Five common key messaging challenges (and how to get it right every time)

by Carol Saldanha

You’ve worked hard to develop your product or service. Now it deserves messaging that cuts through the noise.

Key messaging is more than clever wordplay and creativity. It’s about truly understanding your audience and turning that insight into clear, relevant messages that resonate emotionally and back themselves up.

Here are five common key messaging challenges, and the proven solutions to help you nail it every time.

Challenge 1: Not knowing enough

When it comes to key messaging, you need to know your product (a service is also a product you offer) inside out. How to get there? 

Strategic solution: Research 

This phase lays the foundation for a key message that resonates with your audience and conveys what your business and product stand for. Dive into:

• Product research

Interview your product team, review technical specs (if applicable) and understand your product’s limitations.

• Audience research 

If possible, conduct customer interviews. If not, jump online to forums and groups to understand what people are saying and how they’re talking about similar products. Forums like Reddit, Facebook groups and Trustpilot are some good places to go.

Analyse support tickets, review sales call recordings and read reviews. Learn people’s needs and thoughts.

• Market research

Study industry reports, analyse search trends, review social media conversations. Check sources like industry publications and Google Trends.

• Competitor research

Shamelessly look at your competitor’s website, sign up for their demos and newsletters and analyse their messaging.

At the end, create a summary of your findings. Make sure you capture things like:

• customer key pain points that you’ve identified

• what you like about your competitors’ key messaging

• competitors' messaging gaps, and

• the top 3 things about your product.

Challenge 2: Trying to say everything at once

One of the biggest traps when writing a key message is overloading it. People often try to cram in every feature, every benefit, and every buzzword. But real clarity comes from restraint.

The strongest key messages are efficient and authentic. That means stripping out the unnecessary (extra words, empty adjectives, filler content) and getting straight to the point.

Key messages should do two things:

• Say what matters most

• Say it in a way that respects your audience’s time and attention

If your product saves time, let people know. If your service is the first of its kind, own it. That’s the essence of your message.

Strategic solution: Cut the jargon and keep it real

If your message is too wordy, people will glaze over it. Out with jargon, and in with plain English. Attention spans are shrinking, which means you don’t have a lot of time to cut through. Here are some things you can do:

• Replace industry jargon with everyday language.

Example: Instead of saying: ‘critical control verification optimisation’, try ‘we improve safety controls to prevent accidents.’

• Focus on the outcome, not the process.

Example: Don’t say: We offer advanced threat intelligence and perimeter defence mechanisms. Say this: We keep your business safe from online attacks.

• Use problem-solution format

Example: Many people worry about outliving their savings. (problem)

Our retirement plan shows you how to build lasting financial security. (solution)

Test your messaging with the BBQ test. Can you explain what you do to a friend at a barbecue? Can they understand your message in 10 seconds?

Challenge 3: Struggling to simplify complex ideas

If your product is new or complex, it’s even more important to keep your key messages simple. Focus on the benefits. Don’t get lost in the weeds trying to explain the details.

This is where a messaging framework comes in handy. Think of it as your cheat sheet for clarity. It helps distil complex thinking into clear, structured messages by breaking things down into digestible parts, such as:

• audience pain points

• brand truths

• proof points, and

• positioning.

Strategic solution: Next time you’re at it, try the PAS

Problem-Agitate-Solution, or PAS, is a practical framework for building key messages. And it’s where your research shines! Gather all the knowledge you've built and try this:

• Problem: Identify your audience’s specific problem – a problem your product can help with.

Example: Small businesses constantly struggle to complete projects because people use different tools—some use emails, others use spreadsheets, and some use calendar reminders.

• Agitate:  This is where you intensify the problem by highlighting the downside of not addressing that problem. Think of the negative consequences to create a sense of urgency for a solution.

Example: This chaos means missed deadlines, client frustration, and team members wasting hours figuring out what everyone else is working on. Last-minute scrambles become the norm, stress levels skyrocket, and eventually, you start losing clients who can't rely on you to deliver on time.

• Solution: This is where you introduce the hero of the story: your product. Simply and clearly, show how your product can make a difference.

Example: Our project management app brings everything into one simple dashboard where your entire team can see what needs to be done, who's doing it, and when it's due.

Challenge 4: Fear of leaving someone out

This is a big one. You can’t please everybody, and neither can your product. Many people fall into the trap of writing a message that appeals to everybody. It comes from a good place, but when you try to say something for everyone, you usually say nothing memorable to anyone.

A strong message is specific, speaking directly to a core audience and reflecting a real, relatable need or belief. The more focused and true-to-purpose your message is, the more effective it is – because it feels relevant, confident, and genuine.

You can always adapt your key message for different audiences or use cases later (more on that next). But the foundation has to be clear, sharp, and targeted.

Strategic solution: Start with your “who” before your “what.” Get specific: industry, role, challenge, or mindset. Then, craft your message around what matters most to that group.

This flips the focus from “how can we appeal to everyone?” to “how can we be most relevant to someone?”

Instead of thinking: “We help businesses grow”

Think: “We help accounting firms grow by automating client engagement tasks.”

That’s the kind of message that sticks.

Challenge 5: One key message is enough

This is more of a common misconception than a pain point.

Yes, you need one clear, consistent core message – but that’s just your starting point.

To really resonate, your message needs to adapt across different audiences, channels, and moments in the customer journey.

Adapting doesn’t mean changing the message. It means expressing it in a way that fits the context while staying true to the core.

Some practical examples are:

• You might lead with a high-level, benefit-driven version of your product on your website homepage.

• In a sales pitch, you emphasise how it solves a specific client pain point.

• On LinkedIn, you might express it in a more conversational, insight-led way.

Strategic solution: Build a messaging matrix

Start with your core message – your big, unchanging truth. Then map out how that message flexes for different:

• audiences (e.g. customers, partners, investors)

• channels (e.g. website, social, sales decks, internal comms)

• moments (e.g. awareness, consideration, onboarding)

This is your roadmap to stay consistent while adapting tone, emphasis, or proof points to suit the context.

There! Now you’re ready to nail your brand’s key message. And if you need a hand bringing it to life, the team at Avion’s got you.

Image credits: Illustration by pch.vector on Freepik. Custom GIF makeupjunkie818 on Tenor.