Messaging Strategy Is Not Positioning. It's Not Copywriting Either.
Three different jobs. Most B2B companies hire one person to do all three and wonder why nothing lands.
"We have a messaging problem."
You actually have a positioning problem. And I see this all the time across B2B tech.
Three Different Jobs
Positioning, messaging strategy, and copywriting get smashed into one thing constantly.
"We need messaging" is the catch-all request I hear from CMOs, founders, VPs of Marketing. Maybe it’s messaging. But a lot of times, the positioning needs to be fixed before the messaging.
Here's how I think about the three:
Positioning is the strategic decision. Who are you for? What category do you compete in? What makes you different from your competitors?
Messaging strategy is the translation layer. It takes your positioning and turns it into a system of messages. Then you whip it up and answer: "What do we say, to whom, in what order?"
Copywriting is the execution. It takes the messaging and makes it land on a specific page, in a specific email, in a specific ad. It answers: "How do we say it so they feel it?"
What Happens When You Skip the Middle Layer
Most of the 75+ tech companies I've worked with have done some version of positioning.
Then the copywriter got a brief that said something like "We're the leading AI platform for revenue teams" and was told to make it sing.
That's the gap I see in about 70% of the companies that call me. No messaging strategy in between. No documented decisions about which proof points map to which audience. No hierarchy of messages.
The copywriter writes what they can with what they have. The result reads fine. It sounds professional. And it converts at 1.2% because it's trying to talk to everyone at once and connecting with no one.
I see this pattern constantly. A $50 million Series C company with great positioning buried in a strategy deck that nobody on the marketing team has opened in six months. The homepage was written by a freelancer who never saw the deck.
The positioning existed. The copy existed. The Golden Gate Bridge that existed between them was actually nonexistent, aka the messaging.
Positioning: The Decision Nobody Wants to Make (Nobody Wants to Take the Blame)
Positioning is a commitment. It requires you to say who you're not for. It requires you to pick a category (or create one) and defend it.
If we say we're for mid-market healthcare companies, does that mean we're turning away enterprise? If we say we compete with Salesforce, does that scare off investors?
So maybe you hedge a bit. "We're for modern teams." "We serve enterprises of all sizes." "Our platform works across industries."
That's not positioning. That's the absence of positioning.
Positioning isn't something you write once and forget. But it is something you decide before you do anything else. It’s a strategic bet that you believe in because the sales calls reinforce it. The team is aligned on it.
Messaging Strategy: The Layer Everyone Skips
A messaging strategy is an architecture. It's a system of messages organized by three dimensions:
When this layer is missing, you get the messaging scatter disaster problem. The homepage says one thing. The sales team says another.
The customer success team has its own version of the value prop they've been ad-libbing for 18ish months. Everyone's technically correct. And yet, nobody's consistent.
Even worse, the buyer feels it. Something feels off. So they go with the competitor whose story held together. Something that feels more trustworthy and consistent.
Copywriting: Where Everyone Starts (and Shouldn't)
Copywriting is a craft. Good copywriting makes you feel something. It uses rhythm, specificity, and surprise.
But it can only do its job if the message is clear.
When the copy isn't working, the instinct is always to fix the copy. New headline. Different angle. Let’s say it in a more clever way, with no positioning or messaging strategy to back it up.
How to Tell Which Layer Is Broken
Your positioning is broken if your team can't agree on who you're for, what category you're in, or what makes you different.
Your messaging strategy is broken if your positioning is clear but your homepage, sales deck, email sequences, and ads all sound like they were written by different companies. Consistency is the tell. If a prospect reads your LinkedIn ad, visits your homepage, and gets a sales email that feel like three different brands, you don't have a messaging strategy.
Your copywriting is broken if your positioning is sharp, your messaging is structured, and the words on the page still fall flat. This is when the language isn't landing. Maybe it's too generic, too long, not specific enough, not matched to how your buyer actually talks about the problem.
I build messaging strategies and the assets that bring them to life, from homepages, sales decks, email sequences, and pitch decks. If your positioning is clear but your marketing still feels scattered, that's usually the missing (OH NO) layer. thisiscopy.com