Key messages and the message house: a simple method

Key messages are the few statements you want an audience to remember after reading your report, watching your film or hearing your director speak. Without them, every team writes its own version of what the organisation does, and audiences hear a blur.

Consistency is not only about tidiness. In its guidance on crisis and emergency risk communication, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) advises that partner organisations should all share the same facts, because inconsistent messages increase anxiety and erode credibility.¹ The same logic applies to a programme with several partners, a ministry with many departments or a company launching a new service: agree the core messages once, then use them everywhere.

A message house is a simple messaging framework drawn as a building. Benjamin Ball Associates, a presentation and messaging consultancy, describes its three parts: a roof holding the core message, the single clear statement you want your audience to take away; pillars holding the supporting messages that reinforce it; and a foundation of evidence, meaning the data, facts, examples or stories that make the pillars credible.²

Some teams add more rooms. Atlassian's message house template, for instance, places a positioning statement and the target audience in the roof, alongside short and long boilerplate text, and adds a section for proof points.³ Whatever the version, the logic is the same: everything below the roof must hold the roof up.

Start with the roof and do not move on until it is agreed. Ball warns that some teams start drafting pillars before agreeing the main theme, and that without a clear overarching message the whole structure can collapse.² Keep the core message to one sentence.²

Write it for your audience, not for your board. Digital.gov, the US government's plain language resource, puts it bluntly: people only want to know what applies to them.⁴ A core message such as "Every child in the district can now reach a health worker within an hour's walk" says what changed and for whom. "We deliver integrated, community-centred health solutions" says almost nothing.

Pillars are the two or three supporting messages that explain why the roof is true or why it matters. Ball recommends two to three pillars, ideally three, noting that too many will confuse the audience.² The World Health Organization's handbook on media communication gives similar advice to spokespeople: prepare three key points that communicate your core messages, and keep messages simple and short.⁵

The limit matters most when people are under pressure. The CDC notes that action steps should be limited to three or four, and that in an emergency this drops to only three simple directions.¹ Each pillar should cover a different aspect of the story, such as the problem, the solution and the evidence it works, or reach, quality and sustainability.

A message without proof is a claim. The WHO advises developing supporting material such as visuals, examples, quotes and personal stories.⁵ Under each pillar, list two or three proof points: a statistic from your monitoring data, a short case study, a quote from a participant who has given informed consent, a photograph or a short film.

Check every fact before it goes into the house. The CDC recommends validating facts with subject matter experts before release, and being honest about what is known, what is not yet known and what is being done to find out.¹ In our own practice, the foundation is where most of the useful work happens: it shows quickly which pillars have strong evidence and which are still hopes.

A message house is written by insiders, so it needs testing by outsiders. The CDC recommends testing messages with different audience segments to see how they are understood and how they can be adapted.¹ The Compass for social and behaviour change, maintained by the Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs, describes pretesting as checking whether the priority audience finds materials understandable, believable and appealing, using methods such as focus group discussions and in-depth interviews.⁶

You may need one house with different wording for different groups. Digital.gov advises separating content for different audiences, because mixing material for several groups may confuse readers.⁴ A district official, a donor and a parent may all need the same core message, framed in different words and languages.

A message house only works if people use it. Ball notes that the same framework applies to marketing materials, media interviews and internal presentations, and helps make sure everyone is delivering a consistent message.² Put it on one page, share it with spokespeople, writers, designers and partners, and use it to brief film and photography teams so the visuals prove the pillars too.

Review it regularly, but resist constant rewriting. Ball advises that a message house evolves slowly, so check it often but aim for fewer rather than more changes.² Repetition is a feature, not a flaw: the CDC notes that repeating facts and action items helps people remember them.¹

• One core message, in one sentence, written for the audience
• Two or three distinct pillars that support it
• Two or three checked proof points under each pillar
• Plain words, with no unexplained jargon or acronyms
• Messages tested with people from the priority audience
• Versions adapted for each key audience and language
• The house shared on one page with every spokesperson and partner
• A date set to review it