are the three to five key themes or arguments that support your overarching message? These should be distinct but related ideas that reinforce your central point.
Lay your foundation. For each pillar, identify the proof points, data, or examples that lend credibility to your argument. These should be concrete and specific, helping to illustrate your points in a tangible way.
Pressure-test your structure. Once you have a draft of your message house, stress-test it from all angles. Are there any gaps in your logic? Any counterarguments you haven't addressed? Refine your messaging until it's airtight.
At CommsPlan, we've developed a Message House Template Collection to make this process even easier. Our PowerPoint templates provide a pre-built structure for organizing your ideas, so you can focus on crafting your message, not fiddling with formatting.
Note: The Message House Template pack our most affordable ($4.99) product for a reason: this isn't rocket science. Use one of our templates, structure your message, and go. We're all about impact here at CommsPlan!