Messaging should not take place in a vacuum.
Wouldn’t it be nice to have the luxury of a wide open field with no one shouting in opposition to your stance? That, however, is not the world in which we live. Still, there are steps you can take to leverage your opponent’s strategies to enhance your messaging.
Be alert to the fact that antagonists are aiming slings and arrows. You must be ready to fend them off. How? By asking yourself questions like these:
- What do your opponents believe?
- How understandable and airtight is their messaging?
- What target audience are they trying to reach?
- Are there areas where you agree?
Despite the fact they may see the world through a different lens, this doesn’t automatically make them evil. Remain respectful yet firm when involved in public discourse. Consider it your contribution to improving the tenor of our currently all-too-coarse public dialogue.
Conduct Your Research
You need to get inside your opponent’s head. I’m not recommending hiring a gumshoe or engaging in shadowy corporate espionage. But you do need to get a sense of what they have said about the issue in play and, to the extent possible, anticipate what they plan to say going forward.
How to do this? It’s not all that hard, though it does require some nose to the grindstone work. Dig into such items as
- Media accounts
- Speeches they have delivered
- Papers they have published
- Materials they provided as part of legislative and regulatory filings
Your examination needs to give you as clear a picture as possible into the other side’s communications strategy and their messaging. You will likely lack insights into their internal deliberations. That’s fine. It’s not reasonable to expect complete information. Still, it’s better to have some notion than to engage in zero preparation. Such groundwork stands you in much better stead during a confrontation in the court of public opinion.
What if there are multiple sources lined up against you? That means you have multiple adversaries to look into, making for a more time consuming effort. It’s time well spent, assuming you want your views to prevail. Your communications or government relations staff should be up to the task. If not, consider adding more staff; bringing in outside help; or, sad to say, ridding your company of the incapable and hiring new and more competent minds.
Probe for Weaknesses
Having raw data concerning your rival’s plans is but the first step. Now it’s time to analyze what they are saying and what it means.
What are their top arguments? They no doubt have some strong points that cannot be dismissed out of hand. Anticipate their strengths and how you can respond to them.
Refuse to fall into the trap of assuming they are wrong, stupid, or lying. While that may sometimes be the case, if you resort to a knee-jerk reaction thinking that they are nothing but unsophisticated dolts, you can expect to be blindsided.
An important part of this phase is to assess their vulnerabilities. Every campaign has them. Some are harder to suss out than others. Regardless, do your best to expose their weak points and hammer away at them.
Align Your Messaging
As you begin your messaging effort, concentrate on your strengths. Once you are comfortable with a first cut of your message, it’s time to evaluate how it stacks up against the opposition.
Can you effectively counter their strong points? How successfully are you chipping away at their weaknesses? Where are you subject to attack?
Be prepared, for crafting an ironclad message takes time and dedication. Again, if your communications staff proves incapable, bring on board a consultant experienced in message development.
Test It
Once you have (or think you have) your message squared away, it’s time to throw the spaghetti against the wall to see what sticks.
Pelt your spokespeople with hardball questions to determine where you shine and where you need more work.
Enlist someone to portray the adversary for a mano-to-mano encounter (it can be a good idea to conscript the office skeptic). Take lots of notes during your test phase, and adjust your script as needed.
If your deliberations have been thorough, you may just need a tweak here or there. If things fall flat, it may be wise to consider wholesale revisions. In extreme cases, this could mean sending things back to your messaging squad for another cut.
Unleash Your Campaign
The time has come to engage. Use that message you’ve so painstakingly crafted at every opportunity — presentations to industry groups, appearances before audiences friendly and fierce, pleadings to policymakers, and more.
Commit to assessing your effectiveness regularly. Your opponents will be doing the same (assuming they have half a brain), so be alert to any pivots they may make. That’s not to say you should randomly tear down your message to the studs. The fact remains smart companies stand ready to fine tune whenever necessary.
Eyeballing your rivals provides you with an opportunity to strengthen your outreach to the public. I suggest you take advantage.
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