How to nail your campaign narrative

You can sell anything if you can’t tell anything. So before you get going with your campaign you need to nail your narrative and have a clear idea of exactly what you want to tell the world. When it comes to messaging, Andy Raskin is one of the best in the business. Having worked with the likes of IBM, Salesforce, Intel, Clearbit and countless others, his framework is based on a pitch by Zuora, which he describes as the best sales deck he’s ever seen.

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We’ve taken Andy’s expertise and used it to create this template. It will help you define the key messaging for your campaign in a clear, concise way that will resonate with your target audience. You can use this narrative in everything from your campaign page, email updates, social media posts and discussions with potential investors. So it’s well worth spending some time on!
Andy's process is not only effective, it's also super simple to follow. Go through each of the five steps below, and before you know it you'll have your complete campaign narrative done and dusted. There's also a link to download the template as a PDF at the end of the article, if you prefer.

STEP 1

• Name a big, relevant change in the world
• Aim for a few high level sentences, backed up with data or stats to prove it. The change needs to be relevant to the industry you’re in
  

STEP 2

• Show there'll be winners and losers
  
• Explain how adapting to the change you outlined in step 1 will likely result in a positive outcome
  
• Explain how not adapting will likely result in a negative outcome
  

STEP 3

• Tease the future
• Explain how adapting to the change you outlined in step 1 will likely result in a positive outcome
• This ”promised land” you describe needs to be desirable, but also difficult to achieve, thus providing a great segue to intro your product
  

STEP 4

• Introduce your company
• Explain how you can help people benefit from the change you described in step 1
  
• Focus on the specific things your company offers (products, services, etc.) that will help people navigate the difficult path to the promised land you outlined in step 3
  

STEP 5

• Provide evidence
• You’ve promised people that if they go with you, they’ll get to the promised land. You now need to provide evidence to back that up!
• List facts and figures to prove it. They could be figures showing growth and traction, or better still customer testimonials from people who match your target audience
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Download the template

If you prefer you can download Andy Raskin's framework as a PDF template. This is a more convenient for completing the exercise if you'd like to fill it out by hand, or to keep a copy of it you can then refer back to or share with others. Click below to access the file.

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